"I am ready to obey you 100 percent," Mauni wrote with chalk on his slate.
Expressing his gratification, Baba dictated, "Then do this: Daily drink two bottles of wine, eat meat and go to the movies. Will you do it?"
Although Mauni Bua had come to the Lord, he still attached importance to his own notions and fancies; his own ideas about spirituality were greater than God's! Baba's orders threw him into inner turmoil. He did not respond.
Observing his reaction, Baba smiled and dictated, "All right, go about your pilgrimages and continue to beg for your food."
And Baba gave the sadhu additional instructions which accorded with Mauni Bua's ascetic inclinations.
Baba's words soothed Mauni's panic. The sadhu was convinced that by leading the type of life he had been leading, he would gain the spiritual treasure. Baba's words seemingly reaffirmed his resolve. So Mauni left with his fixed ideas; but Baba eventually shattered those ideas. Mauni Bua could not understand the meaning of Meher Baba's words, as he was immersed in the performance of the rigid inclinations he held sacred. Baba would not let go of him so easily. He kept knocking at the core of Mauni's deep-seated religious tendencies, and after several years Mauni eventually overcame them.
As Age observed, "One's attachments, ideas and inclinations are not overcome by eating meat or drinking wine or watching movies, but only by faithfully following the Master's instructions. Had the sadhu gladly accepted Baba's first orders, Baba would have felt happy and changed the order on his own. This was a test for the sadhu; but firmly embedded notions cannot be overcome at once."
On 13 August 1949, Gaya Prasad Khare was sitting deep in thought at his home in Rath, Uttar Pradesh. "How unfortunate I am that I have never had Meher Baba's darshan," he lamented. "As soon as I came to know about him from Babadas, darshan was stopped. Why the hell did Babadas tell me about him in the first place? If he had never mentioned him to me, I would not feel so restless."
He wondered whether he should go to Pondicherry and seek Aurobindo's darshan instead; however, he subsequently learned that Aurobindo, too, had stopped giving darshan. What was he to do?