Diane (3-B) Dimpfl was sent for the following morning. A few others were also called on the 30th. Filis Frederick had gone to the bank to change currency and missed Baba's call. When she learned what had happened, she rushed to Guruprasad; the others had already come and gone. Here is how Filis described that first meeting with Baba after four years:
When I walked into the inner hall, the first thing I saw from afar was the white light beaming from Baba's eyes — it seemed soft and brilliant as a sun, and of all the glimpses of the Beloved that came afterward in the crowded sahavas calendar, I still remember that first marvelous nazar or glance of Baba. He was seated alone on the couch, dressed in his dear, familiar pink jacket and white sadra.
Filis leaned over to embrace Baba, and kiss his cheek.
Baba asked, "Are you happy?"
She nodded, "To see you!"
She had hurt her hip, and Baba asked about it and how she had fared on the journey over.
She met the women mandali, and Baba asked, "How do I look?"
"Beautiful," Filis replied. She later said: "I fell silent, my eyes traveling over every line of that beloved and oft-recalled face." Then, Baba beckoned for her to leave.
In the afternoon the Westerners were taken by buses to various special places around Poona, such as Baba's childhood home, Sassoon Hospital, St. Vincent's School, Deccan College, et cetera.
That day, Baba sent this telegram to Irene Billo in Switzerland who, due to ill health, had been unable to come: "While your love is with me here, I am with you there."
This statement of Baba's was actually experienced by Alain Youell, who also planned to come to India, but was sick in Brussels. One night, during the week of the gathering, he went to bed feeling sad and melancholic. But in the middle of the night he suddenly awoke to see Baba standing at the foot of his bed, with his arms wide open and with a wonderful smile on his face! The apparition of Baba's physical form was visible to him for fifteen minutes before disappearing.
The Easterners began arriving on Wednesday, 31 October 1962, and they were guided and helped to their various accommodations by the reception committee of the Poona Center.