While praying, he looked up at Jesus Christ's picture and saw Meher Baba's face before him. After meeting Baba for the first time at Sadashiv's house in Poona, Nelmes vividly recalled the vision which he had experienced years before.
Upon his arrival at Meherabad, Nelmes lived with the mandali and mingled with them quite naturally. Pendu was especially fond of him. Although British in his habits, Nelmes would eat the same food the mandali ate and was always prepared to do any work. Against the mandali's advice, he would insist on doing the heavy work of carrying water from the well, balancing the containers over his shoulders on a long bamboo pole. In those days, the mandali had blankets made of two gunny sacks sewn together like a sleeping bag, and each had only this covering at night. Nelmes, too, accepted this meager protection and did not wish for anything more. He was enthusiastic about the ascetic austerity and easily became vegetarian, eating bhakri and drinking milkless tea like the other mandali.
At times, Vishwanath, the Hindu priest, would be lax in performing his puja at the fixed morning and evening times of worship at the temple. On 20 June, he was sternly reprimanded by Baba to be careful to strictly observe the schedule that Baba had fixed. The Master then gave the priest a brief but poignant explanation:
Although the face may be handsome and beautiful above, there is always that dirty rectum below. But one has to tolerate both good and bad, because both are part of the same body. The same is the case with me: I have to care for all types of people because all belong to me. It has been well said by a poet: 'You are the cow; You are the butcher; You are the grocer; and You are the eater.'
If there is a boil festering on our arm, we have to make an incision to heal it. But we won't cut off our whole arm to remove the boil; nor do we allow the boil to become infected. We make a small cut in our arm although, for a time, the boil forms part of our flesh. Understand that I have therefore reprimanded you for your own good.
Maruti Patil, the village headman, invited Baba and the mandali to come to his house in Arangaon for lunch on Sunday, 21 June 1925. He had made separate arrangements for them inside and had spread a carpet in his yard for the lower-caste Harijans of the village.