Baba motioned for Eruch to explain: "When Baba goes into seclusion in India, he locks himself up in a room; the doors and windows are all locked and there is hardly a breath of air. If Baba permits someone to remain with him, the one who remains feels absolutely suffocated. But Baba sits all day like that, closed and locked in. Baba says the whole world is nearer to him when he is in seclusion."

Don Stevens then stood up and, as asked by Baba, read three of his messages: "The Binding Past," "The Law of Karma" and "Freedom from Opposites."

When he finished, Baba clapped his hands. Someone had fallen asleep, so Baba asked Don to read them again, and then explain what they meant. One message emphasized that the past cannot be changed and is like a frozen lake, but it continues to mold the present and the future of the limited I. Another emphasized that after physical death we experience the heaven and hell mental states.

"Do you understand it?" Baba asked.

When Don nodded yes, Baba gestured, "Good, because I don't!"

As the laughter died down, Baba asked, "Where is heaven and where is hell? Don, you explain."

Don replied, "As I understand it, these are illusory states, which exist only in the mind. They have no reality; they are part of illusion."

Baba said:

When I was young, about thirteen years of age, I met an Irani gentleman, a very stout, strong, healthy man, and two or three other friends of his. They called me and made me sit near them. I was just a child. One Irani was preparing the Indian bhang, a certain concoction [of hashish] that brings one intoxication. The three were enjoying their drink. One Irani was clever and had known my father, Sheriarji. So he called me over and made me sit near him. He had taken a lot to drink and was telling the others in a lively voice, "I am in heaven today."

I enjoyed their talk. Then he got up, the others also, and they started walking. I knew there was a trickle of water there crossing the road ahead; and, as everyone in India knows, the reaction of bhang is such that a drop of water appears to be as big as an ocean. So that intoxicated fellow stopped, thinking that there was a big stream right across the road — he actually experienced that trickle of water as a big stream and he wanted to jump over it! He tried his best to cross it with a long jump, but he jumped so hard he broke his leg. Then he cried, "Now I am in hell!"