When everything was loaded onto the truck, Baba rose to leave. The mandali found it difficult to lead him through the thick crowd, but they managed. As Baba took his seat in Meherjee's car, in an outburst of emotion, one man from Poona rushed to take Baba's darshan, but Aloba blocked his way and restrained him.
Devotees stood in rows on both sides along the driveway up to and beyond the gates. At 8:00 A.M., as Baba's car slowly passed them, each one in turn surged forward to quickly touch or kiss his hand. Their time with him inside had been all too brief after a long summer of separation, and their hearts cried out as he passed, "Baba ... Meher Baba ... My Baba ... My Father."
Baba, who was sitting by the window smiling at them, put his hand out further to make it easier for them to kiss or touch it. Their faces were aglow with love, and they remained where they were, staring after the car long after it had rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.
After leaving the limits of Poona District, no signs of rain were seen, and dry fields stretched out before them along the road. When they reached Ahmednagar, Baba instructed Adi to stop the car near Akbar Press gates and Sarosh Motor Works, where (while seated in the car) Baba briefly met almost 300 lovers, including some from the army. The day before, a college student from Jabalpur named Gokaran Shrivastava, 26, had come for Baba's darshan. Gokaran first found out about Baba in 1961 from one of his professors in Jabalpur. He was extremely drawn to a photograph of Baba kept in Professor Surendra Bhatnagar's home, and after many days, Gokaran asked who it was. Subsequently, he wrote to Baba, he attended the East-West Gathering in 1962, and he came to Guruprasad in 1963.
Gokaran had been thinking how fortunate the local postman was to be allowed to visit Meherazad every day. When he arrived in Ahmednagar, Feram suggested he go to Meherazad, because once Baba arrived there Gokaran would not be allowed to visit. Feram handed him a huge bundle of mail which had accumulated. And thus Gokaran became a fortunate postman! Gokaran handed the letters to Kaka, who gave him a tour of the property. (A few years before, when Gokaran was in the National Cadet Corps, he had been to the Pimpalgaon area for training, and he had gone to Meherazad to borrow some salt, which a servant gave him. He had no idea at the time that Meherazad was the home of the Avatar.)