On Saturday, 19 February 1927, the Master went for an hour to the Shahane's house in Ahmednagar at 3:00 P.M. and was in a cheerful mood. Taking advantage of the occasion, Ghani asked Baba when he would break his silence.
Baba surprised everybody by replying, "I will speak in five days!" and he even directed Ghani to write this down.
Of course, the five days passed and his silence continued.
Once, in an effort to force the issue, when Baba was about to come out of the Jhopdi in the morning, Ghani and Afseri bolted the door and told Baba that they would not unlock it until he spoke. (They were only half-kidding: In their love for their Master, it was painful for the mandali to witness Baba's continued silence.) "Break your silence; otherwise, we won't allow you to come out!" they threatened.
Baba cajoled them with sweet promises (on his alphabet board through the side window) and finally they unlocked the door. Then he scolded and punished them, making them stand on one leg for some length of time.
Sadashiv Borker, the chairman of the Ahmednagar National High School, who had met Baba the previous year, had recently written to Baba: "I have meditated for 25 years and have gained nothing. But by being at Meher Baba's feet I have come to realize that I can achieve nothing on my own. I now accept Baba as my guru and request him to give me a push, which is the sole aim of my life." Borker was very interested in the plan of opening a high school in Meherabad and was assisting with the project.
Meanwhile, Rustom had several bore-wells drilled at Meherabad, but still no plentiful water was found. When some of the men complained that others had found water nearby, Baba remarked that it was his own generosity that caused the lack of water at Meherabad.
Then he revealed, "I hold the key to the world, but the duty of supplying water here is assigned to an agent, which you cannot see."
Baba directed Rustom to drill to a depth of 100 feet and if water were not struck, then he should try at a different spot.
On 22 February, Baba again spoke about the enormous amount of past sanskaras that all accumulate through evolution and involution.
"Even for the Sadguru," Baba stated, "time is required for the wiping away and annihilation of the past sanskaras of his circle members, which he must do if he is to give them Realization."
Giving a simile, Baba said:
If you are to be awakened from a dream in which you had been enjoying a pleasant ride in a motorcar, you need something like a tiger or a demon whose terrifying aspect would frighten you and thus jolt you into wakefulness. And when you are awakened, you find that there is neither the ride in the motorcar nor the tiger. In short, a "tiger" must come, which means that your sanskaras must be reversed if they are to be destroyed.
These sanskaras are like a huge ball of twine whose threads are interwoven with each other in such an awkward way as to make it very difficult and at points impossible to disentangle all the interweaving.