The Master's nazar had been upon Indu since she was a young girl. Eight years before, in 1932, when Baba was planning to journey to Europe and America, he had wanted to take a young woman with him and Indu had been chosen. But she was unable to go because she had fallen ill.
The establishment of ashrams at different places in India continued to be the chief topic of conversation along the journey. On 6 April, Baba took everyone in a boat to an old Christian church, named Nossa Senhora das Brotas, on a small mile-long Portuguese island called Anjidiv, five miles off the Karwar coast.
The splendor of the place was magnetic and Baba made a revealing remark, "Of the three centers I want to build for my work in the world, I have to build one here!"
In Karwar, Baba gave this explanation to the women about poise:
What is spirituality? It is the undoing of what you have been doing since ages. You always thought of selfish motives for eating, preserving your life, and attending to every need with zeal. All these lives you have made a habit of looking [out for] yourself. If the slightest thing goes against your habit you are upset. Now, to undo all these selfish bindings, you have to do what you have not been doing, or not to do what you have been doing.
What you have been doing always is thinking of yourself; so now you must not think of yourself, but think of others. This is what is called love. But it needs character, poise, perseverance. Poise — what is it? That state of mind where nothing excites you, nothing upsets you. Only [if you have poise] can you help others, then only can you make others happy. That means love. Thinking not of yourself but of others.
If you are in the Sahara, and for four days you have no water to drink and all of a sudden one bottle of water appears — how do you react? If you have poise, you will let your companion drink and not mind dying and letting her live. But if you fight and grab for it, you lack poise and spirituality. It is this poise that makes you sacrifice and [make] others happy.
For example, I always say: "Make the best of everything." Here you have food, swimming, boating. Make the most of them and feel happy.