In the evening, Baba asked the companions if they were happy. The majority said they were. Pendu replied that externally he was happy but internally he was not. Don said that he was happy both internally and externally "but not in the middle!" Ghani said, "I am happy since yesterday as Baba has permitted me to eat mutton [during their stay at Jaunpur]!"
"Don't worry," Baba said, and he repeated what he had told them before: "We all sink or swim together."
Some local people came for Baba's darshan.
When they refused to leave despite attempts at persuasion, Baba came forward and motioned, "I am pleased to have your darshan."
Feeling ashamed, this made them leave in a hurry.
Ghani noted in his diary on Monday, 19 December 1949: "During the Jaunpur stay, it was something of a sight to see Baba invariably seated in the two-flap tent with the companions around him in a [semi-]circle, when it was still dark, in the early hours of the morning, with only a hurricane lamp lighting the scene."
As the companions sat with him that morning, Baba gave this explanation comparing the Old and the New Life:
We have left the Old Life, and there is no going back to it now. The Old Life is practically dead. I have heard it said that when a person dies, the spirit is still connected with it [the body] for three to four days. Before the spirit enters a new [different] sphere, there intervenes a wee bit of time which may be said to be a sort of vacuum between the old and the new [life after death]. Similarly, our Old Life has been dead since October 16. From that date up to the 21st of December, our New Life has had a kind of connection with the Old Life.
Now see how things get adjusted automatically. I told you some time back in Belgaum, that before plunging completely into the New Life in right earnest — from 1 January 1950 — there would be a "vacuum" period of ten days between the Old and New Life. Only this morning I remembered it, and you people, too, forgot to remind me about it.
I have therefore decided that during the vacuum period of ten days — from 22 to 31 December — there will be a complete suspension of the four ordeals of the training period as follows:
As Adi was away, Baba wanted him informed about this vacuum period by telegram.
Baba remarked, "Not knowing about it, Adi may be telling things about us in Delhi which people will not find us practicing once we arrive."
Padri was instructed to come to Moradabad after collecting Rs.15,000 from Meherjee in Bombay. Don, Pendu and Sadashiv were told to arrange transport for the animals, caravan and bullock cart to Moradabad by freight.
a) There will be no begging. b) No wearing of the kafni. c) No physical labor of any sort; if necessary, hired labor will be engaged. d) Complete relaxation, with good food, to be purchased with the money we have with us.