Good actions bind a man with a golden chain, and bad actions with an iron-spiked one. But the chain is there in either case, and the man is never set free. Yoga and other practices are good and merit an aspirant a good life in the next birth, but a man is never free from bondage or given mukti as a result of them.
Therefore, to achieve emancipation, one must be without virtues or sins — without any kind of sanskaras. One's slate should be quite clean without credit or debit in one's account, and this is impossible without the grace of the Guru. But for the Sadguru, it is the work of a fraction of a second! The vast, nearly infinite number of impressions in a person's mind are like straws in a haystack which are impossible for the person to wipe out on his own. Even the process of cleaning them away through yogic practices, without the help of a Perfect Master, means contracting some kind of sanskaric impressions again in a different form.
[To realize God, the sanskaras have to be removed.] Only a matchstick is needed to set the haystack on fire. It is a moment's work, but only a Sadguru has that match! He uses it for his circle members and thereby, in even less than a second, brings them to his own divine level [of Realization]. Even those persons who have no direct connection with a Sadguru from past lives can derive the greatest possible benefit merely through his physical contact and company.
Early in the morning on Thursday, 5 October 1922, Baba told the men he had not slept at night due to a noise in the backyard. "It was as if someone were leveling the ground with a heavy roller," he said. Then he explained that it was a ghost:
"This spirit is always with me, wherever I go. He is one of the ghosts whom Arjun saw outside the hut at Poona. Upasni Maharaj has put him in my charge. Some of you may see this spirit. If it happens, don't be afraid of him — and don't be afraid to move about in the Manzil during the day or at night."
Once while Ghani was massaging Baba's legs at night, Baba further explained about ghosts, and why he had his body rubbed:
"The physical contact of a human being with my body keeps the spirit world away from me for the time being and thereby enables me to snatch a little rest. My sleep is not the sleep of ordinary human beings; it is a sort of mental rest from my spiritual working. A spirit always accompanies me wherever I go and [is with me] whatever I do."