It is all the work of the Avatar, who is now in form.
"How can we find the Avatar?" Eruch asked.
"No one knows him," the yogi said, "but he is already born. I know it. He moves amongst humanity incognito, unknown. People like Gandhi, the great men of the world, the so-called leaders, may be famous and even worshiped by mankind, but they are mere playthings in the hands of the Avatar. They are like kites, the strings of which are held firmly in the Avatar's grasp, and he controls them as he wishes.
"Hitler shook the world — everyone says so. But it is the Avatar who worked through him."
"When will the Avatar manifest?"
"After 22 years [1968]. These wars and disturbances will continue until then, and three-quarters of humanity will be wiped out! This narakwasi (hell-like) world will continue, and then a swargawasi (heaven-like) world will be born. For how can people of hell co-exist with the residents of heaven? Seventy-five percent of the present world will perish and the remaining one-fourth will be absorbed in the qualities of a New World, where peace and happiness will reign."
Jala Tapasvi concluded: "Like other Avatars before him, he will be ridiculed by the majority of people, and his real fame will only spread after his death when he will be recognized and worshiped as the Savior."
As usual, Eruch and Kaka had not once referred to Meher Baba, but when Jala Tapasvi later saw Baba in a house in Rishikesh, he cried out: "The Avatar has come!" Baba was happy with the contact.
There were many strange characters in Rishikesh, but one whose name is not recorded is noteworthy, though contact with him was not to Baba's satisfaction. He was a foreboding, strange recluse who was well known but whose whereabouts in Rishikesh no one dared to divulge for fear of being cursed. Eruch, after much inquiry, found this recluse who had closeted himself in a hut on the riverbank in Rishikesh. When the recluse asked who he was bringing, Eruch replied, "My father." Baba arrived, but the contact was not to his liking, because during it the recluse pestered Baba with inane questions such as, "How many sons besides this one [Eruch] do you have?" As a young man this seeker was said to have wandered through the jungles for years living only on leaves and roots before settling in Rishikesh. He was emaciated since he ate only one chapati and a little dal daily; nevertheless he was a forbidding character if angered.
Several years before, while Baba was staying in Dehra Dun in 1942, the following incident occurred involving Krishna Nair, Baba's night watchman at the time. Krishna would take a walk every evening at five o'clock before going to Baba's room for nightwatch. Opposite their bungalow was a girls' school. Four girls used to watch Krishna, and one of them asked him if she could come with him for a walk. Krishna felt extremely uncomfortable around women. "I didn't want to see any woman's face," he recounted. "I disliked women."