As Chanji noted, "The election on the 17th is a great obstacle. So many who wanted to come couldn't. It was a real struggle between God and maya."
From Sunday, 7 February 1937, Baba gave up solid food and began fasting for the last ten days of his forty-day fast on only water. Admiring the work of those attending to the mad and masts, Dhake noted in his diary that day:
Aga Baidul and Pleader are certainly to be congratulated for their patience and strength of mind when they attend the masts 24 hours, some mad [becoming] rowdy, some abusive, some unmanageable, some ever-troubling — like a stone in a shoe — like Mohammed, and some ever-bubbling. All these they attend with a smile and with a zeal of a real disciple of a real Sadguru.
About the dispensary, Baba commented that those who were coming for treatment were giving the mandali an opportunity to serve them and hence the patients were the benefactors, not the mandali. He urged the doctor and compounder to treat all the patients kindly and equally, no matter their social status.
Baba went to Nasik on the 9th. Gathering the group, he explained some spiritual points, starting with agents:
Qutub in Sufism means center. That center controls the whole universe through his agents. Meetings are held, but these meetings cannot be seen with the physical eye. The agents who control the gross only are called abdals. They are capable of changing their bodies. The Urdu word badal means change. Abdal, therefore, is one who can change.
The destinies of all countries are decided not by politics, but by spiritual agents who decide and direct all. They hold meetings, which cannot be seen with the visible eye, and matters are thus decided ahead of time effecting the destinies of all nations. Sai Baba directed the last war and I will direct the next one.
Nadine asked Baba, "What it is like for you to feel yourself to be God?"
Baba replied:
Heaven and hell, God and man all are here. You are now God, plus Nadia. When Nadia disappears, God remains. So, Nadia must go. Let Nadia go, and then God remains.
Nadia has to make Nadia go. If you merge in me, Nadia goes. The easiest way for Nadia to go is to forget herself — to forget herself as Nadia. How? Think less of Nadia by thinking more of Baba. When Nadia merges in Baba, Nadia is finished. Baba remains.
But if you go on thinking how to do it and how to merge, then this thought keeps you back. Don't think of how and when — think of Baba.
But better even than this, and safer too, is to merge in my orders — to do as I say. That is, all should obey instantly!