Baba returned to the meeting hall at 1:15 P.M.
He said, "During the coming nine months there will be great suffering for me. It will start after I return to Meherazad. I am warning you all not to let go of your hold on my daaman. Remember: I am God, undoubtedly!"
On one occasion, Adi went to the hotel where Kenmore was staying to deliver some food, but he was late in returning to Guruprasad. In fact, Adi arrived well after Kenmore had arrived back at Guruprasad. On Baba's questioning him about why he was so late, Adi began to justify his tardiness with a rather verbose explanation.
In response, Baba remarked, "My heart is as soft as wax, and yet as hard as stone. Hafiz says:
Do not be arrogant with the Beloved for, in his hand, even the hardest rock becomes like wax! Once the Beloved becomes upset, there remains no solution.
He corrected Adi, "I am intimate with my mandali, but the latitude I give should not be taken advantage of by you. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it; do not go on arguing."
Baba then began a discourse:
There are seven stations in the process of evolution. After one has crossed all these, one gets complete consciousness in human form. But unfortunately, with this consciousness, one has also gathered impressions [sanskaras]. One has to shed them during the involution process, which also has seven stations. As soon as all the sanskaras are removed, one experiences that one is God.
To reach the first station on the evolution process takes millions and millions of years. To reach the second requires less time, and the third still less, and so on. Similarly, to reach the first station [plane] on the involution process, it takes many, many ages; while the other stations are reached more quickly.
Hafiz says that once one reaches the first plane of consciousness, one is likely to tarry there for a long time. He compared the man in the first plane to a man traveling in a caravan. The whole caravan rests during the night, but early in the morning the leader of the caravan rings his bell, so that all may get ready to move on. Similarly, a man on the first plane is likely to tarry, so the Perfect Master has to remind him to keep moving. Hafiz says the pilgrim complains that he reached the first plane after ages of evolution, but as soon as he reached it, his Master rang the bell so that he should not tarry there for long.