Now, back in India again, Don had been so impressed by what he had been reading in the Discourses that he brought up the subject with Baba, saying, "Baba, I have fulfilled my promise. I went back and re-read the Discourses and think they are absolutely terrific.
"In fact, I have the feeling that God Speaks and these Discourses will probably be the basic books — virtually a Bible — given out by you for the young people who are starting to knock on the doors of the Sufi Center [in San Francisco] and in the various Baba groups around the world."
Baba said, "Yes, there is a force, a spiritual force, in my words which is of great help to the sincere aspirant. So you should work with them and strongly encourage others to work with and read Baba's words."
Don Stevens continued, "But in reading the Discourses , I did notice that the style is more Indian-English than American-English. At times, it is a bit awkward, and I had to spend time unconsciously re-inverting sentences to understand their meaning. I think you should get someone to reedit them into accepted Western style... Baba, would you entrust that editing job to me?"
Baba agreed and told him to speak with Adi about it. Adi at that time owned the copyrights of several of Baba's books, and he consented to a new edition. In this way, the project of reediting Meher Baba's Discourses into a three-volume paperback set began, and was eventually printed in Japan and distributed in America by Sufism Reoriented, Inc. to the entire English-speaking world.
This was not, however, the end of the comments Baba was to make in connection with editing and eventually retranslating his words. After Don had worked several months on the Discourses , on a subsequent visit to Meherazad, Baba asked him how the work was progressing. As sometimes happens in any project, Don was apparently at a low ebb in his vitality, and without thinking he blurted out, "Almost finished now, Baba, but I don't know how much good all this work will do."