There are ways however — a nod from the wise, just like a child who can be easily lured by sweets or toys, or like others who need hammering for bringing them round. It is like the special method of forcefully getting out of the clutches of a drowning man by hammering him on the head as, in his struggling movements, he could even drown those who have come to save him!
And the Parsi community is like a drowning man in the spiritual realm. With their utter ignorance of spirituality, they are shipwrecked at sea, on the point of drowning. So those who wish to save them must beware and be careful about going near, lest the drowning man might drown them also. The best method, as explained, is to give a strong hammering on the head — to make them unconscious and stop struggling — and then get hold of them and bring them out.
Concluding, Baba spelled out significantly, "I will do it!"
One of the men asked why it was necessary to "hammer" such people, and Baba stated further, "Desperate diseases require desperate remedies! When one refuses to listen or come round, and revolts at the several attempts to persuade with words, explanations, advice, et cetera, the harsh method of hammering one way or the other has to be resorted to."
Once, in Bangalore, Baba assigned some duty to Don and Nilu which they carried out. But Baba found some fault with their work and bitterly took them to task. Both doctors wondered why Baba was so displeased with them for such a seemingly small thing.
Baba called them on Friday, 12 January 1940 and explained, again using the analogy of a drowning man:
Just as an expert lifeguard uses different methods to save a drowning man — often hitting the person so that he may not cling to his rescuer, making the task impossible — at times, I have to treat my lovers in an apparently cruel manner. Onlookers, having no idea of the real situation, are apt to think that I am unduly harsh at times to particular people. Actually, as in the case of the expert life-saver, I do everything to save the spiritual life of the particular person whom I know to be "drowning" in illusion. I do all for his own good.
You both have received my arrows and feel pain, but you have no idea of the favor I have done you.