Everyone stood up when Baba entered the tent at four o'clock. When they sat back down, Baba dictated this message:
I feel very happy to be among you all. Consider me to be one of you. I am the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. Every one of you has within you the source of infinite power, knowledge, bliss and peace. And if in spite of infinite power within you, you feel helpless, and if in spite of possessing infinite happiness within you, you feel miserable, it is because of ignorance; and to get rid of ignorance, the only way is to love God. If you love God sincerely, honestly and intensely, you will find Him within yourselves.
I give you my blessings for the attainment of this love divine. If at least one of you loves God as He ought to be loved, then my purpose in coming here will have been served.
A member of the Eluru Bar Association read out a welcome speech. After Dhake read out Baba's messages on the "Fiery Free Life" and on "Spiritual Freedom," prasad distribution and darshan began. Darshan lasted for about three hours, after which Baba was driven back to his residence.
On Sunday morning, 25 January 1953, the group gathered at seven o'clock in Baba's room as instructed.
"I had no sleep last night," he stated.
Baba wished to visit the huts of the poor, who wanted to invite him but dared not, and this was discussed.
He concluded, "I am not going there to show humility. I am in all, the Goal of all. Then what is the necessity of this visit? It is because I love the poor, which is true, and also people should know that I am for the poor."
When one of the group remarked that the people of Andhra were "madly in love" with him, Baba quoted these lines of the Urdu poet Jigar:
Now, the mere utterance of the word love is enough to frighten my heart!
O God, what complete devastation love brings!
Elaborating, Baba stated, "These lines of Jigar are most meaningful. Jigar is not a Realized soul, but due to poetic imagination, sometimes he conveys the best of spiritual thoughts — of course, it is a fluke. But Hafiz was not only a great poet, but a Realized soul.
"As for me, I don't fear that love because I am that love. And I am in charge of that love. 'Now the time has come when the Beloved is afraid of his lovers!' "