"All right, I want you to continue the life of wandering and begging, but in addition I want you to drink a bottle of wine everyday."

The man was shocked. He had been systematically purifying his body over a period of years, and now he was being asked to defile it. He started making excuses. How would he be able to obtain a bottle of wine everyday? He had no money and he couldn't expect people to supply this as part of his begging. Baba said, "That is not your worry. I will see that it is supplied. Will you drink it?" Finally the man said no.

Baba said, "It is easy to lead the life you have been living. It is very difficult to obey me." Baba then said, "All right, I will be pleased with you if you just do one thing for me. Only eat the food cooked by another." Even this was pretty severe, because sich men never touch food cooked by someone else - it is impure. They beg raw ingredients and cook them themselves. He accepted this order, received Baba's blessing and departed.

A sequel: Later, he camped by a river where there was no habitation except a place that supplied grain and some vegetables to mendicants. He obtained some, cooked and ate it, and became ill. He had to leave the place. When he started eating cooked-by-another food, he regained his health. Of course, this was not Baba's doing. The illness was simply the result of the man breaking his word given to the Master. One's word broken to anyone has its repercussions. We generally do not know of them, because they are not necessarily immediate and obvious.

- Letter from Francis Brabazon, Guruprasad, Poona, June 13, 1960.