A local devotee, Raya Maroti Sakhare (a mandapwalla, one who erects canopies) gave a special party to all the Meherabad residents at 4:00 P.M. on the 26th. All gathered at the Sai Darbar where tea was served and Baba distributed sev, bhujia and jalebis. Before doing so, he first struck a match and threw it into his spittoon.
On the evening of 27 July, the Master's discourse was about the spiritual duty of a Sadguru in relation to maya:
After his Realization of God, solely for the sake of fulfilling his duty to the universe, the Sadguru comes back. This is due to maya, though he is totally free of maya. He has to work in maya to make others like him, and that is why, in a sense, he is dependent on maya.
For example, when you drink tea you use a cup and saucer. But as soon as the tea is finished, you set aside the cup and saucer; meaning one has to resort to certain means to do or experience something. Once the work is done, the means are not necessary.
In exactly the same way, this human body, which is deemed an indispensable means for the attainment of Perfection and the Realization of God, is to be set aside and given up after that Realization and that attainment of Perfection, as it is then not at all necessary. Similarly, only when there is a need to make others as perfect as they are themselves, the Realized Ones — the Sadgurus, Avatars, and Chargemen — have to assume human form for the sake of this duty. As soon as their duty is over, they give up the body.
On Thursday, 5 August 1926, while holding a discussion with Nusserwan Satha and Vyankatesh Sridhar "Kaka" Chinchorkar (devotees from Ahmednagar), the Master explained to them about desires and spiritual independence versus political independence. Baba ended by emphasizing:
Real bhakti [devotion] means "to die a thousand times a day." Thus a poet has said, "If you have the longing to receive the wound of an arrow, then first create a heart that would venture on such a dangerous game, that would bear its hardships, and that is bold enough to endure its sufferings."
This quotation expresses not only the literal and outer meaning that one should "create a heart," but also the inner sense, that the sufferings of the wound should be borne without anyone else knowing it; quietly, without the slightest murmur or sign of pain.