"If you must express your love, then give in my name to the poor." He added, "I give not what people want, but what they need."
Caroline ("Carrie") Ben Shammai, 54, had been a spiritual seeker all her life. "Coincidentally" her husband had won the lottery, enabling her to travel from Israel to New York City to see her parents. In New York, Carrie met the Winterfeldts and learned of Baba and his imminent arrival.
By way of explanation, Baba commented, "The ways of the Master are wonderful. If he sees a soul being ready to be contacted he has all the means at his disposal to bring this soul towards him."
Carrie's sister suffered a mental illness, and she brought her with her when she came to the Delmonico.
Baba patted the sister on her shoulder and told Carrie, "She will be all right."
Shortly thereafter, the sister was discharged from the hospital.
When one man approached, Baba asked him, "Are you happy?"
He said he was.
Then, unexpectedly, Baba asked him, "Do you know that I am Christ?"
Without hesitation, the man said yes, and Baba gave him prasad. This was an unconscious, spontaneous answer from the person, because he later admitted that, until that moment, he had his doubts whether Baba really was, in fact, the Christ.
One of Margaret's dancers, Ella Massie, had married and was expecting. She and her husband, a young Episcopalian priest named Peter Marks, met Baba. Another dancer, Myrna Bailin, was shown in.
She began to weep, and Baba gestured about her to Ella, "She cannot see me," meaning that she was somehow veiled from recognizing who he was and loving him.
Myrna also confessed that she did not know why she was crying because she did not feel drawn to Baba.
Another of Margaret's dancers, Bunty Kelley, recalled: "I felt strongly that I had finally 'come home.' I knew for the first time that Baba knew everything I had done or thought or felt, and that nothing mattered except Baba's love. Of course, I cried as I did almost constantly."
Peter Saul recollected: "Miss Craske came in with me, as I was still in a stupor. Baba was sitting on the chaise lounge in a cream coat. He was so beautiful. I could hardly look at him."
Several African-Americans met Baba at this time, including Leonard Willoughby and his family. Beryl Williams brought her younger sister, Bernice Ivory, 29, and Bernice's husband Harrison and their three children Janice, Carlton and Carlene. Baba took the children on his lap and held them. Beryl had always been a seeker and would try to talk to her sister about metaphysics and different Eastern Masters. Bernice was never interested much, but after Beryl met Baba in 1952, Bernice perceived an unmistakable change in her sister. "I could feel this change in her," she said. "Beryl would talk incessantly about Baba."