The sanyasi lived like a recluse while at Toka. One day, while mentioning his solitary nature with the mandali, Baba was reminded of Nusserwan Satha. Baba had advised him to give up politics and remain with him, to which Nusserwan agreed but so far had not done. Baba quoted this couplet by Vivekananda, "Maya, let go thy hold,/ O sanyasi, be bold!" — which meant that one should be courageous enough to take the step of breaking one's connections with the world. Despite Baba's repeated advice, Nusserwan never gave up politics and never joined the ashram, though he continued to stay in contact with the Master his entire life.
Even though Baba was fasting, he would often serve meals to the mandali and boys, and was careful to see that no food was wasted. On Monday, 9 July 1928, some of the mandali discarded a portion of their lunch.
When Baba found out, he asked with obvious displeasure, "Why did you throw away some food?"
They replied that he had served them more than they could eat.
"I will serve as much as I like," Baba scolded, "but you should never waste food. You should have eaten it even if your stomachs had burst. You know it is my standing order not to waste food. Why did you break that order? Am I so mad as to give you more than you could eat? Haven't you at least that much understanding after so many years? This Path is not as easy as swallowing laddoos all day long. You have no idea what I am giving you through this food."
Once a week Pesu would go to Ahmednagar for marketing, and would always dress in torn clothing. In spite of Rustom's constant pleading with him to wear better clothes, Pesu refused to change his attire, even thought Rustom offered to pay for the material and tailoring charges One day Pesu went for a swim in the river and left his tattered clothing on the bank. On Baba's instructions, Rustom snuck up and tore his clothes even more. When Pesu came out of the water and found his clothes in shreds, he wrapped a towel around himself and ran to Baba. At the time Baba was serving lunch to the boys. Pesu could not contain himself and said, "Baba, Rustom ..."
Baba interrupted him and asked, "Why didn't you bring lemons from the bazaar?"