Now, the world is laboring under terrible economic chaos. To follow the spiritual path and to enable the mind to accept the spiritual, the material needs must, to some extent, be satisfied. Consequently, when I with my own hands give food and clothing to the poor, the result will be that the world will gain economic and material welfare. When I wash the mad and lepers, the effect will be that those of subnormal or abnormal consciousness will gain normal or supernatural consciousness, and the lepers will either get cured or their future births will be lessened.
When I ask any one of you to bathe a leper, your doing so serves a dual purpose. In the first place you are trained to tackle difficult work which ultimately, from the spiritual standpoint, results in the gradual elimination of your ego; and secondly, the habit of obeying my orders implicitly and unquestioningly is developed.
For example, if I ask you to observe silence and if your obedience is sufficiently grounded in that respect, I can then rely upon you to obey me in other similar difficult tasks. Also, since you are near to me and connected with me, your observance of the fast or silence, bathing of the lepers, et cetera, will affect the whole range of your work for me.
After explaining this matter for half an hour, Baba went and took a bath. He then broke his 40-day fast with tea and toast. At 1:00 A.M. he instructed the Westerners to go to bed and rest. In the depths of his infinity, Baba suffered for all those suffering and bore his pain with a smile and a loving glance. His compassionate smile was a source of joy to those in misery, and his lovers too forgot that he was exhausted.
Thursday, 18 February 1937, was the day of Baba's actual birthday celebration. When he rose at 5:00 A.M., Baba looked wonderfully refreshed and immediately became preoccupied with supervising and personally directing everything for the feast.
Smiling, he greeted the Westerners and remarked, "I have that one bad Avataric habit of supervising every detail myself!"
At eight o'clock Memo washed Baba's feet with milk and honey. The women devotees followed and then the men. The Westerners too participated in this ceremony. Afterward, the milk was distributed as prasad.
Then everyone lined up for darshan and most had brought garlands. Baba, dressed in a silk café-au-lait jacket, looked resplendent while meeting his lovers. Bhajans were sung as each individual went forward to take his darshan. This day's festivities were for those already intoxicated in his love.