Even though Baba was in seclusion during August 1935, he still attended to his correspondence, listening to letters and dictating replies. On August 14th (1935) he answered several letters and Chanji, visiting from Bombay, took down his replies. Darwin Shaw had written that he was hoping to establish a retreat for Meher Baba in America. Baba wrote back:
Whether that retreat on earth is established or not, I do really appreciate the spirit of love and brotherhood that has been awakened and consider it as a spiritual retreat already established within, which is much more substantial and real than any earthly home or structure. The true spirit is there, already awakened, and if it is fostered and kept up with warm feelings of love and brotherhood, it will eventually bear results that will be helpful in the development of spiritual understanding of life and things pertaining to life. And wherever such spirit of love and brotherhood exists, inner light and guidance invariably follow.
On August 14th, Baba also dictated this reply to a friend of Nadine Tolstoy’s, Grand Duchess Marie, a Russian aristocrat:
Many bitter experiences of the past often open new vistas that help one to understand things better, as they really are not as they appear. Your hard trials in life have been instrumental in making you what you are now, a changed being with a different outlook on life, and ushering you into the spiritual reality where you alone will find peace, bliss and love.
On that same day, Baba wrote to a woman named Tamara who had been deceived by a charlatan who claimed to be a guru:
There comes a time in the life of everyone when one finds oneself at the crossroads of life and one’s future life depends on what turn one takes at that critical moment. If the person comes in contact with and is guided at this opportune moment by One who is Perfect, that person is said to be on the right Path and his or her life is thereafter safe so long as it is guided by such a Perfect One.
The great difficulty is in finding such a One, and when One is found, it means everything. Salvation is secured and life’s mystery solved!
Your longing in this direction has led you to where you are now and will henceforth lead you where you will find peace, bliss and love everlasting, which is the desire of all true aspirants and the goal of humanity.
Do not brood over the past terrible experiences you had, for it is these very experiences that have brought you to me.
Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 6, pp. 1969 – 1970.