During this phase, Baba would clean the toilets, sweep the shop floors and surrounding areas, wash the dirty glasses, cups and dishes of the customers and do all kinds of menial tasks.
On one occasion Behramji recounted:
Once Merwan Seth started filling empty bottles with toddy, he would continue doing the task for hours until every bottle was filled. Though this task was squalid, he would show an interest in doing it. The majority of the customers were poor, crude people; most were illiterate, attired in dirty clothes and used obscene language to express themselves. They would spit on the floor of the shop wherever they were sitting, and Merwan would mop the floors clean every day. Most were alcoholics and, when drunk, they would find comfort lying on the floor or in the street. Merwan, however, would serve these drunkards and treat them kindly and even lovingly.
The toddyshop was, in fact, a "front" which enabled Meher Baba to do humble, lowly physical labor. No sooner was its purpose served than the prohibition protests started in Poona. The liquor and toddyshops were picketed and people protested against alcohol in any form.
In the universe, the number of worlds that exist is so great that it is beyond the imagination of the human mind. For a man who is God-realized it is possible, however, to see and count not only the 18,000 planets with human life, but also the thousands and thousands of other planets in different, evolving stages. One night in Sakori during 1921, while Baba was alone with Upasni Maharaj, the Sadguru remarked, "With my gross eyes, I can count all the planets in all the universes. This requires the concentration of my mind on one point." Maharaj started concentrating and counted universe after universe.
However, the actual velocity of the universes in motion is at such an inexpressible speed that to count their number with one's gross eyes is overwhelming to the limited human mind. As Upasni continued counting, within a short period Baba said, "Maharaj, stop! Stop counting!" Had he not stopped Maharaj at this moment, the Sadguru would have dropped his body within a few moments.
Then Baba said, "I shall try to count the planets in the universe." As he was counting the different planets, Maharaj shortly thereafter prevented him from continuing, or else Baba too would have dropped his body then.