Although Bahadur respectfully objected, Merwan Seth insisted. Bahadur went nearby and brought a bucket of human excrement and rubbed it on Merwan Seth's body from his neck to his toes. While Bahadur waited outside the room, Merwan Seth sat in seclusion for an hour or so. Afterwards, Merwan Seth took a cold water bath under a tap, put on his clothes and left. Bahadur then disinfected the room with Phenol, locked the door and handed over the key to Merwan Seth personally at the toddyshop. Bahadur was given a glass of toddy, and then he sang until late in the evening.
This phase of Merwan Seth's work alone in seclusion — for periods ranging from one to two and a half hours — was part of his daily routine for about two to two and a half months, according to Baily. No one except Bahadur knew what he was doing, as Bahadur was strictly ordered not to disclose it to anyone. One account states that Behramji and Sayyed Saheb arrived at this room one day and were aghast when they saw Merwan Seth with dried excrement on his body and in his hair. He instructed them to boil pails of water and give him a bath, after which they applied fragrant oils and antiseptics.
Bahadur, the illiterate toilet sweeper, became a poet and his compositions praised Merwan Seth, Babajan and Upasni Maharaj. Merwan Seth found pleasure in Bahadur's efforts and encouraged him to sing. He expressed how pleased he was with Bahadur's obedience. "Until his last breath, Bahadur Khan had great respect for Merwan," Baily noted. "Bahadur was perhaps the first follower of Merwan before and after God-realization. Although there were many at that time who loved and respected Merwan, nobody can compare with this innocent Harijan. He loved Merwan from the depth of his heart and eagerly obeyed any of his orders."
Merwan Seth's covering himself with human feces is difficult to fathom, but it is indicative of the tremendous amount of physical gross suffering necessary to facilitate the process of coming back down into creation-consciousness from the God-realized state. Upasni Maharaj did similar acts of self-effacement by bathing a leper and drinking the bathwater, sweeping the sewage out of gutters, and even caressing a dead horse while vultures devoured the carcass.
Age could only marvel and weep out of gratitude at this act of sacrifice on the Avatar's part for the sake of creation.