Beginning in June 1930, Baba had some of the mandali participate in a milk fast in silent seclusion with Him. He positioned a few of the men in some of the important buildings of Meherabad of that time, including the crypt room. But Baba himself stayed in seclusion with most of the men who were allocated spaces in all three of the tank rooms.

Continuing the work of fasting and seclusion, later that year Baba asked His mandali to dig a cave on the east side of Meherabad Hill. He named it Panchvati Cave and went into seclusion there on November 15th, 1930. However, during that time Baba allowed the western journalist, Paul Brunton, to interview Him here. But when Baba gave predictions of future cataclysms and encouraged Brunton to spread His name in the west, claiming He was the true Messiah of the age, Brunton was taken aback. He was skeptical about Meher Baba in his book, "In Search of Secret India." This served the purpose of discouraging many casual curiosity seekers from contacting Baba throughout the rest of His life, though some sincere seekers first heard the name of Meher Baba through Brunton's writing. In 1933, the British government ordered the Post Office to be demolished. But at the same time, some new construction was commencing up on the Hill to accommodate the new women's ashram that Baba was planning to shift back to Meherabad from Nasik. So the Post Office was partially demolished and the materials were used for the construction on the Hill.

The Kitchen for the women’s ashram was built then, using some of the stones from the Post Office for its foundation, on the approximate site of the Meher Ashram dining hall. The largest room was used for some years as the main kitchen for the ashram. Before His cabin on the Hill was constructed in 1935, Baba would rest in the small room west of the kitchen. From 1935, that room became the bathing room for the women mandali.

In November 1933, the east tank room became home to Baba’s close eastern women mandali. Mehera, Mani, Khorshed, Naja, Soonamasi and Valu were strictly sequestered, and lived a life of obedience, purity, and poverty. They would pass through a corridor of bamboo matting from the East Room to the kitchen each day to do their work. There was also a corridor leading from the West Room to the main kitchen door. These barricades of bamboo matting created a compound in which the women were free to move and exercise. In addition to her standing order from Baba never to be touched by a man, during this time Mehera was not allowed to hear the sound of a man’s voice or even hear a man’s name. So if a workman had to be on the Hill, Mani would sometimes play the sitar for hours in order to drown out his voice.