The marvelous thing was that not only did Merwanji write this ghazal in a matter of minutes, but also, at the same time, he was attending to the toddyshop's customers. After some time, the arti was published in the Gujarati weekly newspaper Kaiser-i-Hind , which had also published Merwanji's ghazal dedicated to Babajan.
On different occasions during 1917, Babajan urged Merwanji, "My son, go! ... Now, get your share from a Hindu." Meanwhile, in July 1917, Upasni Maharaj moved from the Khandoba Temple in Shirdi to the crematory grounds in the village of Sakori. Merwanji became a regular visitor to Upasni's new abode, traveling to Sakori by train, sometimes with a companion and sometimes alone. In the train, Merwanji often chose to sit on the floor near the door of the toilet in the dirty third–class compartment. He would get off the train at Chitali station and walk nine miles to Sakori.
To strangers, Merwanji appeared as a person suffering the effects of too much alcohol — at times, he would stagger like a drunken man — because, despite his activities in his father's toddyshop, Merwanji was still not completely gross conscious. He was only slightly aware of the world around him and did not feel his physical body as an ordinary man does. Merwanji was embodying the consciousness of God — and he was able to function in the world only because of the stirring of the Song within him. He was, so to speak, "operating on automatic pilot," moved by impulses guided by the Divine Will.
Once while going to Sakori alone, he had the impulse to get off the train at the Kopargaon railway station instead of Chitali (which comes first). It was ten o'clock at night and bitter cold, but Merwanji, wearing only a light cotton coat and pants, started walking on the road. The night was black and though the town was only two miles from the train station, it took him more than two hours to reach it. Coincidentally, Sadguru Narayan Maharaj happened to be visiting devotees in Kopargaon, but Merwanji did not stop to see him. He passed through the city and headed straight to Sakori (about ten miles away).
At one juncture on the road, a policeman stopped Merwanji and warned him not to wander on the dark road, for the area ahead abounded with thieves. The policeman was holding Merwanji's coat sleeve, trying to persuade him to stay the night in Kopargaon, when Merwanji roughly pushed his hand away and shook his arm loose.