It had been cloudy for the previous few days and the sun had not shone. On the 3rd, when Baba came to the mandali, he wanted to rest, but the inclement weather seemed to have affected him. He explained:
I have come here to rest. For me, rest means to stop my spiritual work completely. After so many years, today I wanted to permit myself to have this rest; but Nature — which I myself have created — will not allow it. How these illusory powers are an obstacle can be understood from the following: Generally, for my spiritual work, my Universal mind is connected with the gross, the subtle and [the mental spheres], and also with God. When I stop my work, my Universal mind wants to disconnect itself from illusion — the gross, subtle, [and mental spheres] — and "rest" in divinity.
To remove this obstacle, and at the same time to rest, I need a mountain to climb, or need to run for physical activity, or play a game, or bask in the sunlight to keep myself happy. But now things are not like this, and so there are two possible courses of action: not to rest, or to break the law which I myself have made. If I wish, within five seconds I can make the sun shine, but it would be a breach of the law which governs the whole creation. No one is to blame. No one can help. Even great yogis and Sadgurus, who control the elements and raise the dead, are helpless to make the sun shine or do anything about it because I, as the Avatar, am personally involved in this. In the ordinary course of events, Sadgurus can do anything except break the law. Lawmakers won't be lawbreakers!
Of the 56 God-realized souls [on Earth], the five Perfect Masters are the most important; and the One who is the highest of all is the Avatar, myself. I come every 700 to 1400 years and it is undoubtedly a very rare and lucky thing for each of you to have the opportunity of loving me individually, since even the Sadgurus long to touch the Avatar physically.
When the world is in the grip of pain, misery, suffering, and chaos, I manifest myself. Spirituality then reaches its pinnacle and materialism is at its lowest level. Then again, with the passing of time, spirituality diminishes and materialism increases.