Steve Simon told them more about Meher Baba and what he had learned of his teachings. Surprising even to themselves, considering their meager finances, they offered to pay part of his passage on a ship to Bombay. They traveled on the same ship with him and disembarked in Ceylon. Later they traveled on to India, landing in Bombay on 31 December 1965. While passing through Poona they remembered Simon had told them that Meher Baba sometimes resided there, so they attempted to locate him. A rickshaw driver took them to Guruprasad and they were shocked because none of the "holy men" they had come in contact with before lived in a palace!
The caretaker told them that Baba was not here and directed the rickshaw driver to take them to the Poona Center. There, Ramakrishnan informed them that Baba was residing in Ahmednagar and was in strict seclusion doing his Universal work and not seeing anyone, not even his closest lovers. Nevertheless, he offered to send Baba a message about them and told them to come again in three days for the reply. They saw their first photographs of Baba at the Center.
They went back to their hotel and Mik met an American fellow traveler who had a supply of LSD. Mik ingested the LSD drug with his new friend that night; Ursula did not. The next morning, Mik, for the first time, felt guilty about taking drugs because of what Steve Simon had told him about what Baba warned. Mik said to Ursula, "The only thing we know for sure about Meher Baba is that he does not want us to take drugs. If he is someone great, I am not worthy to see him, therefore we should continue on to Hyderabad. Surely we will find a real guru there." They did not return to the Poona Center for Baba's reply.
On the way, a stranger told them, "Go back to Bombay." As aimless as they were, they turned around and went back to Bombay, spending several days in a large dried-out street fountain smoking hashish.
Finally deciding to go to Delhi, they hitched a ride with a truck going to Ahmedabad, and then rode another to Udaipur. There, Mik started reading the Bhagavad Gita, and became obsessed with the passage in the Gita where Krishna said: "Those who worship my manifest form, those I speedily rescue from the ocean of birth and death." An incessant question arose in his mind: "Where are you?" — meaning, the manifest form.