Prior to coming to India, Darwin had thought that when they arrived Baba would give them profound spiritual discourses, which he did, but it did not take long for him to realize, in his words:
Something much more important was happening to us on a much deeper level that had nothing to do with these things Baba was explaining to us at this surface level. One could not remain static, things changed. Our sense of dimensions of who we are and what we are — there was a dissolving process. We were in a realm which was new and wonderful, where we'd never been before, and it was somehow in the realm of Baba's being. This went on day after day.
Dana Field, 44, asked Baba, "What is the nature of service to the group?"
Baba replied, "I want your body, mind and possessions," and then added, "My love brought you here."
In another private interview, Baba gave Dana an idea of the difficulty in following him: "Moses and Peter served me imperfectly, and you will too. They doubted and denied me, and you will doubt and deny me. Although Moses prepared the way for Jesus, he did not control his anger, and Peter literally denied his beloved."
John Ballantyne, the youngest member at 23, had found out about Baba through Robert and Lorna Rouse. The other Australian, William (Bill) Ian Le Page, 30, had found out about Baba in 1947 from the Australian Sufi leader Baron von Frankenberg, and had met Francis Brabazon a year later.
Baba asked Bill, "Is there anything you wish to ask? Do you have any questions?"
"Would you come to Australia, Baba?" he said.
Baba looked at him quizzically (as if to say, in Bill's words, "You blockhead!") and then spelled, "Do you think I'm not already there?"
Bill's question was his first and last. Once, when Baba was giving a discourse, his expression was so lovely that Bill thought: "I wish I could go on seeing Baba."
Just then Baba stated, "The discourse is stopped. Just look at me for five minutes."
Bill Le Page recounted about his time spent in India:
I found Baba a radiant, compassionate, loving and knowing figure who in every gesture, in every expression of his entire face and limbs and form confirmed for me that if there was such a being as God in human form, it was indeed him.