With only a few hours sleep, Baba and his companions left Sadhaura early in the morning on Sunday, 11 August 1946. Curiously enough, they met the mast Dinasha on the road as they were leaving and so Baba was able to contact him again. (Although, still not to his full satisfaction.) They took the bus to Barara and then a train to Saharanpur. After lunch, they continued by train to Hardwar, arriving in the evening. They slept in the waiting room at the station, but did not get much sleep because of all the noise in the adjoining canteen and on the crowded platform.
They left Hardwar for Rishikesh on the morning of the 12th, and stayed there at the dak bungalow for six days.
Don had returned to England at the end of July 1946, not only with instructions from Baba about Ghani's Boja Fund, but also with word that Baba might come to the West now that World War II was over. On 13 August 1946, Baba sent this telegram to Don in London:
Inform and impress Elizabeth Norina that my coming depends on my return from Himalayas which work might delay and postpone my coming for a month or two ...
Margaret should accept any temporary work.
Elizabeth was particularly anxious for Baba to stay at the new center in Myrtle Beach, and Alexander Markey and Jean Adriel were also eager to have Baba visit them in California. Correspondence in this regard had been going back and forth for some time. Don went to America, arriving on 25 August, and returned to India a few weeks later.
At Rishikesh, Baba and his men spent every day looking for masts. Their days were filled with hardships as Baba, Baidul, Eruch, Kaka and Adi Sr. roamed about, walking for hours in the hot sun or rain, and fording the Ganges almost daily. (Once when the waters had risen too high, they were only able to cross on an elephant.) They covered a radius of 20 to 25 miles around Rishikesh, and in all, Baba contacted 500 sadhus and 67 masts and saints.
One particularly significant contact in Rishikesh was a highly advanced soul called Jala Tapasvi . This great yogi wore a green kafni and sat on the roof of a ruined temple which had once stood on an island in the Ganges River but was now submerged. When Kaka and Eruch first went to him, they introduced themselves as Parsis from Bombay, and the yogi at once asked, "How are things there?"
"There are constant riots and disturbances," Eruch replied.
Jala Tapasvi surprised them by stating: "It is natural and indeed inevitable.