

Pearls & Pebbles

By Krishnanand

Published by Mrugank Patel at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

HIS PARTNER'S VOICE

THE BARREN LIFE

THE CONDEMNED PRISONER

ATMADEVJI AND AMARSINHJI

THE MIDNIGHT MEAL

YOUR HOLY GUIDES

THE COMEDY OF MIRACLES

THE RELEASE

HIS PARTNER'S VOICE

Govindsinh lost his job once again, for the fourth time within five years. He was a technician of merit but his defiant attitude and rough behaviour never permitted him to keep a job for long.

In his imagined pride, he never went to his past employers for re-employment; and in the town where he lived, there weren't alternate employers to engage a skilled technician of his caliber.

Finally, Govindsinh decided not to serve anyone again; if only he could do something on his own. With this determination in view, he was on the look-out for someone to finance his scheme to open a tools manufacturing concern. So far, he could only talk to some of his good friends who were without wealth.

Luckily for him however, one fine morning he heard that Sri Dhanpal one of his friends, had become rich overnight, only a few days earlier. So, he went with his plans seeking finance to establish a small tools factory in partnership with that old friend of his.

The grand-father of Sri Dhanpal happened to be a rich man. But because of the quarrelsome nature of his son, he had turned him out without giving him any share from his personal earnings. And hence, Dhanpal had to be brought up in wanting circumstances. Dhanpal could not even complete his high school studies and he had to take up, while that young, the work of a petition writer in the local post office. Dhanpal had no sisters or brothers. After the death of his father, his distant uncle somehow got him married and he was living with his mother, wife and three children.

About this time, Dhanpal's grand -father fell seriously ill and somehow, prior to his death, chose to name in his last will, Dhanpal as a legal heir to his movable and immovable properties. That's how Dhanpal rose from rags to riches overnight even as persons with winner tickets in the state lotteries these days do. Sri Dhanpal converted the properties into ready money and had with him sixty-eight thousand rupees all told.

Because Dhanpal had never seen or had never even dreamt of coming by such a big amount, he did not know what to do with that unforeseen fortune. And because only Govindsinh happened to be his lovable friend, in dire need then, Sri Dhanpal readily agreed to his friend's proposal and pledged to invest sixty thousand rupees in the factory which Govindsinh intended to float. The position was, one had brains and no bank balance, while the other had balance in the bank but no brains. It was a case of brain and bank balance going into partnership.

Intelligent persons and individuals in want generally commit crimes and when it comes to an intelligent person placed in circumstances of want, one can take it for granted that such a one would stoop to any base level. In proof of this accepted contention, our Govindsinh was bit by the bug of temptation and somehow he took it into his head to cheat Sri Dhanpal. In the blindness of his despicable desire to cheat his generous hearted friend, Govindsinh felt that nature blessed the stupid people with wealth only in order that the intelligent may deftly grab them

With this sort of deceitful thoughts dancing in his head, Govindsinh drew and pocketed five or six times, various amounts from the simple minded Dhanpal on the pretext of purchasing machines and materials. His intention was to swindle Sri Dhanpal outnight.

As per his plans, therefore, one day, Govindsinh proceeded to Sachin, a town near Surat to search for a suitable site for the location of the factory. He craftily explained to the financing friend that, apart from its being far more economical, because Sachin happens to be nearer to Bombay and so situated on the main line that it would be feasible to establish business relationship with Maharashtra and at the same time cover the rich region of South Gujarat too.

Later, one evening, Govindsinh went to Sri Dhanpal and asked him to be ready to proceed to Sachin on the following day, for making payment and for preparing the necessary purchase documents in respect of the plots under purchase by them. Sri Dhanpal there and then made over to the custody of Govindsinh a sum of Rs. 40,000/- for carrying to Sachin to make payment there and also to effect some purchases at Surat.

Now that the entire amount of sixty thousand rupees had come into his hands, Govindsinh carefully hid the amount in some safe place and took care not to divulge even to his wife anything in regard to the fraud which he intended to perpetrate. Defrauding a simpleton like Sri Dhanpal, Govindsinh felt, needed no cunningness and all that he would have to do was to simply declare that the amount was misplaced and lost. It is surprising how quickly goodness is exhausted with the rise of malefic thoughts!

On the next day, they both left for and reached Sachin. There they met the agent of the land-owner and Govindsinh pursued the mock talks on purchase and he designedlv backed out ot the deal on the ready plea that the amount demanded by the agent was exorbitant.

Thereafter, they both returned to Surat to catch the fast down train to return home. It being summer then, people generally preferred to travel at nights and as such, when the train came, they found all the compartments overcrowded. Somehow, they both managed to squeeze into a compartment just as the train was leaving and they had to stand on the brink of the gangway - keeping the door of their compartment open.

In the moving train, Sri Dhanpal put a number of questions to Govindsinh on diverse matters connected with the building and running of their factory. Time passed on that way, when, giving a shocking twist to their talks, Govindsinh wryly blurted out, "well, friend! the truth of the matter is, our plans will now take a little more time to take shape. Because, the amount of Rs. 40,000/- which you had entrusted to my care, was lost yesterday and......... Before Govindsinh could finish what he wanted to say, the stunned Sri Dhanpal, with clenched fingers and shivering severely, screamed "Ah! you rascal, you have ruined me." As his hold on the handle bar of the door got released in that disturbed mental state and as there were heavy jerks too, due to the train then passing on the over-bridge of river Narmada, near Broach station, Sri Dhanpal somehow lost his balance and was thrown out of the train.

Govindsinh didn't expect such a thing to happen; he didn't desire so either. With genuine concern therefore, he instantly rushed inside the main compartment and pulled the alarm chain. The speed of the train slowed down and it came to a halt only near the Broach station.

At the Railway Station, Govindsinh made a detailed report of their having gone to Sachin and that they were returning to their hometown when his friend Sri Dhanpal who was also standing in the gangway of an unclosed crowded compartment, was suddenly thrown out of the train. Govindsinh further informed the police that the thrown out Sri Dhanpal carried with him a bag containing Rs 40,000/-in cash.

The police first satisfied themselves that there was no foul play on the part of Govindsinh. For this, not only did they question him at length, but they also interrogated many passengers who were travelling in the compartment from which Sri Dhanpal fell off. Their belongings were even searched and so was the latrine of the particular bogie.

Because of the roaring noise when train was passing over the bridge, luckily for Govindsinh, none of the passengers who were all in a drowsy state during that midnight travel, could or did hear the loud accusing remarks of Sri Dhanpal immediately prior to his accidentally falling off the train. As such they only reported having observed Govindsinh and Dhanpal talking cordially right through.

Later, Govindsinh and a few more policemen joined the first batch of the search party which was sent for combing the area around the bridge above and the river banks below for locating the body of the victim to the mishap.

The way Govindsinh went about with the search, it happened to add to the police party's earlier impression that Govindsinh was truly wounded at heart over the gruesome end of his friend. Thus, right till the evening of the next day, Govindsinh hung around the bridge and the river without eating or drinking anything.

Because of the huge sum reported to be in the bag with the thrown off person, a good many individuals joined in the searching. But nothing was found excepting stray splashes of human blood here and there on the sleepers and on iron angles which supported the girders of the bridge. The tell tale blood patches clearly pointed to the certainty that the body of the person fell into the fast flowing river and was carried many miles afar.

Govindsinh returned to his hometown on the second day. Proceeding straight to Sri Dhanpal's house, he informed Gita Devi, his friend's wife, the whole incident with a strong pathetic blend.

The hearing knocked the bottom out of her world. The poor lady fainted at once unable to bear the sorrowful news. Govindsinh's wife and others consoled her with the common pacifying sentences which are usually brought to use on such distressing occasions. Govindsinh himself remained morose and in sunken spirits and went about as though he had lost all interest in living.

On the third night, the departed personality of Sri Dhanpal appeared in the dream of Govindsinh and threateningly said:- "My inner self tells me that you have willfully defrauded me; accelerated my death and deprived my wife and children, the care and comforts which they could have enjoyed with my inherited wealth. Take heed, clearly, you shall pine and pay for your cold-blooded betrayal."

This threatening dream momentarily shook and staggered Govindsinh. But in the then hardness of his heart, he didn't take long to brush it off from memory as a mere hallucination.

Things began to cool off and the near and dear ones of the late Sri Dhanpal somehow reconciled themselves to the situation. After all, they weren't hard up or stranded. Sri Dhanpal had left behind a little over eight thousand rupees and it would certainly enable them to carry on for quite some years.

As for Govindsinh, he took particular care to forcibly suppress the temptation to bring out the swindled amount right then or all at once. Not only that, he also wantonly put up a show in the circle of his friends and relatives that because of his unemployment, he was still in want. To back up this sham claim, he began to sell item after item from his household utilities to a number of his friends and with the part of monies thus raised, he opened a small general store and at the same time began buying and selling sundry things including small lots of vegetables and fruits and the like. Carrying on that way, for little over a year, he was able to bring out a little portion of the swindled money and convert it as profits earned from different lines of small scale business.

Govindsinh particularly visited the house of the late Sri Dhanpal with an increased frequency and assisted Gita Devi in various matters of her outdoor needs. Doing thus, he covered up and cleared all possible doubts in the minds of people, against his innocence, especially with regard to the death of Dhanpal in general and the fate of Dhanpal's wealth in particular.

Paradoxically enough, nature also favoured Govindsinh and whatever he did, began to pay and he was faring well. It was during that time that his good religious minded wife became pregnant for the first time since their marriage sixteen years back. Both of them naturally felt gay over the prospects of being blessed with an issue.

With the passage of time, Govindsinh's wife gave birth to a charming baby boy and it was another welcome event for the couple to be happy about. With the birth of a son, Govindsinh's income also began to swell; giving him opportunities to bring out some more of the concealed amount for further investment in various lines of his expanding business dealings.

Days passed on into weeks; the weeks into months; the months into years and master Govindsinh grew up to the age of years. He was a jovial little child of attractive features and everyone happened to like and love him.

One morning, as Govindsinh was carrying and cajoling his little son, as he very often did, strangely enough, the young fellow gave his father a stiff slap on the face. Govindsinh naturally took it for a childish prank and even liked it. But when he looked right at his son, Govindsinh was puzzled to observe his infant son's face reddened with rage as though, his lips were twitched and he was struggling uneasily to get down. Soon, the boy began to shiver and Govindsinh slowly laid him on a bed in the room and nervously watched on. He knew not what had happened to his son or what might follow. His wife was out and she was sent for.

To the alarm of Govindsinh, his son condemningly said, "You acted very lowly for gaining money. Trust, love and friendship didn't weigh well in your consideration. I didn't expect such a conduct from you. Fie upon your life." And immediately became normal.

Govindsinh's memory raced back to his dream on the third day of Sri Dhanpal's accidental death. Inwardly he began to fear lest that earlier threat might come to pass. He also mistook that peculiar behaviour of his son as a case of possession and thenceonwards he became cold towards him. In order that his son's future attacks of such fits may not expose the fraud he had played, Govindsinh took singular care to see that he wasn't allowed to play with other children, mingle with guests or visitors in the house. The Govindsinh's never took him out either. Friends and relatives were falsely told that their son was extremely sensitive to strangers and that the very sight of them or when touched by them, he contacted violent fits. Over and above this, fearing also the possibility of his son recognising Gita Devi and the children, in the course of spirit-possession occurring when with them, Govindsinh kept his son away from them all also. On some later occasions when his son began to speak in that enigmatical state of transportation to his past, Govindsinh used to silence the boy with severe slaps and admonitions. The impact of such a handling, Govindsinh hoped, might obviate the congeniality for possession dormant in the subconscious mind of the boy or even completely erase all knowledge of past ties and experiences if any.

One day, my friend Swami Sri Snehanandji for whom both Govindsinh and the late Sri Dhanpal had a very deep respect, went to the house of Govindsinh as he annually did. Whereupon, snatching the advantage of her husband's absence from home, Govindsinh's wife informed swamiji of her son's unusual behaviour. She told him that her son very often addressed her as sister and said, "You perhaps do not know that your husband is a cheat. He, has completely ruined me and as a result, my wife and children have perforce to face avoidable privations" and so forth. "Does not your Holiness think that this might have some link with our late Sri Dhanpal?" queried she and proceeding further, she also informed swamiji that her husband had totally given up playing with or fondling the boy. Instead, she said, that her husband relentlessly beat him now and then. The boy himself, she added, feared his dad. Lastly, she requested swamiji to sift all the details and tell her what he felt might be behind it all.

"If what you have said is correct to the letter, it points to Govindsinh's hand in the disappearance of Sri Dhanpal and manifestation of Dhanpal's spirit in your son or that the late Dhanpal has himself reincarnated here to avenge the possible wrong suffered by him in the hands of Govindsinh." thus opined swamiji.

It was time for lunch and both Govindsinh and the swamiji sat to eat. At the instance of swamiji, the young lad was given a little freedom to sit near him and eat. In the middle of their meal, Govindsinh's son became serious and spoke out. "Take note, you Govindsinh! I am none other than "Dhanpal" your former benevolent friend. Do you recall your crime? You ought to be ashamed of your deeds and yourself." Govindsinh heard all this with puzzled gloom and swamiji became aghast.

The boy became normal and the swamiji was at once convinced that it was indeed a case of a reincarnated soul come into that family to square out injustice meted out to it. For, from what Govindsinh's wife had told him and added to it what he personally saw and heard, all of it confirmed, strengthened and amply illustrated his earlier deduction.

Call it strength or weakness, when facing a direct call for a factual explanation on any matter, Govindsinh always proved to be an open book before Swami Sri Snehanandji. To Goivndsinh's mind, swamiji was everything and his love and reverence for the swamiji remained immeasurable. As such, when swamiji turned towards Govindsinh, with a raised brow, tears trickled from Govindsinh's eyes and his dry lips quivered in readiness to let out speech.

Swamiji had simply to pat him affectionately and Govindsinh, like a small child, completely confessed how he had heartlessly committed breach of trust and misappropriated his late bosom friend's money. Swamiji heard him calmly and sternly ordered that he should see his way to make immediate amends by repaying to Gita Devi the entire amount with a reasonable interest. Govindsinh remorsefully agreed to obey.

It was with honorable intention to save Gita Devi from sure and severe shocks, bound to spring from the knowledge that Govindsinh, her late husband's good friend is the person indirectly responsible for her husband's accidental and premature death and directly guilty for swindling the money, that swamiii prudently suggested that the amount should be sent with a third person.

Govindsinh didn't have that big amount in his ready possession right then and as such, he begged for grace of time and promised to repay the entire amount by the close of three months. He however produced rupees fifteen thousand for immediate payment.

Swamiii sent one of his disciples to go and pay the amount to Gita Devi. He instructed the gentleman to pose as a debtor to the late grand-father of her late husband. This practical move obviated once and forever, considerable odd feelings both to Govindsinh and Gita Devi.

Promising to be present during the subsequent payments also, the practical-minded swamiji personally wrote out the following wisdom-studded sonnet and specifically instructed Govindsinh to regularly recite the same and thereafter, he left.

"I have to live myself, and so,

I want to be fair for myself to know;

Always to look myself straight in the eye;

I don't want to stand, with the setting sun –

And hate myself for the things I have done.

I want to go out with my head erect;

I want to deserve all men's respect.

But here in the struggle for fame and pelf,

I want to be able to like myself.

I don't want to look at myself and know,

That I am bluster and bluff and empty show,

I never can fool myself, and so –

Whatever happens I want to be,

SELF-RESPECTING AND CONSCIENCE FREE."

On the day when the final installment was to be paid to Gita Devi, I had to accompany my holy friend Swami Sri Snehanandji to the house of Govindsinh. That same gentleman was sent with money. He returned after making the payment, informed swamiii and left.

A little later, with happy expressions lit over his face. Govindsinh' s son loudly remarked "Well, Chum! I am glad to note that after all, goodness did prevail in you, though through the timely intercession of our venerable swamiji.

I forgive you from the core of my heart. May God bless you." Govindsinh fell at the feet of his little son, the very reincarnation of his late friend Sri Dhanpal and wept with choking voice. The little fellow friendly patted our Govindsinh on the back. That sight was very touching indeed. Thereafter, the boy ran to swamiji and offered his respects in the manner and style that was peculiarly as late Sri Dhanpal's own and then became normal again.

To our sad surprise, however, few days thereafter, the little boy passed away even as a bill collector who comes, collects his bill and goes off.

Because of the inefficacy and fallibility of human dispensation of justice, the wrong-doers very often escape from the hold of man-made regulations and laws. But when quite a number of incidents of the above type or other similar ones happen to come to our knowledge, they compel us to believe that nature has its own fool-proof processes to book the unjust and make them pay for their black deeds.

THE BARREN LIFE

"Brother dear! a small sum of Rs. 3000/-will do for the repairs which my house immediately needs, i shall repay it within two years or if you will, as soon as money comes into my hands from my son, who as you know has recently gone to the States for higher studies and employment there" implored Gangaben. the widowed sister of Babu Kaka. "

I still don't understand why you should live there in Vesma when I am here all alone with none to cook for me," countered her brother, in reply and coolly added," in any case, I haven't money to give away."

Since the death of her husband some twelve years ago, Gangaben continued to live, in Vesma a town near Surat. At no time earlier had Babu Kaka asked her to live with him or helped her in any way, even though he had enough and more to spare. Now that she came to ask for money, to ward her off, he pretended to be a broad-minded brother with feelings.

Babu Kaka, a graduate, happened to be a shrewd and thriving money-lender and he lived in Surat, Gujarat.

His field of business was with the members of the lower middle-class comprising of mill and factory workers. He lent them money against gold and silver ornaments, other household items capable of fetching ready money and sometimes against clothes too. His rates of interest were reasonable and his terms for mortgage were not exacting. In the course of his business life which extended to over twenty five years, he had handled thousands of articles of different types, makes and value. His reasonable fixation of their prices, won for him the satisfaction and praise from critical quarters even.

He confined his monetary transactions to menfolk alone. He never lent money to women. Because he was a widower living all alone and also because he knew women to be grumbling lots, he wasn't interested in feminine clientele. Yet, he never spoke against them or barred their presence from anywhere or considered seeing them as inauspicious. Perhaps, he feared, that such a conduct would force upon him rebirth as a female!

In order to check stolen articles finding their way to his place through un-scrupulous elements and cause him to suffer searches by the police and consequent losses, he exclusively dealt with introduced persons.

Babu Kaka enjoyed a very sharp memory and as such he maintained no books to record and account his transactions. Remembering faces, names, places and dates and figures came to him with an astonishing ease.

He never dragged his defaulting customers to the courts of law and he himself avoided becoming a defendant in any litigation. It is likely that he thought the processed of legal justice is not only expensive but that it also takes too long a time to achieve. To him too, it appeared perhaps that justice delayed amounted to it being denied. He must have also felt that wise men should calmly and quickly square up things outside the courts.

He never lost his temper with angry customers. It is possible he knew that people in a depressed state of mind and those in want are generally prone to be irritable.

Occasionally, he had to tackle some clever guys wanting to cheat him, but ultimately, he always got the better of them. In short, he never took risks, always erred on the safe side and never spoiled relationship with his customers. His line demanded no additional qualities for smooth sailing.

All the above qualities and added to them all, his principle of not using mortgaged things with him for personal purposes or for loaning them to others, won for him good and permanent clients.

This is a very strange world filled with strange things and peculiar individuals. Amidst them all, either out of sport or for us to marvel at, nature sends in, now and then, enigmatic human specimens. Despite the honourable qualities as a professional man, our Babu Kaka also happened to be one.

After the death of his parents, Babu Kaka graduated and discontinued living with his eldest brother and sister. Later, he married an abandoned lady from a very poor family and started the money-lending business.

A year after his marriage, his wife too passed away and Babu Kaka lived alone since then. He wasn't an addict to any habits. He cooked his own food. The three hundred and sixty five days of every year saw him eating the self-branded standard meals made up of bajri-bread, dhal jaggery and butter-milk. He never introduced any change in his menu. He invited none to meals and he himself never ate at others' place. Once in a way, when a few wanderers like me, happened to visit him, he made us cook for him and eat what he always did. He said it was foolish of nature to have created so vast a variety of things to eat when people could easily subsist on what he ate. We are certainly lucky that he is not our country's FOOD MINISTER.

He used salt as tooth powder, bathed once in three days, shaved once in ten days, got his hair dressed once in two months, dressed shabbily, possessed no more than two pairs of clothes, slept on gunny bags and used one of the same for covering himself. He managed without mosquito net and never complained of mosquito and bug bites.

He never kept his house clean and it wasn't regularly while-washed. His possessions were very few. There were a few aluminum utensils and earthen pots and heaps of cow-dung cakes for fuel which he himself prepared and a kerosene tin for storing victuals. The one good room in his house was used for storing the mortgaged articles of his customers and that was the only place very neatly and orderly kept. Because he stored no food items in his house, there were no rats at all.

His was the lone house which wasn't electrified in the locality where he lived and because he ate before dusk, never read or wrote, he needed no light. The only place where he used an oil lamp was in the' strong room where he stored peoples' things and some earthen pots containing currency notes.

In order not to gain publicity as a money lender, in the obscure lane where he lived he did all the 'give and take' at different houses of his customers.

He wasn't communicative with his neighbours and never called, played with or smiled at children when he saw them. He took notice of other's presence only when it was to his advantage as a money-lender. Thus, he lived in a world of his own, which was cut off from that in which others happened to live. As a result, because he did not belong to the world, none too cared for him, save those who borrowed money from him.

These days when even sweepers, shepherds and milk-men move about with transistors, our monied Kaka didn't possess a radio. We come across beggars buying and reading news papers with a view to keeping themselves acquainted with the happenings in different parts of this glorious world. But Babu Kaka neither bought papers nor went to the public libraries to read them. Said in one single sentence, the hero of our narration, evinced not even an iota of interest in music, literature, games, theatres or hotels.

He never went to see places. To him there existed no other place than his house or some select shops where he used to dispose off unreleased mortgaged articles. Yes, occasionally, he did visit Banks to convert small denomination currency notes into that of high denomination ones.

He had no time to watch the chirping and flying birds of different types and colours or the droning bees in search of honey. He had no time to watch the long caravan of the ever-busy ants, the burrowing worms and the nibbling squirrels. He had no time to admire the green landscapes, the changing phases of sunrise, its movements and setting. He had no time to see the vast expanse of the sky studded with the luminous stars and feel joyous. He had no time to marvel over the function of the soul-soothing sight of the moon. He had no time to see the greenery and the crops in the fields. He had no interest in the rivers, lakes and dams and sea-shores. He had no time to interest himself in the stupefying inventions of the modern science. He had no desire to know and appreciate human possibilities. He never looked up, mentally rejoicing over the planes flying up in the sky, carrying the human cargo to different distant places. He had no time to reflect over the bountiful boons which the rich enjoyed and the boots which the poor suffered.

He employed his head only to evaluate the things which his customers brought for mortgaging and for storing memories of faces, names, dates and amounts. He employed his eyes mainly to help his head, mouth, hands and legs in accordance with the exigencies of his business calls. His ears were there to hear what his customers said. His nose simply-existed for a mechanical breathing and his mouth to speak to people on matters connected with his profession and to eat his standard meals. His hands were mainly given to him, he thought, for handling the mortgaged articles, currency notes and coins. As for his long legs, they were only intended to take him wherever he wanted to go in the course of his business undertakings.

Having come thus far, dear reader! I observe a trifle of a doubt about the possibility of such a rare human specimen's existence, assailing you. Please be assured that all that you have so far read and what you shall hereafter do, are all factual exposition of Babu Kaka \- truthfully recorded by me. Please permit me to add also, that this grand world has a place for everyone and even odd individuals like Babu Kaka or even still more extreme cases of his type might be here and there in human society. You will also please appreciate that most of us are so very much engrossed with our 'self-own' activities that we have no time to search for or requisite patience to study peculiar persons.

The usual festival days were of no significance to Babu Kaka. The only occasion for joy for him used to be when he got a little extra money through the sales of unreleased articles. Yet, he never manipulated such pleasing gains.

Babu Kaka never met sick people, learnt nothing about diseases, never mixed with doctors and never indulged in hungerless eating and therefore, he never fell ill.

He had no secrets to keep and he took no interest in others' affairs; nor did he discuss with anyone, his clients' business dealings with him.

To him, social and domestic ties never existed. He never cared to know how his sister fared, what his nephew did or what became of his eldest brother who was admitted to a hospital as a patient of cancer. Other peoples' or his relatives' needs and worries didn't move him.

He never visited temples, didn't read scriptures and kept aloof from Brahmins, religious preachers and monks. And yet, he said nothing against them all who went about being religious without knowing the basic realities of religion and rational attributes of God. He never cared about the degeneration that has crept into the Brahmin society or about the religious preachers and monks practicing the despicable untouchability and preaching dividing doctrines.

The bad manners of the current-day students, their becoming tools in the hands of irresponsible political leaders, and hence on the mad run to ruin or the bright girls' assiduous application to studies and working to wend their way up to capture posts and positions which were once mens' monopoly didn't strike him to be of any consequence.

Population explosion or death tolls by natural calamities weren't viewed by him with seriousness or sorrow.

He had no grouse against the Pathan who came as a beggar to India, fired everyone and went back to his country with lots of Indian money. Nor did he say anything against the different political parties vying with one another to topple the ruling regime at the centre and the states. As for the scenes of jungle behaviour enacted by Ministers and Members on the floors of Legislative Assemblies, he had no remarks to make.

He never made monetary contributions to any cause or whatever brand of funds. He gave no alms to beggars. The local beggars, he knew without bitterness, thought it below their dignity to beg from him.

He never argued or discussed with anyone on any matter. He never asked anyone any personal questions and when it came to stray Individuals like me who launched ourselves upon him as guests, to observe and study him, on the sly, his express instructions used to be that we put no questions about his ways and personal life.

He spoke in a hoarse voice, occasionally smiled and burst into fitful laughters only while counting money.

His day began as early as 3 a.m and he entered his strong room, cleaned it and opened every packet containing the mortgaged articles, read the details on the tags attached to each of them and replaced them. Next, he uncovered the square trap-door concealing the underground storage place and removed there from two conical shaped and seven other earthen pots, examined the seals thereon, broke the seals of each of them and poured the contents one by one on a carpet in different heaps and engaged himself in counting them mentally. It was during that time that he used to laugh out very loudly. The pots contained wads of hundred rupee notes, silver coins (Indian) and gold coins of foreign and Indian origin. After the counting was over, he filled the individual pots with their respective contents, sealed them with wax and carefully confined them in the secret vault of his and covered the trap-door over it.

He did nothing significant in his life; his one compelling hobby was to collect and count money. Life to him was not monotonous - it passed off like breeze.

His was a case which defied proper analysis even by those who had specialised in Psychiatry. From a purely spiritual point of view too, his state cannot be classified as 'MENTAL EQUIPOISE' springing from rational dispassion, calm detachment or intelligent indifference towards the non-essentials. His case appeared to come close to a person who had a predominant apathy for life. He wasn't a lunatic or one suffering from partial mental dementia. For, he exhibited an admirable degree of intelligence and understanding in his general dealings. He was sober too, even though he was devoid of normal emotions, fine feelings and sentiments. His general attitudes towards life were certainly quixotic, repulsive and silly.

While years took flight finding our Babu Kaka this way, a terrifying time was in wait for a calamity which no human strategy would be able to avert; a catastrophe which was to include all and exclude none in Surat and the surrounding areas.

On a monsoon day, in the year 1968, a few places in South Gujarat faced the fury of floods. In Surat too, the level of Tapti river rose and its water surged to the low-lying areas washing away hutments, old weak houses and live cattle; a good many men and women, aged and young, girls, boys and babies were also carried away. To some who were habituated to capitalise on the misery of others, it was a field day of profit and to a vast many others pathetic privations. The loss in terms of lives and materials was very heavy.

It was during that time of natural calamity that our Babu Kakas house was also washed away and with it, all his monies said to be to the tune of eighty thousand rupees was carried away right before his eyes. Babu Kaka did swim after those fast moving pots but could not bring back any. Many of his neighbours too died in that rage of Tapti.

Babu Kaka sobbed like a child and wailingly smacked his forehead and beat his stomach in that unbearable mental state of deep anguish. Thereafter, he remained unconscious for two full days.

His sister hurried to Surat no sooner was it possible for her to reach there, from the flood-hit Vesma, her town. There she saw a portion of the locality where her brother's house happened to be, barren and marshy. A little farther from there, to her horror, she found her brother lying unconscious and uncared for. She arranged for immediate medical attendance and got him back to conscious state and took him to her town.

The shocking impact of the loss on Babu Kaka lasted for quite long and in the meantime, like all worrying people, his nervous system was upset, and he began to complain of passage of sugar in urine, rheumatic pains, constant headache, indigestion and shooting pain in the stomach. After a fortnight his blood-pressure shot up and he reported of persistent pain in his left chest. Curative reactions could not be registered despite the best medical and surgical treatment. He was dismayed and his plight was poignant.

His sister took him to Brindavan for a permanent stay there and it took considerable time to soften the severity of his sadness.

Through a rational understanding of life and its vital issues and through sensible living, he could have enjoyed the fulness of life himself and shared with his relatives and other unfortunate brethern, the opulent gifts of nature. He could have mitigated the sufferings of his brother who was ailing from cancer and who ultimately died of it. He could have helped his sister to lead a life of greater security and comforts had he allowed her and his nephew to stay with him right from the time she was widowed. He could have helped hard-placed families, orphans, destitutes and provided employment to a few hands also. He could have done all this and much more, with the ease of feeding the ants had he put his lost savings to wise use.

Babu Kaka did truly repent over the unproductive life he had led and gave vent to his feeling also by often writing the following five sentences on the sandy banks of the river Jamuna.

I DIDN'T DEVELOP MY MIND AND INTELLECT.

I DIDN'T LIVE AS A NORMAL MAN AUGHT TO HAVE DONE.

I DIDN'T LOVE ANYONE.

I DIDN'T HELP ANYONE.

I DIDN'T CARE TO KNOW THE HIGHER PURPOSE OF LIFE.

Those self-centered individuals who treat life and this magnificent world with cold and foolish indifference, are guilty of blasphemy against nature. As such, nature withdraws from them all its gifts; so that saner understanding for leading a more purposeful life might yet dawn in them and their lives too may thereafter glisten with meaning.
THE CONDEMNED PRISONER

"There's, a call for you, swamiji, from one Mr. Roa announced the servant of my host.

"Haloo! Krishnanand here, Mr. Roa, good morning to you, how do you do?" I greeted and queried speaking across.

"Same to you swamiji, I am doing fine. Now, swamiji! when you were here last year, I remember having heard you wanting to meet any prisoner, a day prior to his being hanged. If you are still interested, we have one here who is to be sent to the gallows tomorrow morning at quarter past six" said the prison Superintendent Mr. Roa, invitingly.

"I am certainly interested," said I and asked, "when shall I come?"

"If it is convenient to you swamiji, I shall send you my car and you may come here at 14-30 hours today," suggested Mr. Roa. .

In the course of my wanderings, I have had occasions to be at the bedside of persons of different mental blends and to observe how differently each set of them reacted on the brink of their death. I have also studied how animals react when taken to the slaughter houses. In all these cases, I have my own conclusions to call upon. But, I hadn't chanced to meet individuals waiting to be hanged and to study as to how they feel as the hour of "their death in the hands of government draw nearer and nearer.

Now that a call came from Mr. Roa, I was eagerly waiting for the busy clock to strike two thirty that afternoon.

The car came and I was taken to the prison, at the giant gates of which Mr. Roa was waiting to receive me.

Mr. Roa introduced me to the jail officials as we stepped in. Thereafter, I was taken to various departments where convicts of different categories were working in. a number of industrial sections run in the prison. I wasn't really interested in them all. For, I had therefore visited other gaols and knew the same stuff to be on the go in all the prisons. Except food, jails all over the country maintain the same pattern of rigging and working.

WhiIe moving about in the prison, I had requested Mr. Roa to permit me to meet Sri Ganpat the condemned prisoner, all alone, so that he may be able to speak to me without any reserve. Mr. Roa agreed to arrange that way.

At long last, I was taken to a row of cells segregated by four walls from the rest of the main prison. It was a jail within the jail as though, meant for confining dangerous and condemned prisoners.

The guard on duty there unlocked the iron gate and we got in. But before reaching the main cell where Sri Ganpat was lodged, the Superintendent left me there and specifically instructed the sepoy on duty to allow me to meet Sri Ganpat. He also ordered that sepoy to keep himself at a distance for the while I happen to be engaged in conversing with the prisoner, and he proceeded to his office. Strict jail rules don't permit such interviews. But somehow, Mr. Roa was taking his duties that lightly just to oblige me.

Sri Ganpat who had killed his father confessed his guilt and was sentenced to death. He was to face the noose some twenty hours later. I also learnt that besides Kannada, his mother tongue, he spoke English too fluently.

The guard conducted me to cell No. 5 where Sri Ganpat was kept and passingly said, "might be, the fellow is asleep. He should wake up anytime now."

I had imagined that the prisoner would either be seated or standing near the door of his cell, holding on to its bars, with a dejected face, perhaps repenting his actions and worrying about his near and dear ones. I fancied too that he might be thinking about what horrors of pain he would have to pass through in the process of being hanged.

I was wrong. I found Ganpat enjoying a sound nap. He had his head towards the door of his cell and was lying on his sides, bare bodied - with just a pair of pants on. There were swarms of flies settled on his face and body. But his limbs didn't ruffle and he didn't seem to be disturbed; for he was visibly fast asleep and audibly snoring. I forbade the guard from waking him up.

I hadn't to wait long. Sri Ganpat woke and sat up, stretched his hands upwards and side to lighten himself, yawned deeply and passed his palms over his face. He then rose briskly with a jerk and began pacing in his cell, softly humming an inaudible tune. He hadn't yet taken notice of my presence and I was silently admiring his stable spirit. Because the cellar wasn't well ventilated, I could not have a good look at his facial features.

I stilled myself and released friendly thoughts towards him and strongly willed that he should speak to me in English all about himself, no sooner I reached the threshold of his cell.

By a fluke, it worked. As I neared his cell, he responded. With an added admiration and delight, I was convinced that he was indeed in a stable spirits. For, when an individual is in an agitated mental state, with a heavy thought-traffic running helter skelter in his mind, he cannot receive the transmitted mental suggestions.

He offered salutations and said, "It is so nice of you, swamiji, for having cared to peep in on the eve of my departure from this physical existence. I am overwhelmed. Somehow, swamiji, I am stirred from within to narrate to you my simple case of patricide as a result of which I am now here awaiting to be transported to invisible regions - through what we call death. Have you time to hear me, swamiji? Please tell me."

His grip on the iron bars of the door tightened as he so entreatingly asked me. I was facing a young man of 28 years and he looked still younger then. Though he hadn't used more than seventyone words, on our first meeting, yet his pleasant tone, usage of select words and his measured style of speaking with appropriate movements of his head, eyes, shoulders and hands seemed to infuse life and liveliness to what he said and it signified that he was a balanced man of pleasant nature, quick to become friendly and dependably just and trustworthy. His square long nails and an evenly shaped long head also bore testimony to my above deduction.

I gave my ready assent and requested him to proceed.

Sri Ganpat began. "I come from a progressive town of Mysore where we have our agriculture farm. There I lived with my parents, my wife and two children. Ours was one of the compact, well-to-do and happy families in that town. My parents were a loving couple who liked each other and they loved me too, I being their only son and naturally also my good natured wife and our little kids. Everything went on fine.

"One day some nine months back, my mother fell ill and gradually her condition somehow began to worsen and despite specialised medical treatment, she passed away after being in bed for a month. All of us felt too sad losing a happy, humble, homely and a humorous lady under the shade of whose spontaneous love we were enjoying life.

"Exactly a month thereafter, I received a very strange and horrifying letter written in the hand of my late beloved mother on the night prior to her death. I couldn't believe; and as I ruminated over the contents of the same, bit by bit and connected what was said in it, with the past happenings at my home, it began to make sense to me and it struck me as being wholly true."

"I know not why, swamiji, I am beginning to feel an inexplicable pull towards you even as one feels towards one's kin. So, when this evening I meet my wife. I shall instruct her to show you that letter."

Reproduced on the facing page is the letter of Ganpat's late mother, duly translated from the original Canarese. To preserve privacy, I have only changed the names of persons.

" Dear Son,

On the eve of my departure from this physical world, I have some serious things to tell you. Read this my letter carefully and remain level-headed. Don't be surprised or shocked; complex, as human life is, many such events happen and it behoves us to tackle them tactfully.

''You will certainly recall the frequent visits of Kokila to our house for the past two years. Somehow, your father began cultivating love for that partially mad girl and it culminated in Kokila becoming pregnant. Her poor parents had to be paid lots of money by your father and they managed to bring about an abortion and the matter was hushed up that way and Kokila stopped visiting our house.

Yet, your father was pining for Kokilas company and he was prepared to become a Muslim even, If only he could soon marry her. But her parents didn't consent to that lowly proposal. Here at home your father began treating me as an out cast woman. Because his liking for me had frozen and because also he happens to love Kokila and is all out to make her his wife, I felt that my voluntary exit from his life would pave a way for his remarriage with her. I thought over the matter from all angles and I find that through such a course alone can I help your father to solve the problem easily and quickly. After all, it is the sacred duty of a Hindu wife to faithfully live for the pleasure of her husband and die for his cause if a situation warrants. The twin effect of my move would also usher happiness in the life of the exploited and innocent Kokila; besides, it would abundantly relieve her poor and worried parents.

With this idea in view, I began consuming poison in little doses and fell ill and as planned, I shall presently be taking the final large dose and reach the invisible realms to fare there as I may be destined to. I resorted to this mode of solw death in order that my death may be viewed as normal and there may be no disgraceful gossip about it.

Now my son, wipe the tears off your face and take it easy. Please bear in mind that I am leaving in the firm hope that out of natural love and affection for me and for the sacred purpose for which I am laying my life, you will treat Kokila with consideration and love her to the same degree as you loved me, your darling mother.

I feel happy that my departure will build a bridge of happiness in the lives of the two dear souls.

Good bye to you all.

Your departing mother,

'Saroj'

"You will see from the letter, swamiji, what a magnanimous heart my late mother possessed. Women are generally jealous, but she proved to be an unique exception. She shortened her life that way so that Kokila and my late shameless father may both be happy. What a vision of life! What a sacrifice! Hindu ladies alone are capable of this type of sacrificial love for their husbands. It is a pity that from ages past we find these tender qualities of women being exploited by the mean and dominating males. Women are unjustly ordered by these skunks to treat them like Gods while they themselves behave like brutes. I am beginning to feel that women will soon emerge as a revolting force and humble their perverse counterparts and teach them some basic lessons in fair behaviour towards them who can be truly likened to oases in the deserts of men's life.

"As for Kokila, she was aged thirty two and happens to be a daughter of a primary school teacher who lives next to our house. Because Kokila's parents aren't well-to-do and also because she has no brothers, she could not be married. Thus, starved of natural appetites right till that age, the unlucky lady was afflicted with a little insanity.

''After the passing away of my mother, I came to know later, that Kokila's parents approached my father with a proposal that he marry their daughter. My father kept them lingering on false hopes and in the meantime got himself entangled, I am ashamed to say, in a fresh affair. This time it was with a widow of means who had no encumbrances. He also started drinking. Such a degenerate change in that middle age of his was revolting and it humiliated me.

"Anyway, I caused appeals and persuasions to be made to him through friends that he marry Kokila. All failed. I myself talked to him and implored him to honour my late mother's last wish. But he brusquely brushed me aside and warned me not to act wise and meddle in his personal interests. As a punishment, he deleted my name as a beneficiary from his last will. I didn't mind that and didn't also give up. I brought holy men to pump little sanity into his head which was blocked to reason and considerateness. He bluntly refused to hear anyone on that issue. For some days I remained nonplussed and then my indignation rose irrepressibly to a stubborn sense of vengeance.

"From then, I myself lost all interest to continue living as a son of such an impure man - morally so depraved. So, I planned to deal with him differently; in a manner in which bad-minded people who are not amenable to sensible way of life need to be relentlessly dealt with.

But before dealing with my lewd and drunkard father, I had a sacred duty to perform; the next best I could do in obedience to my late mother's last command and that was to get Kokila married to someone else."

"I have heard it said :-

"There's nothing you can't with money do,

Those without money are worthy of rue.

Money can surely do whatever we want,

USE IT and solve problems which haunt."

"Hadn't my father amply proved it by covering with money the result of his sinful conduct with poor Kokila?"

"I had personal properties which I had inherited from my maternal uncle also. From that, I transferred twenty acres of rich land with standing crops to the name of Kokila and made her rich enough to be acceptable as a bride and it didn't take me long to find a suitable groom for her. In order that their future relationship as husband and wife may not be strained, I made it very plain to the groom that his bride to be, was an unfortunate victim to pregnancy which was later converted into miscarriage. The prospective suitor waived it all as do people of liberal views and solemnly pledged not to remind Kokila of that sordid affair at any stage of their married life and embarrass her thereby".

In due time, everything was finalized and Kokila was formally married and se went to her husband's place to lead a happy domestic life."

"Thereafter, I made necessary arrangements and got different transfer deeds prepared in respect of my landed properties in the name of my wife and children. That done, one evening I took them all to my in-laws' place in a nearby town and on the pretext of going elsewhere I returned home. At an opportune time that very evening I stabbed my father to death right in the presence of the innocent lady who had happened to arrest his attention and with whom his marriage was to be registered on the morrow".

"As I said earlier, I had lost all interest to continue to live because of my father's bad conduct, his blunt refusal to accept Kokila whose life he had almost ruined and also for having caused my loving mother to cut short her happy life. As such, I murdered my father to avenge the injustice he had done to my mother, to the expectant Kokila and to her frustrated parents."

"I was arrested and I openly admitted to having killed my father. I did not think it proper to disclose the truthful cause which gravely provocated me to take that step. Fully prepared to face te consequences of my free act, I offered myself to be dealt with according to law."

"As expected by me, I incurred the displeasure of my paternal uncles too. From the situation then, they stood to gain material profits from my father's last will and hence they also worked hard to procure for me the highest penalty. Because I chose not to defend myself by disclosing my mother's suicide and my father's twin crimes as motivating factors leading me to commit patricide, I was inevitably sentenced to be hanged to death."

"lam not in the least sorry for what I have done and I have not the least doubt in my mind that it is not at all sinful to do away with the foul-minded people who revel in wrecking the lives of others and heartlessly exploit goodness."

"Whatever I may be in the weak eyes of the society at large, in the eyes of those who know my case, I shall stand clear as an individual who braved the noose for a just cause."

"I thank you swamiji for having so patiently heard me at such length. It is not my claim that I feel lighter now, for, I have never felt heavy over what I have done. I simply laid myself bare before you, quite involuntarily and I feel nothing about it. Please don't treat this as an airy assertion."

Sri Ganpat's tragic story ended and there was a call from the Superintendent's office that he was wanted there. Two sepoys carefully brought him out of the cell, got him handcuffed and marched him off to the office. I also followed.

At the Superintendent's office his handcuffs were removed and he was told that his wife and children had come to meet him.

Minutes later, his wife came into the office along with her two children. They were all naturally sad looking. Gouri Devi, the wife of Sri Ganpat almost trembled with emotions rising from within her. But somehow, she controlled herself. The weeping children had to be affectionately silenced by Mr. Roa.

Sri Ganpat gave his wife some philosophical hints as a piece of parting message so that she may live as peacefully as he had mentally prepared himself to face the scaffold.

We happened to come together by some past ties. All the 'GIVE & TAKE' involved having been fulfilled, we now part as per nature's scheme. Know this to be the principal scene on the stage of human life; and wisely refrain from ever grieving over our inevitable separation.

For the while you happen to live in this physical world, go about your calls of life with a rational detachment and always act according to the prudent counsels of your conscience; remain impervious too to what the ignorant society might say.

Be friendly with all and more so with the down-trodden, and yet, abandon not yourself to the blinding emotions and sentiments. If you can do all this, you will have lived productively and you too will enjoy mental peace.

Train our children that they may also grow up to love natural justice and prove to be humanitarian in their general conduct.

And lastly, should these children ever ask you about me, as they grow up, you will openly tell them the circumstances which prompted me to bravely forsake my life for a noble cause-a case for them also to feel proud about.

After that, with both his hands raised up, he blessed his wife, saying:-

"MAY THE LORD CONFER UPON YOU ABILITIES AND INSIGHT TO FOLLOW WHAT I HAVE THOUGHTFULLY SAID AND ENABLE YOU ALSO TO GROW MENTALLY STRONG AND PROGRESS SPIRITUALLY. AMEN."

That over, out of humanitarian consideration, the prison Superintendent permitted Sri Ganpat to caress his children and feed them some eatables. Gouri Devi then knelt at his feet; paying her last respects to a courageous and just husband. He raised her and wished them all good-bye.

The touching and regardful interview was over. I thanked Mr. Roa, embraced Sri Ganpat, the condemned prisoner and returned home.

ATMADEVJI AND AMARSINHJI

"For the second time during this week, I am experiencing a strange urge to visit Adityana, to meet Yogini Devi. Please, swamiji, I beg of you to take me to her" thus implored Sri Amarsinhji, my royal host, one early morning during my stay in his orchard.

"You must have been thinking of Adityana and Yogini Devi quite often and that could be the reason why you feel being drawn to go there," remarked I and added, "I myself have not gone there again and I have always felt that it isn't nice to impose ourselves upon those who for their personal reasons are living in obscure and solitary places - cut off from human contact."

"I appreciate your wise views swamiji; the position is, though I had also been thinking very many times about your verbal narrations giving captivating information with regard to saints in the Gir jungles, yet I haven't felt the sort of pull which is impelling me to go to Adityana and hence the request," explained the prince.

I didn't want to launch myself on a rambling just to satisfy what I thought was the flighty fancy of my friend and so, I casually dismissed the whole thing.

On the next day, to my surprise, the good-natured erstwhile potentate informed me that in an advisory dream he was ordered by some invisible voice to go to the Adityana hill top. With visible vehemence he entreated me to take him there.

As an individual, my host wasn't impulsive by nature and he wasn't religious in the general orthodox term either. He was certainly a believer though not a serious aspirant of God realisation. He happened to be essentially an indoor loving person with scant interest for adventure and I didn't know if he could negotiate the steep climb to the summit of the Adityana hill. I myself did not desire to take up the trip, for I somehow began to feel that Yogini Devi might not be there.

That very afternoon, after his usual siesta Sri Amarsinhji came up to me and said. "Swamiji, further to my last night's dream, when just now I woke up from my short nap, I had a vision of the entire Adityana hill and on the threshold of the temple there, sighted an old saint with grey matted-locks and flowing beard. I also distinctly heard him reciting the following Vedic supplication:—

"May my limbs and speech, prana, eyes,

ears, vitality and all the senses gain in

strength. The entire existence is the all-

pervading supreme-spirit of the Upanishads.

May I never reject the supreme-spirit, nor

the supreme-spirit deny me. May there be

no denial at all; let there be no denial on

my part atleast. May the virtues enume-

rated in the Upanishads be in me, who is

devoted to the soul; may they reside in me."

OM PEACE - PEACE - PEACE.

"Now, this should be a sufficient ground for you to believe that I am not trying to be whimsical," added Sri Amarsinhji, quite persuasively.

He had never before reported to me any such experiences in clairvoyance, clairaudience or telepathy and hence, I saw some invisible scheme behind his sudden and stray experience. I could not dodge or refuse. So, I asked him to get ready by the evening to proceed to Ranavav, the nearest railway station to Adityana hill, in Saurashtra.

Accordingly, he got ready, but his wife and relatives came in the way of his leaving home on that very day. They reported to him only then that his dearest daughter was laid down with severe fever and doctors suspected that it might lead to typhoid. As he had been camping with me in the orchard itself, as was usual with him during my visits to his place, he did not know earlier about his daughter's illness. His people also did not inform him about it lest it should break the continuity of his stay with me.

Sri Amarsinhji was naturally upset over the obstacle to our going ahead with our programme. He prayed to the gracious God, "May that invisible power which granted me the blissful vision of Adityana hill and the saint in the temple thereon, cure my baby here and now: so that I can feast my eyes with a personal meeting of the saint tomorrow morning and be so blessed."

To the relief and joy of all, Sri Amarsinhji's teen-aged Anuradha was completely free from fever and the bewildered medicos too were satisfied that there would be no relapse.

When he prayed, he must have firmly held and maintained the belief that what he willed would soon materialise and will be an actuality within the time limit set by him. This is the positive attitude which makes prayers productive.

Ultimately, we left for and reached Ranavav by road and we sent back the roadster.

A few furlongs away from the railway station are two popular caves considered to be holy. One of them, it is believed, leads right upto Junagadh passing through Gir jungles. As it became out of use during the British regime, different portions of that long cave is under occupation by spiritual aspirants pursuing their Yogic practices - segregated from the society and not depending on the householders for maintenance. It was in one of them that we chose to spend the night. Because my friend was not used to mosquito bites and hard surface to sleep upon, I myself had to forgo sleep right till 3 a.m. to give him company and we spent the major part of the night in wakefulness. We could have gone to some of our mutual friends in Ranarav for the night halt, but, for personal reasons, my companion didn't want his movements to become public; as such, he insisted upon the hard way and suffered sleeplessness and stings.

Around dawn, I woke up Sri Amarsinhji. He took quite sometime to shake off drowsiness and thereafter he told me of yet another very interesting dream. Said he, "I saw the bearded saint emitting blue light and levitating; a little after that, his body settled on the ground and I very clearly saw his subtle body projecting and travelling hither and thither high up the temple dome. Before I could see what further happened, I was shaken to wakefulness."

In the past forty eight hours, Sri Amarsinhji had come by wonderful experiences. Some individuals at times become susceptible to such psychic sensitiveness.

It was a little before sunrise that we could go up to the foot of the hill to commence climbing. There were no regular tracks and my bulky bodied chum was finding it hard to follow me. To ease his burden, I asked him to pass his bag over to me. He didn't do so. After I went up a few feet and got a good foot-hold, I stretched my hands and dragged him up. That way, it was at a snail's pace that we were moving. I had to repeatedly tell my friend not to look back. He seemed to want to take courage from the distance which had already been covered, while I wanted him just to restrict his sight to the immediate pace lying ahead of us; awaiting to be covered. We were finding it pretty hard and I expected my companion would soon give up the pursuit. I was wrong. He stood marvelously well, all the difficulties we were facing - having to perch ourselves on precarious points now and then; a slight slip from there could have landed us to the rocky bottom, and caused us fatal multiple injuries.

As we were thus pressing ourselves upwards, we noticed clouds gathering in the sky and gradually thickening. We had till then covered a little less than half the distance only. It began to drizzle and we kept on moving unmindfully. All of a sudden, however, there were showers followed by heavy down-pours. We were drenched. The water-proof bag which my friend was carrying was the only item wherein water had not found its way. Caught up that way, we had to remain seated for the while it rained-getting more wet and at the same time dodging some big stones which were washed off from top and which came rolling downwards in our direction.

It was what we may call one of the pre-monsoon rains and as such, it didn't last long. But for the while it did rain, it had rained well alright. Our upward movement was going to be much more strenuous. We continued going up and found it very difficult. Still we kept on trudging. My associate was gasping with each forward step. The clouds hadn't yet dispersed and the prospects were that it might rain again anytime. Before it did so, hindering our onward climb, we had to hurry and reach our destination.

We hadn't gone too far, when Sri Amarsinhji slipped and he, in the hope of avoiding a fall, suddenly grasped my right foot; with the result, unable to stand the force on my foot, I also slipped and we both tumbled like the Jack and Jill who went up the hill - and sustained bruises on several parts of our bodies. It took us an hour to collect ourselves from the bad fall -which luckily for us, didn't prove serious. From the point where we had landed as a result of the fall, it almost meant a restart and yet my comrade wasn't discouraged. He proved that he didn't belong to the class of those who didn't undertake any work for fear of coming by obstacles or to that category of people who give up at the cropping up of the first hindrance. He wanted to belong to that unique section of individuals who stick to their pursuits resolutely despite impediments. In that, I must say, he was admirably successful.

The clouds disappeared and the welcome sun-light began to pervade all over. We felt happy over the change. We drank a little water from the tin bottle which we had carried with us and resumed climbing. We moved with the cautiousness of the fallen and by about two hours reached the hill top - our mysterious destination at 10-30 a.m.

What Sri Amarsinhji had seen with his inner eyes from the distant orchard was true. From the farther end of the hill, we could see the figure of an old saint seated in an erect pose. The venerable one was facing the direction by which we were approaching and his eyes were closed.

My past memories of the place were instantly roused to feelingful freshness and I found the place as it was when I had last visited it with no material change excepting the accompaniments of variance of the then season. I also felt light and buoyant as one does when in a place of strong spiritual currents.

We walked on our toes slowly and seated ourselves at a respectable distance before the silent saint who was perhaps in a session of communion with the self then.

With the amazement and joy of one experiencing something for the first time, by signs Sri Amarsinhji drew my attention to the lemon yellow nimbus enveloping the upper part of the saint's shoulders - circularly covering his head. Then, writing on his left palm,' my friend also informed me that he could see a fine combination of the colours of rose slightly tinged with light purple. The combination of colours of such an aura, be tokened intellectuality and spiritual love for mankind and other beings. It is this combination of hallow which is easier to see clearly.

Because of the irrepressible delight over his vision having come true, coupled with the impatient desire to converse with the saint, Sri Amarsinhji's strong feelings at once established subtle relationship with the saint. This could have been the sole reason for his having had a glimpse of the saint's aura. For, normally, only individuals of measured spiritual attainments alone can easily and clearly visualise auras of living- beings and objects and know their general dispositions and their nature respectively enabling one to deal with them all discriminatively.

The saint opened his eyes and casually smiled. There was nothing in his countenance to suggest that he was surprised by our visit. We bowed by way of offering our respects. He didn't react in anyway. He appeared to be still in a state of absent-mindedness.

A little while later, he spoke. ''Your visit adds to my delight. You both seem to be tired - having had to weather the very recent rains. Remove your clothes, dry them on the trees, have a wash and relax."

We obeyed. Thereafter, perhaps in adherence to the wise rule "WHEN WHAT-THEN THAT," Sri Amarsinhji opened his bag and served sumptuous eatables in three paper dishes. The three of us began to eat. The gusto with which the saint partook of the refreshments, made us feel that he might not have had anything to eat for quite long. 65 Because my friend was anxious not to lose much time in trifles and the saint himself was not in a mood to recline or rest, we did not follow the first half of the next rule which lays down. "AFTER LUNCH REST A WHILE."

With a view of making us feel more free with him, the saint himself started speaking. He said, "I am here since the evening before last, waiting to meet Yogini Devi. She is nor present and should return anytime unless she is held up by some other devotees."

Now that my friend got an opportunity to speak, he right away questioned if it was for the first time that the saint would be meeting Yogini Devi. The saint said that he was atop the hill for the third time and that he had met Yogini Devi on two previous occasions.

Sri Amarsinhji next asked as to how he happened to first come in touch with Yogini Devi. To this, the saint said, "you have asked me a complex question and I shall have to give you my family background first to furnish you with a clear picture as to how I was also circumstanced to be associated with Yogini Devi. This I feel would obviate your questions on the point, from multiplying. For your convenience I shall speak in English.

Sri Amarsinhji thanked the saint for his considerateness and casually informed him that I also knew English. The saint warmed up and proceeded further, beginning thus : —

"I was born and bred in a village of Punjab. I had five paternal uncles."

'"My parents also believed that due to some ancient curse on the family, there took place two miscarriages in the household of two of my paternal uncles and my mother herself suffered one. This notion of the curse made each and every one of them apprehensive that unless something was done, the family lineage would become totally extinct."

"With a view to ward off such a distressing situation, therefore, my eldest uncle, it seems, consulted a great Tantrist of Kashmir and got special talismans prepared by him. My uncle was informed by the Tantrist that if all the brothers took a vow to offer their third male child to the family preceptor or at his suggestion to any saint, for ordaining the child as an ascetic when of suitable age, the future progenies would survive and prosperously live long."

"Somehow, very wondrously enough and to the satisfaction and jubilation of all the talisman worked desirably well - all the issues of my uncles and my two brothers and a sister even survived."

"I happened to witness the initiation ceremony of the third sons of my first two uncles. They became the disciples of a then popular monk in Punjab."

"I was the fifth child and the third male issue in the family and as I was also to be given away, my parents felt that I should be well educated so that I may be useful to society as a broad-visioned religious preacher. Accordingly, I was given the best of education- a privilege which was willfully denied to other brothers because they were required only to till the lands. During my college days, I was made to go to a learned pandit of Arya Samaj for learning extra lessons in Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures."

"After I passed out of the college, my parents, I know not why, wanted to back out of their pledge so solemnly made by them and they were preparing to get me married. Before they could proceed ahead, somehow, my health began to go bad and I grew paler day by day. Doctors could not detect any disease in my body-they couldn't explain as to what caused the shrinking and loss of weight in me".

"One night, Yogini Devi appeared in my mother's dream and directed her to hand me over to one Anand Devji for being initiated in the uplifting teachings and techniques of spiritual practices. My parents didn't know who that Anand Devji was and where to search for him. As they were in such a quandary, I am told, Anand Devji revealed himself in my father's dream and ordered him to be ready for the ceremony on the full-moon day of the ninth month (Hindu) of the year."

"My repentant parents decided to obey the mysterious command and during the intervening three months, began to make elaborate preparations on grand scale, to give me away to the charge of Sri Anand Devji."

"I longed to meet Anand Devji and one day, with the help of one of my cousins who was also already a monk, I chanced to meet Anand Devji in Hardwar. As he had consciously appeared in my father's dream, he seemed to know everything about my dad and myself. He blessed me kissing on my forehead. I felt electrified and from thenceonwards my health began to improve and the subsequent sixty days began to add blood, flesh and weight to my physical body."

"My faith in and reverence for Sri Anand Devji increased and I was eagerly looking forward to that august day when I was to formally surrender myself at the feet of my spiritual master."

"Days passed on and on the eve of the appointed day, Sri Anand Devji came to our village in the company of a few saints and on the following day I was ceremoniously given away with, great pomp and show and was christened as Atma Dev. The entire village people, relatives and friends from out-stations were all invited to lunch. The poor were also fed and gifts in kind and cash were given to them."

"Sri Anand Devji and party camped in our village for the whole of monsoon and they gave inspiring spiritual discourses everyday. After the monsoon was over, I also left with them, for cultivating and developing first, brotherhood with all beings on earth, so necessary for higher spiritual growth."

"My preceptor Sri Anand Devji has visited Yogini Devi quite often. I came here once in the company of my spiritual guide and on - another occasion all by myself."

Sri Atma Devji concluded recounting the interesting and mysterious details of his initiation into the ascetic order and how also he came to be associated with Yogini Devi.

One fact which conspicuously emerges from the sensational events in the life of Sri Atma Devji is that, just as a sensible gardener who tends the rich flower plants with extra care, transferring them to better and safer beds that they may grow to full unhindered and spread their fragrance, even so, nature, the supreme resourceful gardener also sees to it that deserving individuals get suitable avenues to blossom spiritually. Nature's glorious law is :.—"PROPER FACILITIES, IN A PROPER MEASURE, FOR A PROPER PERSON AT A PROPER TIME."

It is almost customary with the Hindus to put lots of questions whenever they meet any holy person. How nice and profitable would it be if people learnt to remain silently open before saints and carefully listen to what the holy persons might want to say? SILENCE ENERGISES AND REVEALS HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE - we may yet know.

Our Sri Amarsinhji wasn't an exception. He had a good many questions to ask and they were all noted in the diary which he had also brought with him. He had read an abundant deal on religion. Yoga and philosophy and yet wasn't capable of independent thinking. As such, like all tolerable seekers of bookish knowledge, he was also used to asking lots of questions whenever he came in touch with saints or religious preachers. One thing which .happens to be good about him is, he always asked intelligent questions, in a suave style and manner. In his desire to know the different angles of view of different learned men, on a particular set of pertinent questions, one always found him asking for the replies to the same chain of questions and he also happens to maintain a diary of all the replies so got. He had met a good number of saints and should all the recorded talks with them were to be put to print, they would run into a few big volumes.

Sri Amarsinhji requested Sri Atma Devji to permit him to put some questions. The saint at once consented to tackle them.

Following are the fifty two from the garland of questions - given in the hope that Sri Atma Devji's replies to them all, dear readers, might also add to your knowledge and activate you all to develop a rational outlook :-

Amarsinhji:(1) Are human beings reborn as human beings after death?

Atma Devji:.... Not necessarily. They may be reborn even in different species according to their respective latencies. Though such lower births are very difficult to ascertain, in the Hindu mythological works there are umpteen instances of human beings having been reborn as animals, birds and fishes.

Amatsinhji:(2) Are males reborn as males in subsequent births also?

Atma Devji:....Yes-for three to seven births. But yet, this is not a rigid rule. Males with a predominant feminine tendencies may be reborn as females and females with intense male traits as males. Some of the authenticated cases of rebirths point to this factual view.

Amarsinhji:(3) How long does it take for a departed personality to be reborn?

Atma Devji:.... Nothing definite can be said about this. There are instances of both distant and late births. There is a school of thought which maintains that it takes about 500 to 1000 years to be reborn as human beings.

Amarsinhji:(4) Where do the discarnate souls reside till they are allotted fresh physical vestment?

Atma Devji:.... They inhabit the ordinary astral spheres.

Amarsinhji:(5) Are souls ever reborn in the same family ?

Atma Devji:.... Sometimes yes-if the past ties happen to be of an intense degree of fondness for all the members of the family.

Amarsinhji:(6) Is it at all possible for a soul to be reborn with the same features in every minutest detail, in the same family or elsewhere?

Atma Devji:.... Even such freaks of nature are recorded truths.

Amarsinhji:(7) Can souls be reborn in a different country and in families professing faith for different religions?.

Atma Devji:....We do hear of such cases too.

Amarsinhji:(8) When one deeply grieves over the death of one's near and dear one, does one, by so lamenting, hurt the departed personality and hinder its onward progress?

Atma Devji:.... Yes it can happen so - particularly in cases of souls which remember the details of their immediate previous life.

Amarsinhji:(9) Can our prayers for the well-being of the departed souls do them any good there?

Atma Devji:....The departed souls whether good or bad happen to reach such invisible planes where there are other powerful sympathetic souls already in attendance to see to their onward welfare. As such, our prayers are not at all necessary and truthfully speaking, our feeble feelings can't reach higher spatial altitudes. Analogically said, a relative who has proceeded to U.S.A. on an employment voucher, doesn't need our help from India. On the contrary, he can help us from there should he so care. Still however, our fine sentiments help to cleanse our minds of accumulated impurities.

Amarsinhji:(10) From what you have stated I take it that the customary rituals performed in the dark half of the eleventh Hindu month - during which period cooked food-stuffs are offered to the departed souls, don't also reach them.

Alma Devji:.... Yes - it is quite so.

Amarsinhji:(11) Is it possible to meet dead relatives in the astral planes, where, it is held that all souls invariably pass on to?

Atma Devji:.... That would largely depend upon the nature of our love for each of them - whether just physical or spiritual. If our love has been predominantly physical, I mean, love for sport and pleasure alone, we would meet them in the physical world sooner or later if they too happen to be earth-bound souls. In exceptional cases of love in the spiritual sense of true belonging, souls with whom we had past ties can be met in the astral world.

Amarsinhji:(12) Are sufferings transferable? I mean can anyone take over the effects of another person's actions?

Atma Devji:.... Generally it is not possible. The very desire in an individual that someone else should bear the burden of his actions, carries with it lack of love for natural justice and human courage in a person who so desires. Therefore, for a person of such a mean bent of mind, no one would come forward to help. This unreasonable and escapist desire is never fulfilled. A soul of wise and noble character would want to pay up every debt. In exceptional circumstances however, great souls can and do intercede and take upon themselves the effects of another's karma, if by their so doing, they feel, it would accelerate the spiritual progress of an erring soul. Any person who so deserving receives such a help, we must bear in mind would sin no more.

Amarsinhji:(13) What should one do to keep out the pestering bad dreams?.

Atma Devji:....Noble and uplifting thoughts should be allowed to rule one's wakeful state and thus build an auric wall to prevent bad and evil dreams from gaining entry.

Amarsinhji:(14) To what extent do human beings enjoy free-will?.

Atma Devji:.... Factually speaking, to the vast many people there is no such thing as free-will. All of them go on as fettered slaves to the consequences of actions thoughtlessly performed. It is only advanced souls who enjoy free-will and that is because they happen to be free from animality.

Amarsinhji:(15) Do you think that complete renunciation of worldly life is absolutely necessary for spiritual progress?

Atma Devji:.... When renunciation is the result of serious dispassion from the cumulative karmic influences of the past lives, such renunciation is certainly commendable and would be conducive to spiritual progress.

Amarsinhji:(16) What are the advantages of cremation of Hindus as compared to the universal practice of burial resorted to by people throughout the world?

Atma Devji:.... Apart from preventing contamination of earth, cremation of the dead bodies obviate the possibilities of revival through possession by discarnate personalities.

Amarsinhji:(17) Have you yourself come across cases of discarnate souls taking possession of dead bodies?.

Atma Devji:....Yes. I know of a teacher from Hoshiarpur district in Punjab having come to life five hours after he was declared dead. After resurrection, his behaviour was radically different. He read, spoke and composed in Bengali and couldn't speak Punjabi at all. He wasn't accepted by the people who were related to that body. After one month, he committed suicide - frustrated because he was not owned even by his past living relatives in Delhi.

Amarsinhji:(18) We come across persons claiming phychic experiences under the influence of Ganja, Cocaine and such like stimulative narcotics. Could it be really so ?

Atma Devji:.... In the fold of monks and fakirs, only the fifth class persons are found to indulge in such bad habits. And of them, it can be said that they are empty of higher experiences worth taking notice of. Amongst the householders who are addicted, they are not spiritual minded, as such, the question of their coming by any super experiences does not arise. In any case, sensitising the brain artificially with whatever type of stimulative drugs is not the way of the wise and it can be very injurious to the general nervous system.

Amarsinhji:(19) What mental and physical symptoms are the forerunners to self-projection?

Atma Devji:.... Normally, sudden feeling of complete inner relaxation overtakes an individual, accompanied by feeble pulse beats. Sometimes, the physical body may also bulge before the subtle body projects for an astral travel.

Amarsinhji:(20) It is said that women can attain God by adoring their husbands. What is your opinion in this regard?

Atma Devji:....This contention is not right. Cases are replete where women who worshipped their husbands and exclusively dedicated to them have suffered immensely. It is certainly desirable that husbands and wives should truly love one another and lead a united life of understanding, co-operation and consideration. Whatever might have been the position in the remote past, modern husbands who only wed for convenience, with no sense of respect for the tie, are not so worthy as to deserve to be adored like Gods.

Amarsinhji:(21) Is God realisation possible through serving the living beings without worshipping the so called Gods installed in the temples?

Alma Devji:..... Certainly yes. Faithful service to humanity augmented with humane conduct and detached attitude towards the issues of life are sufficient qualities qualifying one for God realisation.

Amarsinhji: (22) What are the manifest qualities of spiritually advanced souls?

Alma Devji:....By their general conduct and nature, they would prove to be, loving, simple, cheerful and helpful.

Amarsinhji:(23) It is generally held that saints resort to rude and abusive behaviour simply to ward off the hindering human crowd. Could this be correct?

Alma Devji:....NO - saints are habitually good-natured. They can never behave in a hurting manner. If it is to keep away the crowd, they can exercise their strong will - power and repel peoples' approach to them. In the case of budding monks who cannot mingle and at the same time remain single, they can always go and live in the jungles or mountains, cut off from human contact - subsisting on roots or edible herbs available there in plenty.

Amarsinhji:(24) We are told that it is only through the grace of preceptors that one can attain God. Do you agree with this view?

Atma Devji:.... Mercenary minded pseudo preceptors preach this way. The omnipresent God is accessible to me aspiring and he hasn't appointed agents to lead people to HIM.

Amarsinhji:(25) Is it your emphatic view, holy sire, that no guides are necessary in one's godward journey?

Atma Devji:.... Verily yes. The omniscient Lord is capable of uplifting all true seekers and those that are ready as a result of their past merits.

Amarsinhji:(26) Despite what your venerable self has presently said, we do come across individuals having made progress in the company of saints. The personal account of your life too points to such a gain. How would you reconcile this factual experience?

Atma Devji:.... There is no denying the fact that the company of the pure and the pious and as also the evolved ones is very helpful for the sustenance and growth of one's spiritual aspiration and progress. It is all the better if one comes by such elevating company in the ordinary course of events or is spontaneously drawn to some high souls. What I am trying to affirm is, there is no need to go on a hunt for a preceptor or get tied to any individual in the tradition way by paying fixed fees and passively expect to reach god-head.

Amarsinhji:(27) Pardon me sire. If I seek a little more elucidation; am I to understand that the major burden is to be shouldered by the individuals themselves and that spiritual masters are only placid prompters who can and do inspire sincere seekers?

Atma Devji:.... YES - YOU HAVE GOT ME RIGHT.

Amarsinhji:(28) Is knowledge of scriptures essential for kindling spiritual interest and for influencing the course of one's gradual progress in the field of higher evolution?

Atma Devji:....Being the living works of great seers and mighty sages of yore, they are certainly full of inspiring instructions and useful hints for seekers of all categories of mental and intellectual blend. Yet, for devotees of intense inner inclination, I mean the awakened souls, a thorough knowledge of scriptures is not essential.

Amarsinhji:(29)....Pray tell me sire, how do you define intense aspiration ?

Alma Devji:.... By it I mean a volcanic desire for achieving God. The erupting urge for attaining God above everything and not among other things.

Amarsinhji:(30)....From which particular mental state can it be positively said that spiritual life in an individual has begun?

Atma Devji....Spiritual life truly begins from the time an individual attains absolute mental equanimity; completely purged of all animal propensities.

Amarsinhji:(31) What is your conception of mental equanimity?

Atma Devji:.... An inner state free from anguish, agony, alarm and agitation.

Amarsinhji:(32) What are the principal causes of mental sufferings?

Atma Devji....According to Patanjali Yoga aphorisms, ignorance, egotism, infatuation, hatred and fear of death are what give birth to sufferings.

Amarsinhji:(33) Could it be true that in the royal assembly of Kaurauas, Dushasana attempted to denude Draupadi, and such eminent personalities as Bhisma and Dronacharya etc., remained passive witnesses to such an outrage?

Atma Devji:... Even the vilest man of the present degenerate times, would voice his protest atleast - if at all not able to stop the dastardly act. It seems to me that in portraying such scenes, the poet is alluding to the truth that tongues don't easily rise against one's benefactors.

Amarsinhji:(34) Do you think that in the coming times, Hindus will also emerge as a powerful organisation akin to our Christian and Muslim brethren?

Atma Devji.... I am not an alarmist, but if the present state of affairs is any indication, the separatist natured religious heads of the Hindus were never united, aren't united and will never unite.

Amarsinhji:(35) How to control and cleanse one's mind?

Atma Devji:....First find out what conditions make it to go out of control and become unclean. Remove the causes and be in full control of a clean mind. Aggarwal's fine couplet puts it this way:--

"Mind your mind & watch him from behind,

Mind when watched would not bind,

When the self is the seer and mind the seen,

Oh! even the worst mind would become clean."

Amarsinhji:(36) Why do people worship the inert stone images of God? Isn't it the height of ignorance?

Atma Devji.... Don't worry about what people are doing. Be wise and start loving and respecting all living beings - the live manifestations of the invisible God.

Amarsinhji:(37) What are the immediate benefits of pilgrimage?

Atma Devji.....Seriously speaking, one can gain first hand experiences of how a few thousand big bellied priests of the various temples all over the country, fool, exploit and swindle the gullible, in the name of religion and God.

Amarsinhji:(38) Can we communicate with the dead ?

Atma Devji. ... Yes, provided the discarnate personality remembers its past relatives and wishes to establish contact with us.

Amarsinhji: (39) Can one contact them through mediums?

Atma Dnvji:.... If the departed soul truly loves one here on earth, there is nothing to prevent it from establishing a direct contact with the loved ones whom it remembers. Mediumship, planchettes and other processes employed by people are not always reliable. Effortful contacts with the departed is not the course of the wise who rightly know that they can always be misled by malevolent spirits trying to impersonate.

Amarsinhji:(40) A good many saints are not accessible to one and all. If at all we chance to meet one, we are not given an opportunity to freely discuss our problems with them. Why is it so?

At ma Devji:.... Those who are not accessible to one and all, we must know don't harbour spiritual love for all. Those who don't love one and all in every conceivable situation without any reserve, aren't worthy to be dignified as saints. Why then dog the heels of such pStfecJcT persons ? I must also add that it is expecting too much from saints that they should lend their ears to the petty problems of one and all.

Amarsinhji:(41) Could it be true that logins can bring about spiritual awakening in people by the process of transference of their personal power ?

Atma Devji.:.... II you mean the so called "SHAKTIPAT," it is all humbug-a mere hypnotic reaction to impress idiots and activate meaningless feats in them.

Amarsinhji:(42) Can anyone leave the tabernacle of the physical body by his free will, with the ease of passing out of an open room ?

Atma Devji..... Yes, advanced souls are capable of doing so. Such an one would draw the life force to the aperture in the crown of the head and depart from the body - as against the common happening of being pushed out by the attacks of diseases etc., as all ordinary beings are.

Amarsinhji:(43) Do you favour womens' education ?

Atma Devji:...Yes - our daughters must enjoy the benefit of being educated in all branches of learning, according to their aptitudes. Particularly so because they are the future mothers from whom the society has a right to expect intelligent off springs.

Amarsinhji:(44) Does this opinion of yours carry with it the suggestion that educated and intelligent couples shouldn't go in for family planning ?

Alma Devji:.... Allowing intelligent couples to be sterilised would be as foolish as not growing anything on fertile lands. I am in favour of a measure whereby intelligent couples should have progeny only after the age of thirty-the period when mental maturity begins to set in; and there should be compulsory vasectomy in case of illiterate classes of people at the age of thirty. Because the illiterates marry young, by the time they reach the age of thirty, they would be having three to four children on the average. These steps would keep the population problem in balance and at the same time prevent the loss of intelligent beings adding on to the society - to work for the country's progress.

Amarsinhji: (45) it is believed that because of the power of ancient spiritual influences pervading in India, spiritual practices are easier in this country than in other parts of the world. Is this your belief too?

Alma Devj:... It is not a matter of belief alone-but an accepted fact universally acknowledged.

Amarsinhji:(46) We complain of Christians converting Hindus. Aren't our Hindu monks and yogis who are established in various foreign countries converting the Christians to the Hindu fold?

Atma Devji:.... No. Our Hindu preachers and yogis are abroad by the wishes and call of our foreign brethren who evince interest in the lofty teachings of our most ancient religion. Unlike the Christian clergymen, our preachers have never practiced exploitation, coersion or derision in attracting Christians to the Hindu way of thinking.

Amarsinhji:(47) What is your opinion about men and women dancing mystically, producing vermilion and claiming that different goddesses manifest in them from time to time?

Atma Devji.... From what I have been able to observe in hundreds of cases all over the country, I am of the opinion that it is all sham. In many instances, I have found claimants to such divinity making a regular living out of such shows; they feign to be possessed, predict all nonsense and produce concealed vermilion. Of the rest, I have no doubt that spirits who in their past physical existence indulged in goddesses' worship, are attracted by hymns sung in praise of the goddesses and it is they the spirits who possess the physical bodies of the various individuals and falsely claim to be one of the different forms of goddesses and - induce the possessed ones to madly sway, dance predict and materialise things -generally vermilion. What is strikingly common in all such individuals professing divine visitations is, their noticeable day to day general behaviour is identical with that of ordinary people who are too full of common weaknesses. And hence, to believe that the divine principle would condescend to manifest in the persons of impure mental blend can only be compared to the foolish act of mortgaging one's rational thinking power.

Amarsinhji:(48) What are the qualities of illumined individuals?

Atma Devji:.....Some wise person has put it very beautifully in the following poem :—

"Illumined minds are those which see,

Beyond mere form and sophistry;

Who truth and knowledge daily find,

Who sense the good in all mankind.

And hating none, are free indeed,

From selfishness and pride and greed.

This state evolves from deep desire,

Is born of love's celestial fire,

And conscience thus awakened grows,

And through our minds the spirit flows."

Amarsinhji:(49) In the present age, we find even great leaders, dealers and the sundry evincing deep interest in predictive astrology. Is astrology really so dependable a science ?

Atma Derji:.... Because the human will is powerful enough to modify, mitigate or mend what is fated, the wise don't depend upon astrology; and we need not interest overselves over what the superstitious and the stupid, sheepishly believe.

Amarsinhji:(50) My grand-mother is a museum of diseases at her present age of eighty years. It is very distressing to watch her suffering unbearably. She herself is in favour of shortening her life. People at home oppose such a course. The law of the land of course treats such a step as suicide - a punishable offence. May I know your thoughts in this regard too?

Atma Devji:.... To take away life in any form is bad. The right course would be to take suitable measures to mitigate the degree of pain of the sickly. In these modern days, there are many means to temporarily alleviate pain need that no one need cut short anyone's own life with poison and thereby intervene nature's grand scheme of evolution.

Amarsinhji:(51) A young sister of mine lost her husband a month after her marriage. My orthodox grand-parents are opposing her remarriage. My sister herself desires to marry again and has an individual in view. What shall I do?

Alma Derji:.... Forget the convention, ignore the champions of narrow thinking and right away respect the tender feelings of your sister.

Amarsinhji:(52.) An abundant deal is being done all over by individuals and institutions for achieving universal peace and brotherhood. But no headway has been made in the direction of success. What formula would you suggest to establish harmony and fellow feelings throughout the world?

Atma Devji:....We needn't engage ourselves in such negative dreams of world peace and universal brotherhood. Times right from the beginning of creation stand testimony to the sad fact that human society on earth has been obsessed, is being obsessed and will be obsessed by the triple calamities of war, famine and epidemics. As such, all these talks of peace and brotherhood are mere empty words. Notwithstanding this unfortunately true position, the world will not be empty of individuals who are peaceful and are capable of practising genuine brotherhood.

Sri Amarsinhji had no more questions to ask. He had taken full ninety minutes, posing questions, listening to the replies and noting them down in Gujarati in his diary. Only the versified utterances of the saint were copied in English. Lastly, the prince thanked the saint, feelingfully bowed at his feet and offered him some gifts.

I must say that the venerable Atma Devji dealt with all the questions of Sri Amarsinhji, with characteristic calmness and clarity. But for Amarsinhji, I would not have been privileged to meet that evolved soul atop the Adityana hill. I too felt blest.

The three of us rose and were pacing hither and thither when all at once Sri Alma Devji stood attentively with his eyes closed. Perhaps an inaudible call sensible to him alone, prompted him to do so. A few minutes after that he opened his eyes and announced without comments, "Yogini Devi is not returning this evening - she mayn't be able to come before three more days," and walked off, casually wishing us a good-bye.

Because of the saint's leaving and also because nothing was certain about Yogini Devi's return, we too followed Sri Atma Devji and began descending and finally reached the foot of the hill before sun-set.

During the brief halt there below. Sri Amarsinhji entreated the saint to grace his orchard with a visit and halt there for some days atleast. The saint excused himself on the ground of other engagements. Sri Amarsinhji gave him his address with an express request to visit him later when convenient and asked for a parting message.

Like all mighty good souls, Sri Atma Devji also appeared to be so full of good and redeeming thoughts. But what appealed to me most about him was his self-less love to give more credit to the others by quoting their wise views oftener, as against exhibiting his own.

Sri Atma Devji instantly said that tt would be helpful for being ushered into higher horizons of spiritual consciousness, if we too affirming applied all the refined truths embodied in the following fine poem by Longfellow :—

"Tell me not in mournful numbers;

"LIFE IS BUT AN EMPTY DREAM"

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest;

And the grave is not its goal:

"DUST THOU ARE, TO DUST RETURNEST"

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Find us farther than today.

Art is long and time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

Trust no future, however pleasant !

Let the dead past bury its dead,

Act, act in the living present !

Heart within and God overhead !

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

and, departing, leave behind us

foot-prints on the sands of time;

Foot-prints, that perhaps another

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing shall take heart

Let us then, be up and doing.

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing

LEARN TO LABOUR AND TO WAIT."

THE MIDNIGHT MEAL

In the course of my week-long stay once at the famous Kamakshaya Temple in Assam, one Mr. Barua, from the distant Lumding District was also camping there then and we became friends with each other. A visit to the temple on every full-moon day was a must with Mr. Barua.

During our free hours, he talked to me on a good many interesting subjects including Assam and its hard working people. One day at the end of our talks, he pressingly invited me to visit his farm even if it be only for a few days' stay. He was such a lovable man that I couldn't refuse and that apart, I saw in it a chance to move about in the picturesque rural parts of Assam. So I agreed and we planned to leave on the very next day.

We boarded an early train and reached Lumding station from where his native village was less than two miles away. We covered that distance on foot and got to his farm in the after-noon on the same day.

Mr. Barua possessed ten acres of land only - in two pieces and they lay in different directions. On the six acre piece was his little farm. There were a good many fruit trees and the green ready crops in his farm then made the place too very attractive. Because there was no habitation near his farm and also because he and his wife alone lived there; not having been blessed with any children, the general atmosphere there was also peaceful.

Bath and meals over, we took a little rest and in the evening we went out for a stroll in the company of Mr. Barua's two friends. They were jovial young men who among other things told me a good deal about the fine qualities of Mrs. Barua. I was informed that she was the lone devotee of Krishna in Assam who did not take or cook non-vegetarian food. It appears that she was so strict about it that she never caught fish or allowed her husband to cook in the main kitchen. Her husband had to maintain a separate kitchen near the cattle shed and clean the place all by himself. Because all the village people were non-vegetarians, Mrs. Barua never ate at anyone's place. I was also told that she had so very much endeared herself to Lord Krishna, that occasionally, he appeared in times of her need to do such small things as - churning curds, stitching quilts and grinding flour etc., what I heard amused me. We returned home by dusk.

In the meantime, someone from an adjacent village came and informed Mr. Barua that he was urgently wanted there. Whatever for, wasn't mentioned. Mr. Barua left with that person, promising to return within a few hours.

As Mr. Barua didn't turn up right till nine. Mrs. Barua told me that there was no saying as to when her husband would return. For all she knew, he might not even show up before morn. And hence, she suggested that we eat our meals without waiting further. I had to agree.

Mrs. Barua first .set aside enough food for her husband and served the night meal for both of us and we settled to eat. Because she didn't know much Hindi or Bengali, she wasn't communicative.

After dinner, I spread my mat and a sheet over the raised bamboo platform in the courtyard and stretched myself on it, preparatory to sleep. Mrs. Barua fed the dog with the left overs, washed the utensils, prepared her bed and laid herself on it.

It was a pleasant moonlit night marred only by the obtruding hootings of the iil-omened owls, i didn't take long to fall asleep - with the friendly dog oi my host lying near my feet.

When perforce I woke up, disturbed by some thudding noise. I could hear movement around the verandha. Instantly I flashed my torchlight in that direction. There I saw broken pieces of an earthen pot, patches of white liquid and Mrs. Barua moving with a small basket in her hand. She didn't speak. That mute attitude of Mrs. Barua intrigued me. I put off the torch and remained seated on my bed. There were no signs of Mr. Barua having returned and the twin hands of the wall clock were exactly in north, ready to strike.

A little later, Mrs. Barua came out in the courtyard and as she was just a little away from me, I hailed her and asked, "Mrs. Barua, is anything wrong? She didn't reply. It was mystifying. I did not know as to what the matter with her was. She walked past the place where I was and headed on towards the small pond in their farm. In the countryside of Bengal and Assam, they usually maintain a pond in the courtyards of houses or in the farms, for rearing fishes for household consumption and sometimes for sales too.

I flashed the torch again and summoned her. There was no response. I went to the verandah and there in the corner I saw the place covered with the spilt curds from the broken pot. Not far from the portion which was used as a cooking place was Mrs. Barua's empty bed. The two doors leading to the interior of their cottage were securely locked. I didn't know what to make out.

I proceeded to the pond and there, to my utter bewilderment I found Mrs. Barua in the middle of the pond wherein was a little more than knee-deep water. I flashed the light on her and before I could say anything. I found in that light that her eyes were closed. I watched on.

Mrs. Barua bent forward with the empty basket in a swift scooping movement and quickly brought it out full with water. After the water dripped out of the basket, she collected whatever fishes came to be caught therein and transferred them to the big leather pouch hanging on her shoulder. Before each scoop for the catch, she dropped into the water kneaded balls of wheat flour to attract fishes to come close. She must have done about a dozen scoops. She then stepped out of the pond and walked in the direction of the cottage with her eyes still closed.

Without doubt, hers was another case of sleep walkers. The somnambulists behave involuntarily in sleep according to the inner promptings from their subconscious minds.

I followed her and stationed myself near the cooking place where Mrs. Barua emptied the pouch of its acquatic contents. They were all small, dazed and dead fishes of about two and a half inches long, by no means plump and collectively weighing about a pound.

While I could watch her actions only with the help of the night lamp there, Mrs. Barua did everything very naturally with closed eyes. She worked mechanically as an individual on a routine work during wakeful condition. From the close studies of other similar cases, I knew that her somnambulistic state would last atleast right till the time she stepped on to her bed. Because of this foreknowledge, I lingered on observing with interest her different acts.

Mrs. Barua got a handful of ash and rubbed that little heap of fishes with it and allowed them to dry for a while. She then got the condiments ready and started cleaning the fishes one by one with a knife, washing them quite a few times. That done, she added a little garlics and fried the lot in a pan on a oven. It was for the first time in my life that I was watching the cooking of fleshy food.

When it was ready, she allowed the cooked stuff to cool a bit and thereafter, opened the pantry, got out of it a few pieces of fried bread and began eating. She appeared to be relishing the dish. After she got through it, she washed the pan and the glass plate with hot water, dried them with a piece of cloth and replaced them on the racks. She then swabbed the place, belching now and then and as she was getting ready to step on to her bed, I whisked away from there and reached my place of rest and readied myself to sleep. For, I knew by earlier studies that Mrs. Barua would sleep and there wasn't going to be any more performance by her. She had been up for quite long and like others who are so afflicted, she too must be somnolent by then.

When I woke up next morning, I found Mr. Barua's cot still empty with no signs of having been slept upon. Mrs. Barua hadn't got up yet and their quadruped was faithfully patrolling the farm. I went out of the farm for the twin purpose of an early morning walk and answering nature's call.

When after an hour I returned, I could see Mr. Barua coming from a distance on a horse back and Mrs. Barua was circumambulating the fig tree in the courtyard \- generally indulged in by ignorant Hindu women who wrongly believe that the worshipping of a fig tree confers upon one, good gifts of life, particularly progeny and a long life for their husbands on whom they are so very much dependent.

No sooner did she see me than Mrs. Barua came running to me snarling and spat on my face and began angrily saying so many things in Assamese which made no sense to me.

I was naturally bemused and remained rooted to the place where I stood I didn't expect the good lady who some ten hours back treated me with much consideration and reverence would be so offensive without any cause for provocation from me and go to the extent of disfiguring my face with the moist matter from her mouth. From what I saw of her since the previous afternoon and not excluding her enigmatic somnambulistic feats of the past night, there was nothing to suggest .that she was mentally deranged or could be an occasional victim to an attack of brief lunacy.

As I silently stood there that way stupefied, Mrs. Barua came still closer, caught hold of my ear, reminding me of my school days and dragged me to the kitchen corner. It was then that her strange behaviour towards me began to unfold to me. It was possible, I felt, she suspected me of having cooked last night and also of having broken the earthen pot of curds. That accusation was natural because sleep walkers or those who work in sleep don't remember what they unconsciously do in that peculiar state.

I could hear the galloping horse hoofs speeding towards the farm. Mr. Barua was soon by my side and he forthwith ordered his wife to let go her hold on me and demanded her to tell him as to what had happened. She said something, cracking her knuckles and directed her husband to view the broken pot of curds, and the left over thorns of the fish.

Mr. Barua winked at me guardedly and with puckered brows made a show of scolding me for having behaved in that questionable way - putting them to considerable loss and annoyance. I felt glad that Mr. Barua knew about his wife's susceptibility to somnambulistic attacks. In that relieving knowledge I feigned guilty and begged pardon from both of them for the offence I had not committed.

It was with amusement that Mr. Barua and myself heard Mrs. Barua later complaining of heaviness of stomach because she was upset by my stealthy cooking in the verandah and eating and breaking the pot of curds. She was extremely vexed and refused to provide me with bathing facilities etc.

Because of the odd circumstances in which I stood accused of stealing and causing loss and having that way incurred the displeasure of my hostess who had otherwise treated me well earlier, I saw no fun in continuing my stay with the Baruas.

So, I requested Mr. Barua to permit me to leave. The helpless gentleman cut a very small figure and it was with a very heavy heart that he allowed me to go.

On the way to the railway station, he informed me that his wife was used to such attacks atleast twice in a year. In that state, I was told his wife used to catch fishes, cook and eat them. Sometimes she even stitched quilts, churned curds and ground grains. Mr. Barua also told me that because his wife happened to go through some sort of mechanical chanting of God's name and all that, like all others doing such things, she also falsely considered herself to be religious: and having read some of those fables replete in the Hindu epics, depicting God having worked in human form for the devotees, she also came to be known in her circles of friends and admirers as a gifted devotee for whom Lord Krishna sometimes churns the curds and extracts butter, stitches quilts and grinds grains. Whereas, in truth, she herself does all that in a somnambulistic state.

"At the suggestion of some foreign-returned friends," Mr. Barua proceeding further, said, "I took her to Calcutta for examination by a psychiatrist and I have been advised by him not to disclose to my wife anything about this disease, lest she gets a nervous shock. The psychiatrist has assured me in emphatic terms that he would undertake to cure her completely through positive suggestions after putting her to sleep hypnotically, if only I could take her to him within twenty four hours of her gaining normal consciousness after a subsequent attack. I have not done anything about it all these years; firstly because it hasn't so far come in the way of her normal life and secondly because it amuses me to find her making claims of Krishna's services to her. I don't think that there is anything wrong if even through this type of ignorance, love for the Lord is kept kindled.

"It is not always that I know of her midnight activities in sleep. So, whenever she complained of shortage of fishes in the pond, missing of food-stuffs from the pantry or signs of cooking at nights. I used to take upon myself all her nocturnal commissions. But when it comes to finding quilts stitched, curds churned, and grains ground. because I can't do such things, I allow her to maintain that Lord Krishna whom she propitiates, at times graciously attends to them.

"As for last night's happenings, swamiji, she swears that she very clearly saw you in a dream, moving about in the kitchen area where you had no business to go. And unluckily for you, I myself was not present. What has aggravated the situation is, she accidentally broke the curd pot and unusually enough did the cooking in the main kitchen, giving her the lead to consider that the place has been polluted for the first time in twenty years. All the foregoing circumstances apart, your personal presence in the farm made things easy for her to accuse you and you alone for all her unconscious acts.

"I am sincerely sorry, swamiji, for the indignities suffered by you in the hands of my afflicted wife. I entreat you to forgive us both." Having thus apprised me of the details, Mr. Barua left nothing for me to explain.

The train was a little late in arriving and I boarded it taking leave of my new friend in whose eyes tears rushed, blurring his sight momentarily. I asked him to forget the whole affair and waved him a good-bye as the train moved on.

YOUR HOLY GUIDES

I was travelling by the Calcutta Mail and at Wardha station, a comely looking person boarded my compartment - got his luggage stacked on the upper-berth, relieved the porter and sat by my side.

I had a feeling that I knew that gentleman. Yet, I couldn't place him right away. As I am not in the habit of picking up conversation with people, I didn't pry.

At Nagpur, the next station, where the train halted for half an hour, a friend came to see my co-passenger. They discussed purchase of coir materials from Kerala and my ears at once picked-up the voice of Swami Sri Anand Anand. I was intrigued. I gave my co-traveller a closer look up from top to toe. Finally, with my attempt to picture him without the plain clothes on his person, without the moustache and the well-kept hair on his head, I felt full well convinced that I was with a onetime brother monk. Normally, he himself would have recognised me had I myself been without beards and matted locks at that time.

Instantly I began to recall my pleasant and memorable association with him. He was affectionately addressed by a sobriquet of "DOUBLE ANANDJI". I did not know what to make out of his changed attire. As a monk, he was always known as one of strong willpower, firm determination and a good store of inner make-up to undergo all sorts of hardships and privations which wandering monks generally confront.

He was discriminative enough and when it o came to defending what he rightly thought to be true and just, he would never compromise. Very optimistic in his general attitudes, he had a special knack of doing things and having them done. He abhorred hate, hollowness, hypocrisy and haughtiness.

Because he happened to look upon inconsistencies in individuals and institutions with a violent indignation, many people both in the fold of monks and householders wrongly took him to be a critical fault-finder, without trying to understand his representations - or to know that he didn't lack softness to notice and to appreciate good things and good people whenever he came by.

Something very strong must have constrained him to defect from the ranks of the ochre-robed. As I was thus mentally reminiscing, Sri Double Anandji's visitor took leave and the train left.

My good friend brought out of his bag "MEDITATION & PRAYERS" by Mother and began to read. I felt glad that for whatever reasons he might have had to bid good-bye to the monastic order, he still harboured love for finer things which help one to rise above mental limitations.

I could no more restrain myself-the temptation to surprise him by my identity strongly possessed me. Yet I controlled myself with marshalled determination and ardently affirmed not to talk to him for another six hours - not before the train reached Raipur. I am used to snatching opportunities to test myself now and then and train my little mind not to succumb to the onslaughts of temptations. Before so resolving, however, I first satisfied myself from the details in the reservation card that my co-passenger was also to travel farther than Raipur.

Ours was a small cabin with just two berths and we were all to ourselves. After quite sometime, he opened his food-packet and requested me to share something from it. I said nothing to him and he didn't seem to mind my silent refusal. After he had finished eating, he casually asked me if I was observing silence. I ignored him. He then drew close to me, shook me bodily and shouted in my ears, ''are you hard of hearing, swamiji? Where are you bound for?" I remained silent. My quietness puzzled him but he didn't bother me any more.

Time passed on and it was only when the train had left Raipur railway station I realised that I had to surprise the ex. Sri Double Anandji. I turned to him; he was sipping coffee. I allowed him to finish it. Then, extending my hand to him, I said, "shake hands with your friend Krishnanand" That single sentence made him spring up and he hugged me with surging affection. We were that friendly with each other. He then asked me animatedly, "well swamiji, why did you ignore me all this while? Is it because of the change of dress you find on me?".

I assured him that my earlier indifferent behaviour with him was just for fun's sake and that though I was certainly surprised to see him in a changed dress, it being his personal affair i had no right to question him on that count. I also assured him that we were friends still and would continue to be so.

He thereafter said, "now, Krishnanandji please listen. I have hidden nothing from anyone and I have no cause to hide anything from you with whom I have been for so long acquainted."

"As you are aware, I couldn't get on well with the common run of monks and institutes because of my candid comments upon their general behaviour which wasn't in keeping with the high standard expected of them. You also know that I was openly hated and my presence was disliked by all. I remained unaffected in the common knowledge that the well-meaning and the good aren't liked. It is a usual social trend."

"Though we happened to meet and travel together quite often, yet, till now, I have not laid bare before you as to how I happened to leave home and move about in ochre garb. I now feel, in the context of my having given up the holy robes of ascetic life, I must share with you as much relevant details pertaining to them all as possible. Calcutta is still very far and I want you to hear my story and the surveys conducted by me."

I pulled out my note book and steadied and readied myself to hear him patiently and take down whatever might be worth sharing with the members of the public.

The ex. Sri Double Anandji commenced, "I am a product of a mixed provincial parentage. My mother from Gujarat happened to marry a Bengalee gentleman when they both were study-in Tagore's Shantiniketan. Theirs was a happy domestic life and i happened to be their only child. When I was about twelve years old, my father expired and my mother remarried a widower from Madras state \- enamoured by his witticism and abilities in painting."

"Somehow, he was also a quarrelsome person and he treated me very unkindly. Unable to bear his sadistic treatment, i absconded from my home."

"As do deserting educated boys, generally from families with a religious background, I too went to a leading religious institute for shelter and succour. I selected Bengal. Because of my tender age, intelligence, pleasant appearance and false representation that I was an orphan, I was given admission."

"There, I was fortunate to get the company of an old and learned saint of the institute. For the most part, I had to remain with him, assisting him in his various works and running errands for him. I got no time to mix or move with the scores of other inmates there.''

"The saint superior who had a commendable mastery over half a dozen languages, regularly taught me English, Sanskrit and Hindi. Because my parents spoke Bengali and Gujarati. I myself had a fine command over the two spoken languages. The old saint also permitted me to read news-papers and different periodicals in different languages and thus, within five years, I equipped myself with an appreciable degree of general knowledge and a fair get-up to read and write in the triple languages of importance."

"As the saint loved me much and was confident of my progress, my zeal for learning doubled and having had no other attractions in that formative age of mine, I picked-up everything that was taught to me. I also began to learn typing. Whenever I got opportunities, I always attempted to speak in different languages with different persons who regularly visited mv master in his office; that way also I gained knowledge of the languages as well as the rudiments Hindu epics. The saint exercised considerable influence upon my thought and action. He sweetened my life with love, honesty and industriousness."

"Alas, when I entered the age of twenty, the aged saint, my meritorious mentor, passed away. It was only then that I found myself in a different world of exploitation, hatred, jealousy, back-biting etc., around me and in the institution. I began to abhor the atmosphere and the artificial aspirants to sainthood in that institution. So, I left the place and visited several ashrams in different parts of Bengal.''

"Wherever I went, I found the same situation everywhere. Many of the things which I had learned about religion and saintliness both from the scriptures and from the oral talks with the old saint and for which I had respect and reverence, wasn't found in the practical life of either the inmates or in those who managed the ashrams. All of them no doubt talked about God, religion and supramundane secrets; but they lacked even elementary goodness. It was all a mockery of penance, purity, piety and peace."

I saw profiteering business going on in clear organised ways. I came in touch with learned monks of different sects who professed to have renounced worldly life. But it was all a mere claim. In actual life, they were all more worldly and crooked too."

"I was shocked to find that most temples and hermitages were in the care and charge of persons who can only be called vile. I stood disillusioned with regard to many things passing in the name of God and religion."

"From thenceonwards, I made it my mission to go round the country and study objectively and if necessary slyly pry into the private lives of individuals and institutions claiming to disseminate spiritual knowledge. I didn't then know as to what good such - an undertaking would do me or to what extent I may be able to uproot the persisting evils in the camouflaged lives of my great country's holy men. Yet, the fancy overtook me."

"So, I took it up in right earnest. I next moved to Bihar. Things weren't different there. Bread busters and ostentatious monks were having a gay time in that economically backward state. A yoga institution which sprang up in recent years has been duping people here in India and abroad in the name of yogic practices and salvation."

"Not satisfied with the hoax they are already playing here in the country, a society owing allegiance to the Chaitanya cult, has exported men and material to England. Canada, Germany and Japan to initiate the Christians in Krishna worship. People from western countries, it is commonly known, are generally obsessed with a craze for something new and hence they follow their Hindu gurus who make them pay well for the privilege of worshipping them as their divine liberators.

"For the last few decades, it has become a fashion with Hindu monks to visit continental countries and recruit foreign devotees tempting them with high sounding spiritual theories and promising them speedy progress in yoga."

'Westerners can't be fooled for long. They are people with an eye for results. I know many cases of our foreign brethren having returned to their countries very much disappointed because after some time they found their Indian gurus to be inepts."

"The spiritual image of the country is tarnished by such situations created by irresponsible and half-baked persons posing to be great yogis. One and all should understand that yogic lessons are not sold and whatever is bought in the name of yoga against payment of pounds or dollars are ordinary instructions in physical exercises and not high-grade yoga. The adepts in yoga never crave for public adulation and aren't commercial-minded."

"At a time when sixty percent of Hindus in India don't command even a nebulous idea of their religion, it is not desirable that Hindu preachers should set their feet on foreign soils to enlist followers from there. The prime function of every Hindu preacher ought to be to frequent places in the rural parts of the country and educate the Hindus there on the need for spiritual quest by imparting elementary lessons on religion and culture."

"Orissa. Assam and Manipur are small areas and little bugs of crafty religious preachers are also sucking the blood of the ignorant society in these states.''

"I then covered South India made up of Andhra, Madras, Kerala and Mysore state."

"I managed to spend many months as a personal attendant to a good many miracle men of the South and I am satisfied that with organized propaganda and tricks, anyone can launch himself as a super-being and deceive the devotees."

"To quote a few instances, in a remote village of Andhra pradesh was a poor father of twin boys aged ten. They looked alike. One of them was dumb and another could speak. The henchmen of a so called miracle monk, saw in that situation a fine opportunity to boost the popularity of their master. So, the poor parents of the boys were persuaded to shift to another village some two-hundred miles away for employment. The boy who could speak was sent away to work elsewhere and the family of three, made up of the husband, wife and the dumb boy came to reside in the new village. On an appointed day, the parents, by previous tutoring went to the miracle monk praying for the restoration of speech of their dumb son. Some of the doctors there examined the boy and they rightly found him to be without the power of speech. He was photographed for subsequent identity. The monk declared in the presence of many big people that if the boy was taken to him on an impending" day of a religious celebration, by divine grace the boy would be bestowed with the ability to speak. On the scheduled day, the boy who could speak was taken before the large congregation, well tutored, to pose as a dumb one and utter the taught words in a stuttering manner as soon as the monk placed his palm over his head. Simultaneously with this deceitful arrangement, the men of the monk managed to despatch the dumb boy to another state on a three years' employment. The deftly planned hoax worked to the wonderment of the gathering. Many more tricks have been employed to spread the fame of the monk as a master miracle man."

"The handful of people who know this case to be a cooked one, are not prepared to come forward to expose the ruse played upon society, for fear of being harmed by the monk who is regarded to be very powerful in witchcraft."

"The next miracle man I chanced to stay with was also popular and he too had paid men working for him-spreading false accounts of his divine possibilities. He has won the admiration of the gullible editors of magazines too by producing typed manuscripts on subjects sought by the editors. His resourceful men informed the monk in advance about the editors' requirements and the monk remained prepared for what must pass off as a miracle in the eyes of others."

"I liked the general atmosphere of Ramanashram in Tiruvannamalai. Ramana was great and many felt profited by meeting him. He came prominence by the hard way of severe penance. He was in the habit of sharing all offerings of eatables with the inmate of the ashram. But what pinched me was, why a saint of his eminence should have chosen to transfer his properties to his own brother who lacked fitness for such gains. Perhaps the sage was motivated by the dictum "CHARITY MUST BEGIN AT HOME !" and even to this day, Ramana's living relatives are having a nice time with the public gifts pouring from all over India and from abroad. This is how the Hindus are capable of capitalising from the past credit and glory of their spiritual ancestors."

"The other point which hurt me was, why did he, who believed in the oneness of beings - above castes and creeds, and personally seemed steadfast in it, encourage separate arrangements for serving meals to Brahmins In his ashram? Even to this day untouchabiiity is practiced in the ashram -the Harijans (scheduled caste people) are not allowed entry into the ashram temple."

"The octogenerian saint Sri Gyananandji in North Arkot district of South could be said to be a good saint who with his childlike simplicity evokes reverence."

"I met both Mother and Aurobindo, I remained in Pondicherry for one hundred and eighty days, only to find that with all their greatness, Aurobindo and Mother couldn't turn out even a handful of good and upright persons from the hundreds of inmates of the ashram. I found the inmates occasionally sweet-tongued and generally haughty and offensively indifferent."

"The whole of the South can be rightly called the seat of Hindu orthodoxy and the cruelties perpetrated upon members of others castes by the Brahmins in those parts is unimaginable. While rules governing temple entry in non-Southern states have witnessed some liberal changes, allowing one and all, irrespective of caste and creed, to go right in and touch the feet of the installed idol in the temple, nowhere in the principal temples of the Southern states, non-Brahmins are allowed to go to the sanctum sanctorum".

"The temples in the Southern states are the richest in the country, with fabulous wealth both in kind and cash; and yet, these temples do nothing substantial to ameliorate the miseries of the suffering Hindus-lakhs and lakhs of whom have had perforce to embrace other religions for personal maintenance and human treatment."

"I very often felt that the monetary resources of these rich temples could be advantageously utilized for the betterment of the Hindu society by making suitable provisions to care for the orphans, widows, the crippled, the old, the sick and the unemployed. If some such steps are conscientiously taken, it would not only please the Lord, but at the same time our backward Hindu society would progress."

"The practice of untouchability too is as rampant in the South as SORCERY is. Because of this, no non-Brahmin can touch any religious head, particularly if he happens to belong to the untouchable Brahmin community. And by sorcery and tricks, monks declare themselves to be divine and live like great monarchs."

"I met many more haughty and shallow pandits and preachers - duffers they were all-neck-deep in greed, hate, imitation and jealousy."

"It is not my case that the South is empty of good spiritual men. My humble submission is, some evolved ones are all over the country. But most of the crowd attractors either lack spiritual depth or are outright quacks, falsely promising to heal the sick, they produce concealed gold idols, silver leaves and personal photos."

"My next state of exploration was Maharashtra. Because of rampant illiteracy and poverty, people follow the traditional preachers most of whom are householders. I found them all to be slaves to cheap pleasures of sorts. It was only in the Maharashtra state that I came across a good many women preachers, a few of them Muslims singing in praise of VITHOBA. The women preachers are also entertaining the gentry with stories and fables from the epics and collect lots of money. They are widows, abandoned and fallen women with a good taste for forbidden things. What shocked me most was to find preachers all of whom belonged to one major cult of Varkharis, employing violence and other despicable methods against one another for commanding bigger platforms with bigger crowds for bigger income."

"In one of the states cities, I stayed with a person who is popular as a yogi. At best he is only a hypnotist like all the people who jabber on and do shaktipats. When seriously examined, all his claims of making people travel astrally and experience yogic bliss through the awakening of the kundalini power etc., were found to be nowhere near facts. His followers, like the common devotees elsewhere, were all highly imaginative people with a mental makeup to favourably react to suggestions. In order to pose big, some of the devotees of the yogi even made false claims of having seen lights, brilliant colours and celestial beings and what not".

"Another self-styled yogi near Bombay who talks of guru's grace and sakitipat and all that goes with it, was found to be too very fidgety and quarrelsome. People of mental vacillation are not yogis. Anyway, that guy too is getting on well, duping the Gujarati businessmen of Bombay, and seekers of worldly benefits."

"I also came across learned men, but they lacked original thinking and openness to absorb new light from the Vedas or the readiness to lead a practical life of the Vedanta. To my further chagrin, I found they were all good professional defenders of myths."

"However, in the qualified personality of Sri Dattabal, an illustrious son of a popular college principal, I found a zealous young man bubbling with spiritual vigour and I rightly feel that the would soon emerge as a dynamic spiritual leader. He has the vision and inner richness to lead aspirants."

"After finishing with Maharashtra, I shifted to Gujarat, the colorful state of the country. I call it colorful because Gujarat is the only place where one comes across monks of all sects operating their business in different parts of the state. Next to northern parts of the country, it is in Gujarat that there is a mushroom of ashrams big and small. So far as religious preachers and monks are concerned, Gujarat can be said to be a miniature India. For, it is in Gujarat that monks from Assam, Andhra, Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madras, Orissa, Punjab and Uttar-Pradesh can be found to be periodically visiting the state and very many of them permanently reside there."

''Gujarat happens to be one of the richest states of the country and the people there are particularly loving and generous. The Gujaratis are lovers of comforts and prefer a life of ease and merriment. That is the reason why the Krishna worship-the cult of divine sport, gaiety and ecstasy, appeals to them most. They don't attempt anything serious. As such, Gujarat is the only state throughout the country which has no religious leaders of its own. It is also the only broad-minded state which patronises all schools of thought. This is evident from the fact that most of the religious heads are from other states. The Shankaracharya, the Vaishnavacharyas, the Pontiffs of the Swami Narayan, the Kabirites and the Radhaswami cults are some of them - noteworthy enough, from outside the state. The Gujaratis are the most gullible people and they pay heavily to remain so. With the result, all types of hoax in the name of God and religion pass off for divine miracles and the Gujaratis feel blest by such crafty tricks."

"The organised conspiracy of the householder preachers and the religious leaders to keep the people in darkness on vital points of esoteric spiritual knowledge, has been so powerful from the distant centuries, that blind following springing from gross misconceptions and false beliefs in spiritual matters still persist in the present age of science. So much so, spiritual quacks easily flourish and have a gay time there."

"Unfortunately, on the pay rolls of miracle monks, there are some journalists also who turn their houses into public temples by spreading false stories of miracles occurring in their places. It is heartening however, that all such high-grade miracles instantly stop when challenged by rational-minded persons. It behoves us to bear in mind that an individual's faith in and love for God or any saint is his very personal affair and needs no drum-beating, unless it is to draw more followers to the particular saint or religious cult."

"Ruled by sentiments as they are, the Gujaratis are essentially people for surface details. To them, any institution which caters to their comforts in a nice way is a good ashram; and anyone who happens to speak sweetly on scriptures and pays individual attention to them is a fine saint in their evaluation."

"Practically throughout the year, wherever one goes in Gujarat, one would bump into clean shaved and gaudily dressed swamis delivering lectures on God and religion. During the first two months of the monsoon, particularly, every city, town and village has a few or more preachers of all sects pouring out through the mikes, memorised passages from various religious books. They would be found to be repeating the same stuff wherever they happen to lecture."

"A plump lady from Delhi is also in the field of preachers and she too draws good crowds who hear her repeating mugged-up lectures on Gita and yoga. Her business is to create superstitious feelings in rich women when they meet her after the lecture hours and knock out as much money as possible for preparing the so-called high-potency talismans and also by undertaking to personally invoke the grace of a particular God. This good-for-nothing nun who still has a taste for dressing attractively is so much mad after money and fame that she is known to stoop to any level to achieve both."

"Gujarat will soon have a double-graduate daughter of a Gujarati nun who is also to preach on Gita for money. She will do well too as she is under the guidance of a few monks of ill-repute."

"There are some shastris in Gujarat who give lucid discourses on ancient epics and attract mammoth crowds. Some of the tragic episodes from the epics are so pathetically recounted by them with forced tears of show that the whole crowd of listeners too sometimes dramatically cry. The grim perplexity about it all is, the preachers and the preached who feign to be so moved, have never shed genuine tears or felt sorry for their living brethren suffering calamities around them or in anyway shared others' troubles in their day to day lives. They did the easiest - what can be easier than to passively exhibit sorrow over the imaginary incidents symbolically depicted by the great ancient sages singing the glory of the soul? These shastris, are also invited to read various puranas for the benefit of the departed ones and are well paid for the service. The foolish people don't understand that the discarnate souls don't need such shows or sermons for their peace in that different state of existence after death."

Most of the monks also encourage this nonsensical practice and some of them have trained themselves for performing such after-death ceremonies - exploiting the ignorance of the bereaved."

Times were when the householders went in search of monks. That old order has changed. The present-day ochre-robed fellows run after the householders, flatter them and beg them to arrange for lecture programmes. Sometimes, middlemen are also engaged and handsomely paid for securing rich centres which yield lots of gifts in cash and kind."

"Many of the monks even lead double lives. When they come to preach they are in ochre-robes and at other times, they remain with their families in far off places where detection is not possible."

"All the monks who preach and make a lot of money, generally keep the amounts in fixed deposits with businessmen. There are cases of businessmen having swindled the monks' savings and the monks having committed suicide unable to withstand the losses."

"Because of the artful exhortations of the monks, the easily deceived Gujaratis implicitly believe that one should be tied to a preceptor for achieving both temporal and spiritual progress. And so, they hunt for the first class gurus but end up and get caught in the nets of third class fellows who make their disciples eat the left-overs, wash their feet, massage them and even partake the juice of betel-leaves pumped out of their guru's mouths - regarding it to be ambrosia."

"I toured Gujarat extensively and studied good many monks who are popular and have a sizable following. My truthful observations prompt me to believe that all of them are devoid of love, discrimination, rational understanding and simplicity. In order to make their plush life secure, they actively desire that the public should remain ignorant on vital points of religion and God. To achieve this, the monks teach their devotees to place faith above reason, emotion above intellect and traditions above logic."

"None of the ashrams of these big guys of religion are open for the poor, the needy or the wayfarers. Like the ordinary householders, these ashram owners also fear thefts and suspect strangers. Very often, even the regular monks themselves are denied shelter for the length of time they may wish to stay at a particular ashram. And yet, all these ashrams are supposed to be for the poor, the needy and the wandering monks. This is the position in all the public aided ashrams. As for the ashrams which the comfort-loving monks raise from their personal savings, such places generally are meant for the exclusive use of the owning monks themselves and other ascetics are not granted admission therein. They have only learnt to receive and live on charity, and remain narrow-hearted - empty of the spirit of sharing and fellow-feeling."

"I found some of the managers of popular ashrams in Gujarat to be rank cheats misappropriating gifts received in the name of the ashrams, behaving arrogantly with the visitors and ever-ready to slander against good institutes and saints who are generally working selflessly for the highest good of the society-raising lakhs and lakhs of rupees and spending them all on different welfare projects. I am sorry to have to report also that such a manager happens to have spent nearly four decades in the company of a great lovable sage."

"Managers of the public and religious institutions are never honest and civil and we read in te epics that such managers are reborn as dogs to be taugt some lessons. I wish it is true".

"A monk managing a big temple with lodging accommodation in a hill stationof the state is another, person who is up for a similar punishment for tis cruel ways of extorting money from the visitors and harassing them"

Anyone with a brain to interpret religion in an unusual way and with some money for initial propaganda in feminine circles particularly, can easily start a new cult. Such a one was floated by a diamond dealer known as Dada Lakiraj and the centres of Brahma Kumars and Kumaris came up. Mostly sisters from north India are the regular inmates of the hundred odd centres all over the country and they have been attempting to make people panicky by their oft repeated declaration right from 1937 that only those who take refuge in the "YOGA OF THE INTELLECT" (sahaj rajayoga) preached by the sect, would be saved the world destruction scheduled to take place within eight years. Despite head-hunting tactics, that upstart religious order hasn't been able to grow too popular."

"There is however an ancient cult flourishing in Kutch, Saurashtra and Marwar with village people from all castes and owing allegiance to it. Those ordinary and poor people believe in loving all their brethren and sharing nature's gifts with one another as a means to attain freedom from infatuation which bind us to the world".

"Wanting to know how things went a popular religious institute in a town of Saurashtra, l had to gain admission there as cook. I soon gathered first hand knowledge of its mismanagement, questionable ways of knocking out money from the pilgrims and inhuman treatment to sadhus and the poor. In practice however, only cheap and rotten food is supplied to them, while dainty dishes are daily prepared and supplied differently to the donor visitors of varying categories. The person who runs the institute happens to be the relative of a late great devotee of God. As I had said earlier, those who donate a Iittle from the lot of easily earned money, aren't interested to know whether their monies are put to proper use. They go away satisfied with the nice way in which they themselves have been attended upon."

"Like people of other religions, the Hindus have also been taught to believe that they should petition to the different forms of God for their worldly wants such as, marriage, progeny, employment, promotions, success in examinations, business, litigations, cure from diseases, general prosperity and a thousand other things. They pledge to offer different amounts of money or other gifts to the particular temple or religious institutions should their desires be fulfilled."

"Nothing can be more foolish than to believe that the mighty God functions only against such petty inducements from us puny little beings. The God-power within us creates tor us favourable conditions depending upon the intensity of our desire for a particular situation. That is all that is to it. As for the monies or gifts offered to temples or other religious places after our desires materialising into actualities, we must very firmly know that God doesn't need them and they don't reach HIM. They go to the coffers of the religious traders who meanly teach us to barter with - God-the SUPREME LORD of the visible and invisible worlds."

"Like you, I too have travelled and stayed in Gujarat for a long stretch of time. While there, I snatched some more time to check the extent of dirt in the Swaminarayan and Jain cults which also enjoy appreciable following. For that purpose, I had to become a regular monk of the Swaminarayan order and that is not difficult. I observed most of the monks having a cushy time-doing nothing to advance themselves in the path of higher evolution. Those monks like the ones from Punjab are lovers of rich food and generally over-ear; and it is common knowledge that people who are fat or those who are fit to be called gluttons cannot apply themselves to serious spiritual practices which demand temperance in all habits. The Swaminarayans encourage recruitment of teen-aged boys for monkhood and sooner the government bans this dangerous practice, the better for the boys and the society. A good many graduates who because of unemployment first joined as monks of this sect of exclusive following from Gujaratis, had to abandon the robes having found nothing in the organisation for an upward mental, intellectual or spiritual progress. The public funds aren't well-managed and the relatives of some of the big bosses of the order are benefited monetarily. This contamination is nation-wide. Because of jealousy there is a split in the cult and two different and distinct factions are currently functioning. To preserve the lineage of ruling, the householder pontiff's issues alone enjoy the right to succession to the chiefhood. Because the monks of this order are taught to hate woman, educated girls these days don't marry boys who thoughtlessly wish to belong to the cult which has no respect for women."

"I changed to my original robes myself to do a little dig in the fold of the Jains. I noticed the Jain monks to be conservative. They never mix with monks of other sects. Amongst themselves, there are divisions of more than a few sects. They are devoted lots following their prescribed austerities. It is only among the Jain monks that we come across individuals endowed with a wonderful brain-power to perform memory feats. Sri Kanjiswami from Sangadh weilds a good hold on the Jain society and he is responsible for having introduced a good many welcome changes in the rigid and crude rules which that society had all along clung to."

"Most of the Jain nuns, particularly the young and the educated ones aren't happy and they feel that their fanatical parents have forced nun-hood upon them at the instance of the bigoted Jain monks. I know many cases of desertions from their file. I myself had persuaded the parents of a few frustrated nuns to claim them back and give them away in marriage to the boys whom they loved before and after the vows of nun-hood were forced upon them.''

"To love and revere everything and everyone in the name of God and religion is inherent in the blood of the Gujaratis. Because of this predominant quality, unscrupulous elements in holy robes find it easy to attract, accustom and arride the Gujaratis with new and novel thoughts about religion and God. With the result, we see even downright perversion thriving in Gujarat and passing off for religious practices and godliness."

"When well-meaning preachers attempt to pump some sense into the people, the despicable mercenary advocates of the traditional leanings dub the rational teachers as either communists or lewdsters. There are also such fanatics who drag the realistic preachers to law courts for their forthright views against the common non-sensical orthodox beliefs. Such a course is not in keeping with the Hindu teachings which advocate tolerance."

"I fail to understand of what material consequence it is to us whether Laxmana of Ramayana was a celibate or not or whether king Ram did really extern Sita at the instance of a launderer. Why such false exhibition of cheap sentiments at all ?"

"After Gujarat, I covered Marwar, Mewar and Malwa and Uttar Pradesh, The good and the bad are the same everywhere. In Mewar I came across some rich Vaishnav temples which cook a large variety of foods daily for being offered to the idols which don't eat, while those in need of food are driven out like dogs. Most of these temples are patronised by the Gujaratis and Bhatias all over the country."

''Because it is in Uttar Pradesh that most of the principal places of pilgrimage of the Hindus are situated, lakhs of monks are settled in different parts of that big state and thousands of them run ashrams in the pattern of lodging and boarding houses, providing accommodation and food to pilgrims against monetary charges. The bigger ones are in Hardwar and Rishikesh. The monks who should be engaged in communion with God can be found serving and attending upon the rich house holders for money".

"It is certainly true that some of those monks are well versed with the exhoteric knowledge of the scriptures and are popular for spreading sectarian narrowness and bigotry. For those with the eyes which are gifted with a flair for searching and spotting double roles of those monks, a good deal of shocking and revealing knowledge is on the wait for them."

''Those who wish to watch free quarrel bouts and exchange of filthy words by the useless fellows whom society ignorantly regards as God-minded, one need only visit the Kali Komli wala kitchen in Rishikesh when food is being served to them or at any other places where they happen to gather. For the monks in those parts, everytime is a quarrel time or time for begging, boozing and betting."

"Mayapuri" in Hardwar is a fine place exclusively inhabited by the sophisticated monks who collect money from Gujarat and waste it there on pleasures reserved for the worldly-minded people."

"The nefarious activities of the monks don't come to the fore-front of public notice and knowledge because members of the public who go for short visits to those places, remain with the monks for a brief while only and that too without being able to peep into the guarded interiors of the ashram where the monks behave with shameless abandon."

"To those who wish personally to satisfy themselves that everything is not really o. k. in the mistaken holy ranks of monks, I recommend them to don ascetic garb and go on a searching spree as 1 did and be convinced."

"Excepting for the uplifting atmosphere in Himalayan centres of pilgrimage, now beginning to be polluted, the temples and dharmashalas in the management of the local Garhwalis, leave a lot to be desired in humane behaviour and honesty. Swindling is becoming common there too."

"Kashmir is the only wet state which sees to it that the pilgrims don't miss meat and wine from the starting point of the pilgrimage and right upto the holy shrines. This is what one gathers after seeing the open sales of those things on the way to Amarnath."

"It is not my claim that I have travelled throughout the length and breadth of the country, Truly speaking, such a profitable undertaking by anyone would take a minimum of fifteen hundred years, with just a day in each of the 3000 cities and 5,60,000 villages of India. All the same, I have seen enough of the country in the four directions and I was genuinely pained to see monks in ochre-robes doing such low things as, betting, boozing, carrying on business, divining, profiteering, keeping contacts with the renounced members of their families, running houses, selling talismans and faked medicine, swindling people on the pretext of doubling money or making gold, helping the smugglers to transport contraband goods, smuggling dollars and pounds for sale in the black-market, helping bad women to undergo abortion, allowing a portion of their ashrams for immoral purposes against heavy rents, selling liquor, running gambling dens, practicing witchcraft, contesting elections and litigations, fighting for properties, lending monies against interest etc.,

"There is so much bad in the world of sadhus because frustrated young men from poor families with no educational or spiritual back-ground happen to enroll themselves into its ranks; and with the availability of free food and all amenities, their downward dispositions distend in all branches of evil".

"As for monks from the educated class, it has been observed that unless they are from good noble families with a genuine thirst for higher spiritual evolution, they too become bad after a fine start in the initial years."

"Such being the case, only individuals who are imbued with true love for God realization -as a result of their past meritorious latencies or those who so luckily happen to come under the influence of some evolved souls, do really become saints, truly inspire the society and lead their followers on to spiritual growth."

"Therefore, the sooner the society realises that those who simply talk on philosophy or deliver lucid lectures on God and religion and collect money, those who own landed properties, those who talk of detachment and are deeply attached to the world, those who exhort others to work unmindful of rewards - but themselves never undertake to give discourses unless sizable gifts are promised, those who talk on yoga and demonstrate only hypnotic feats, those who remain buried underground, those who sell medicines, those who run farms, those who encourage astrology, those who sell meditation courses, those who claim to do saktipats and induce easy meditation thereby, those who perform apport, those who hold exhibitions of their achievements in many fields of knowledge, those who insure themselves, those who foster worldliness in their followers, those who fanatically believe that what they teach alone is capable of taking people Godward, those who incite their followers to hate or deride others' approach to self-realization, those who are slaves to bad habits, those who love and like the rich and the educated only, those who cannot freely and without embarrassment mix with the poor and the illiterate, those who cannot remain impervious to vituperations, those who try to dominate and behave imposingly, those who love and own silver and goldware, those pot-bellied fellows who insist upon rich food and keep on belching, those who cannot live without women, those who take active interest in politics, those who fight for rights, those who behave in an offensive and hurting manner, those who practice caste distinctions and un-touchability, etc., all such monks, in whatever religious robes or professing whatever philosophical inclinations, are not saints, are not saints and are not saints in the true sense of the holy term."

"I have brought to your notice all the existing bad trends in the society of the sadhus at this length in the hope that you might find it all of use to share it with the members of the public, for whatever they are worth through your publications. Pools of dirt have accumulated in the ranks of those who are in holy garbs and I feel that it is time some serious steps are taken to clear and clean them all. This alone is my sincere wish. I am not to be understood as harboring malice towards any individual or institute. I am an admirer of everything good, holy and beautiful in all religions and my desire is that they should continue to shine untarnished.

"As for me, I told you how I was compelled to abscond from home and how I was privileged to spend eight long years in the uplifting company of a good saint. The saint and others in the institute addressed me as "ANAND ANAND" and I remained there in white clothes. It was only when I embarked upon the survey of conditions and the conduct of religious institutes and individuals respectively that I had put on ochre-robes all by myself. Please permit me to submit also that at no time during my long travels all over India and while studying the so called holy ones had I claimed or pretended to be a holy man myself. Because of the nature of my self-imposed mission, I had to work mostly for institutes or individuals and that way I earned my bread. And whatever gifts I had to accept from some of my admirers, I had distributed amongst the deserving persons in want. Only last year I returned to my present widowed mother, got married to a religious - minded Harijan widow and am presently in the coir business. By the grace of God and the best wishes of the good, I am happy and the boat of my life is also coursing towards the quiet banks of peace."

The Ex. Sri Double Anandji completed his survey report and it was clear enough that he had taken considerable pains for a thorough inspection of the gutters-a task one and all can't be relied upon efficiently to do. Truly speaking, he has placed us all under a great debt by awakening us to the grim realities of the undesirable evils clouding the one-time glorious spiritual heritage of ours.

It is for us now to have them cleansed or allow the filth to persist and affect the spiritual health of the society - contaminating every quarter.

Should we wisely choose the positive way, it is imperative that all of us should so conduct ourselves that the evils existing in the society of the modern monks gain no direct or indirect sustenance for their further spread and greater harm.

I have known Sri Double Anandji for quite sometime and am in a position to solemnly vouch that whatever he has reported about the current-day monks and religious institutes- in the main, has been done so by him in an honourable spirit of wishing te holy order of the monks to be above taints and suspicion. His is a heart that has no room for ill-will against any ascetic or ashram.

Being another individual who has also widely travelled my personal observations are not dissimilar. Despite the superabundant religious activities and spiritual practices in every nook and corner of the country by millions and millions of individuals in every state for many years, judging from te present social character of a vast majority people of our one-time glorious country, it is with pain that I also agree with the detailed report of the Ex. Sri Double Anandji that India is spiritual degenerate. Our religious heads have irresponsibly failed us.

Couced in the following acrostical poem are my forthright observations on holy guides:-

YOUR HOLY GUIDES, methinks need to be known thoroughly well,

Offensive details about most monks, this sonnet shall frankly tell.

Unbred, ungrateful and unsensible cooked lectures on religion they sell,

Relentlessly they deceive you, promising to save you from hell.

Haughty in their general was, their souls are without light

Owners of lands, buildings & temples, for seats they fight,

Loving just in pretence, immersed are they in mundane greed,

Yet, "DISPASSIONATE & DETACHED ARE WE" claim they with speed.

Glued to orthodoxy, uncaring for the poor, untouchability they preach,

Utterly irrational in their sermons, they are ever in the breach,

Inepts themselves, they attempt coaching others, subjects beyond their ken,

Deftly declare to be one of the divine incarnations ten,

Examine ye, your modern preceptors - whisk away from slippery sides,

Stake not your spiritual future, TEST FIRST, YOUR HOLY GUIDES."

THE COMEDY OF MIRACLES

The attendant in the train announced that 'Dhanduka' was nearing. I was to get down at that town of Gujarat and so got ready. After alighting, I proceeded to the place of Mr. Pathak, my friend.

When I reached his spacious fine house, I found the erudite Pathaks humorously battling with some household proverbs and a riddle on which their college going son, Pinakin, studying in Bombay had to write commentaries.

Not wanting to disturb them and also desiring to hear them in full, I kept myself outside in the verandah itself.

Here are in verses what Mr. Pathak told his son Pinakin.

"Nothing venture nothing gain,

So go ahead, my boy and push,

But tarry, gamble not in vain !

A bird in hand's worth two in the bush !

Look before you leap my lad,

That wisdom is of nameless cost,

But bear in mind, lest you be sad,

He who hesitates is lost.

Too many cooks spoil the soup.

As you may be aware, my son;

(Then why should wisdom loop the loop

And say: "Two heads are better'n one)?

Birds of a feather flock together –

If this is undisputed fact,

How come, oh loved one of thy father,

That likes repel, unlikes attract?

That old is gold, oh offspring wise,

By both of us is plainly seen;

And yet, oh ! grim perplexities,

I once was told: "new brooms sweep clean."

* * * *

I am a strange contradiction: I am new and I am old,

I am sometimes in tatters and sometimes in gold:

Though I never could read, yet lettered I'm found:

Though blind, I enlighten; though free, I'm bound.

I am English, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil & Dutch

Some love me too dearly, some slight me too much.

I often die young though I sometimes live ages,

And no queen is attended by so many pages.

WHAT AM I?

After the Pathaks had finished the above witty verses of proverbs and the riddle, I stepped into their drawing room. All those present there rose up at once and rushed towards me with overwhelmed expressions clearly lit on their faces. Mr. Pathak, prostrated, his wife raised my right hand and placed it on her head - while master Pathak and his sister Ila held on to my left hand. Brownie, the dog, began to leap and bark - welcoming me.

By nature the Pathaks were loving towards all. But never before in the course of my long association with them had they treated me with that sort of exhibition, giving vent to their joy. I wasn't meeting them after too long either. And hence, their ostentatious manner of welcome intrigued me.

Mrs. Pathak was the first to speak. She questioned me, "Now swamiji, where had you been all this long?" and said, "We had been trying to get in touch with you right since the time you had miraculously vanished from this very house last year. Really, you kept us in suspense for a few long hours on that particular morning. When your room remained un-usually closed even after it was 7 a. m., we didn't know what to make out. Those of us at home who are used to negative thinking felt that you might have suddenly fallen ill. We knocked and banged the door calling you loudly. We heard nothing from within. Pinakin feared that you might have chosen to discard the physical body through the process of yoga, as did a saint in this very room some years back. The mystic-tempered Ilaben was of the view that you might have either embarked on astral travel or have entered into a long session of involuntary 'samadhi' (enjoyment of bliss in an undifferentiated state of consciousness). Ultimately, it was around 9 a. m., when our patience was exhausted that we broke open the room and found you missing-with no visible clues whatever to determine how you could have physically left the room which was well bolted from within. We wrote to your monsoon-head-quarters more than three times, requested some of your admirers elsewhere to let us know of your whereabouts and even visited Bhadran. But we got to know nothing of your movements."

Interrupting us, Mr. Pathak said, "well swamiji, we consider it our good fortune that you have so affectionately chosen to grace us all with a visit without prior intimation even. Truly, since the time of your mysterious disappearance from our place last year, we have been anxiously longing to meet you. You have been in our thoughts right through. We are now glad that we are able to feast our eyes with your holy presence."

Before I could tell the couple that I didn't know what to make of their talks and their strange behaviour, master Pathak and his sister pressed me for an assurance that I would demonstrate the vanishing feat by disappearing from the drawing room and reappearing in the closed under-ground strong-room in their house.

From what the four of them said, only one thing was clear to me and that was that I was being dubbed as a miracle man capable of disappearing at will. But I failed to catch up as to what particular incident or what personal conduct of mine could have induced them to believe so.

So, I naturally asked them to clarify the point.

Whereupon, all of them at once asked me not to try to put them out that way. When I insisted that I knew nothing of what they were all attempting to drive at, Mrs. Pathak said that they were referring to my departure from their house, in the early hours, one day last year.

Mr. Pathak cut in and quipped, "Listen swamiji ! you needn't try to mislead what we rightly hold as occult powers within your command. After the incident of your vanishing, from the closed room, we have been piecing together some more of your earlier performances which very much puzzled us first. But which, in the light of your abilities to disappear at will, make us feel delighted over the fact that you are the sixth super-soul to bless us with your comforting and rewarding company."

"Yes swamiji, pappa is right," said master Pathak and added. "When on a day during your camping at our place, I happened to peep through the key-hole of your room, I found a mass of dazzling light enveloping the room. On a second occasion I had very closely seen you lighting incense sticks with the sparks of fire which emanated from the central part of your forehead."

I noticed Ila, Pinakin's elder sister impatiently looking for a chance to say something. I allowed her to speak. She said, "Swamiji, but for your hints I wouldn't have graduated last year and Padma my friend still gratefully recalls now, how with your healing touch, her father survived from the illness which all the prominent doctors had opined would claim the patient's life. Oh 'you're wonderful."

Mrs. Pathak hastily queried, "pray tell me, swamiji, if I am to understand that your powers had nothing to do with my late mother coming back to life for a brief while to enlighten us about the exact location where she had stored monies and jewelleries worth a big amount?" Further, by way of attempting to make me give up possible apprehensions of harassment, she rejoined, "We do understand swamiji, that with super-beings like you, miracles just happen as naturally as pearls shine and that people are bound to pester elevated souls like you with all their ordinary problems too. We are not unaware either that it is to keep away such troublesome crowds that you gifted saints don't openly claim to possess higher powers, but wish to move about as ordinary monks. We assure you swamiji, we shall see to it that you are not tormented. Still however, because nature has delegated to you some of its enigmatical and wondrous powers, it is but meet that it intends you to discriminatively utilize them for the good and betterment of the suffering humanity. And so, with your permission, we shall bring before you only such people whom we know and who deserve to be helped."

Mr. Pathak also supported everything which his wife said and declared, "This time, swamiji, we are not going to allow you to go away soon. It is our fervent request that you should stay with us for a longer duration. Should you order, we shall lose no time in building for you a fine block with modern fittings, for your exclusive use and continued stay with us. You know we have orchards here and elsewhere. The choice is yours. You have only to command. Please bless us with more opportunities to serve you physically, mentally and monetarily.''

At a distant corner, with folded hands, stood Radheshyam, their faithful cook. Not wanting to be left out, perhaps, he also had something to report about having been profite by my powers. He demurely said, "Oh ! you hoIy one, how can I forget your having blessed my unemployed son by patting him four-times on his back. He managed to get employed as a steward in a commercial shipping co., and has been earning over thirty rupees per day on the average as tips over and above a decent salary. That's surely much more than what an I.A.S. officer of these days initially draws! He now heads a family of four with twin sons. His wife is gifted with a captivating voice and she sings in public for handsome fees. I cannot conceive visitation of all this good-luck without your unfailing blessings."

I pitied their ignorance and absurd imaginations. From my side I plainly told them that I possessed no super-natural powers of any kind.

Explaining the circumstances which appeared to have made them believe that I had vanished from their house the year before, I submitted, "I take it that all of you certainly recall my having informed you on that particular night about my resolve to leave by the early train next morning. I was then asked by you all to postpone my departure to next evening. Yet I had very specifically said that I would be leaving as planned. I wasn't heard fully, and wasn't taken seriously either. Next morning I left by the door facing the roadside. I didn't wake any of you for fear of being detained. Because it was still dark when I left, as a measure of safety, I thought it fit to bolt the door. So, I kept the bottom stopper of the door sliding on the floor and gave a slight jerky push to the door from outside and that way made the door to get bolted from within. By an oversight however, I now recall, in the light of having heard you all, that I had forgotten to keep the other door inside the room open - before leaving. As such, naturally, when all of you got up, you found the two doors bolted from within. Naturally too, on breaking open the door, you all didn't find me inside. I went to the railway station, caught the train and went where I had to." Thereafter, I endeavored to demonstrate how from the room that was allotted to me, anyone could have gone out by the separate entrance facing the .roadside and could have also caused the door to get bolted from within.

Because some repairs were carried out in the house during the intervening period and the old loose stoppers replaced by new type of latch, I could not support my honest statement with tangible evidence. With the result, the Pathaks simply laughed me out. Moreover, they countered me with the question, "How come then, swamiji, that from the scores of people from this locality who had also left on that morning, by that early train, none saw you at the station or in any compartment? We have no doubt all of them knew you and would have at once spotted you and snatched the opportunity to be in your company for the while the travel lasted. But our enquiries reveal that no one saw you at the station or in the train. Your general bearing and garb are such as would attract attention and at least can never go unnoticed by those who happen to know you. Please don't torture us by attempting to make us falsely believe that you are an ordinary individual - the type this world is so full with."

I had to give up arguing. Their opinions about my possessing para-normal powers appeared to me as sheer drivel - phantasmagoria of incredibly illogical assumptions. I didn't know what further to tell those well -educated, well-to-do and good-natured persons, who yet were empty of conceptual power.

They were not the first or the only set of dreamy people to brand me as a miracle man. There are a good many others who thought and still hold me to be a person capable of doing and undoing the impossible - and all of them invariably relied on flying reports and coincidences, without caring to analyse the particular incidents which appeared as miracles to them.

Here are just some of the interesting accounts which led various friends of mine from different parts of the country and enjoying diverse social status; to label me as one commanding abilities to perform feats which defy rational explanation.

A professor friend was in urgent need of two thousand rupees. I was camping at his place then, Before leaving the house to arrange for the amount, he met me to take leave of me. I patted him casually, wishing him good-luck and he left. When in the evening he returned home, he behaved with greater respect towards me and informed me that he first drew blank everywhere; then he mentally remembered me and that I had saved him from an awkward situation by mysteriously causing 200 crisp tenners to find their way into his pocket. He was rightly sure that I didn't have that much amount and as such, couldn't have physically planted the two bundles of currency notes into his pocket. None of his well wishers were in a position to help him, much less in that incognito way. I pleaded ignorance. None at home believed me. I soon recalled having noticed his elder brother, a bank official, hurrying out of the professor's bed-room that very morning. When I asked them if they knew about his brother's call that morning, he not only said no, but emphatically negatived the possibility. Because, he explained, that brother of his was very inimical with him. Indirect inquiries by the professor also confirmed that his brother had nothing to do with the wads of notes found in the pockets of my host. On a personal contact by me, however, the bank official guardingly confessed to have visited his brother's house on the sly and of having put two bundles of new ten-rupee currency notes into the pockets of his brother's coat which was on a hanger in the bed-room. For personal reasons, the brothers didn't get on well - the professor had turned down all moves for a compromise. The elder one who knew that his brother was in want, couldn't raise that much amount all at once and would never accept his help, chose that unusual way of providing his brother with the needed money. I couldn't persuade the bank official atleast to write to his brother about the truth behind the two thousand rupees. With the result, even to this day, the learned professor implicitly believes that I am good at materialising and can produce or plant anywhere, anything, at a mere wish.

A farmer friend once took me to his field for a stroll. We moved about for quite a while. When we were tired, we sat at a place. Later, that farmer got a well sunk at the point where I had sat. Good and plentiful water issued forth. It is that farmer's belief that but for my visit, the sinking of the well in that dry area wouldn't have been successful. I knew nothing about my friend's desire to sink a well in his field. I had never wished or prayed for the spring of water there. From thenceonwards, many farmers of that village simply ran after me, desiring that I should take a stroll in their fields too, so that they may also be blessed with wells there. Just to prove that I possessed no such powers, I visited the fields of a few farmers. They spent a good deal on the project without any success. Yet, they too believe that I had not willed that my powers should operate in their favour.

A barrister friend of mine desired me to bless his son to get through the secondary school leaving examination. I asked the boy to work hard and prepare for the impending tests. Thats' all I knew and did about the case. After some months, the joyous parents reported to me that their son had passed out with, distinction because of my blessings. I knew the boy to be only of a pass class calibre. So, when I casually tackled him, he audaciously told me that by my blessings, he was able to openly copy in all the subjects without being detected. I disillusioned the parents of the boy with regard to their beliefs in blessings, by persuading their son to confess before the S.S.C. board about his fraudulent success in the examination. The board appreciated his repentance and declared him failed. Thereafter, I kept on goading the boy, he worked hard and passed out well in the subsequent examination. Despite his father's desire that his son too should become a lawyer and tactfully twist truths, I am happy to record here that the young man is now an upright and intelligent professor in a good college - perhaps the only professor in the whole province who charges nothing for coaching weak students outside college hours.

A surgeon friend had a dream a day after his mother's death. He reports that he very vividly saw me releasing his mother from the hold of demons in a very fearful place and giving charge of her to the benevolent celestial beings. I knew not about his mother's death before he told me about a month later and naturally I pleaded complete ignorance of all that he had said. But in his inclination to rely more on what he had so clearly experienced, the foreign-returned surgeon has been spreading incorrect reports that I am capable of helping the departed ones to cross over to peaceful planes, should they happen to remain entangled with evil elements in their post-death journeys.

The wife of an engineer friend once gave me an expensive necklace which she had pilfered from a mutual friend's house during one of her visits to it. She remorsefully entreated that I should hand over the same to the owner under some false pretexts without involving her. I advised her to go and confess her guilt and thereby cleanse her polluted mind; or in the alternative atleast go to the house again as casually as she used to and replace the ornament in the almirah from which she had stolen it. The lady argued that she was frightened as the loss had been reported to the police and that she couldn't eat or sleep well since the day she stole the necklace. She also feared that she would be divorced if her husband came to know of it. It was a genuine case of an otherwise good lady having been caught in a mess of theft under an unusual impulse. I felt I should help her. So, I took the necklace to its owner's place. No sooner did I enter their house then all the inmates crowded me and informed me of the theft and desired that I should help them. I gave them the necklace and asked them not to ask me as to how I came by it. "We knew that the necklace would be restored to us by our Krishnanandji. Pappa and mummy had been praying all along," remarked the daughters and daughters-in-law there. They refused to believe that it was returned by the repentant culprit. On the contrary, they commented, "you want to obviate people knowing that you are capable of tracing and restoring stolen goods too."

Many years back, on a Thursday, I had lunch with an erstwhile ruler of a state. On the following noon I took my meals with the Revenue Commissioner of the same state and in the same city. To my surprise and embarrassment, both of them wrongly hold that I had lunched in two different places on the same day and at the same time - imputing to me thereby the power of multipresence. They were not prepared to hear me and I had to keep silent with the feeling that stupidity is not the monopoly of the poor and the illiterate alone. Big shots also excel in it.

A high government official from the South was facing criminal proceedings against him on charges of corruption and breach of trust. A doctor friend of his who happens to know me and who believes that offering of worship to my photo brings him good practice - making so many people fall ill, asked the official to approach me. The officer narrated his case and asked me to bless him that he may be exonerated by the sessions court. I asked the officer not to worry if he was innocent and that he should muster moral courage to face the consequences if he was guilty. He returned disappointed and informed the doctor of the outcome of his meeting with me. The doctor told him that I am in the habit of treating the worried peoples' approaches, in that manner, initially and that if he persistently continued meeting and requesting me for blessings, I would ultimately relent in his favour also. The official kept on coming to me twice daily for the duration of my stay in the city. I didn't take notice of him despite his tactful efforts to make his presence felt. Later, from that city, I shifted to a town 60 miles away for a week's halt there. The doctor asked the official not to give up and suggested that he walk the distance to the town, bare headed and bare footed. The fifty-five year old officer followed the instructions in the hope that the penance would evoke in me compassion for him and that I would bless him with an acquittal. When the officer reached me on the third day, with swollen feet and completely exhausted and fell prostrate before me, I couldn't first place him. With wet eyes and trembling limbs he repeated his request for blessings. I sincerely pitied him and candidly informed him once again that I had no powers to assist him in the manner he desired. Late that evening, he sent with someone his case papers for my study. I went through the complete details of witnesses etc., and from what I had heard from him in addition to what I came to know from his case papers, I felt as anyone else would, that the charge against him wasn't strong enough in factual and circumstantial evidence's: To add to it, the prosecution witnesses were not reliable. In the circumstances, it struck me that he would be vindicated. So, I asked him not to worry any more as he would positively be acquitted. He celebrated my announcement by feeding two hundred school children and some beggars in the town. One day, after three months, I received a telegram from the official. It read, " BLESSINGS FAILED - SENTENCED JAIL TERM AND FINE STOP WIRE INSTRUCTIONS." There was a note of residual faith, in the text of his telegram and on the strength of what I had earlier deduced, I still happened to feel that he would ultimately be acquitted. So, I wired back, "BLESSINGS NONSENSE STOP ACQUITTAL SURE CONFDENTLY APPEAL." Some months thereafter, came the news of his judicial discharge from the accusation. From then on, the doctor and the acquitted officer have been directing litigants to me with their case papers. All of them had to go back disappointed and yet they too believe that I was not gracious to use my powers for their benefit also.

In their bad desire to show to the outside world that they are the chosen ones of God and therefore come by opportunities to bask in the company of the great, some people are in the habit of deftly imputing miraculous powers to those saints in whose touch they happen to be. Madhuben was one such shallow spirited sister. She claimed to be my disciple - eventhough she knew, as do others, I don't act preceptor to anyone. When another sister rightly said that I am an ordinary monk, Madhuben got infuriated and declared, 'I pity your ignorance and ill-luck. Krishna-nandji is a great saint. He has blessed me with powers of peeping into the past of other people." Madhuben then gave out some intimate details of past incidents about the other lady and members of her family, which she had come by through news-carrying friends. All that Madhuben had said, amazed the-other sister and she begged Madhuben to persuade me to accept her also as a disciple. I asked Madhuben to confess her lies before that sister. She readily did so and has since then improved. But the other sister doesn't believe Madhuben's confession and my candid admission that I am only an ordinary little monk."

I revisited a village in Saurashtra after a long break of five years. My friends there chose to celebrate the occasion by feeding the village children. A good variety of dishes were prepared to feed two hundred and fifty children on that particular evening. Many of my friends from the three villages close by came to meet me on that day after their evening meals. All of them also joined the children in the feast. While the feast was in progress a gang of wandering monks with an elephant came to camp in that very village for the night. There were scores of children from the adjoining villages accompanying the party, out of sport. Those monks and as also the children too were fed. And yet, there still remained enough food for fifty people. There was nothing unusual about it. But, the organizers of the feast wrongly held that it was my will and presence which increased the quantity of the food making it possible for people of four villages i.e., over thousand individuals to eat to their fill from food which would normally suffice only two hundred and fifty children. It was not possible for me to convince them that in fact food was prepared to meet the requirements of two hundred and fifty adults and not little children and that being a very hot summer day, the little children couldn't eat well. As for the people from the other three villages, it was my contention that by their own admission all of them had come after their dinner and as such, couldn't eat more than a few morsels. I told them also that the two hundred and odd people who had come from the neighborhood did not constitute the entire population of the three villages and that it was using exaggeration a little too liberally. They didn't change their earlier wrong opinion. Even to this day people in those parts maintain that my presence in a function where food is to be served can increase the quantity of eatables to meet unforeseen and unavoidable requirements.

I have never been skeptical about the possibilities of yogis being able to remain buried underground for many days. I have myself witnessed a yogi remaining submerged in water - in a sealed barrel for twelve hours. What kept me puzzling was individuals whom I knew to be rank quacks moving in society under the garb of pretended holiness even remaining buried underground for periods ranging from three to seven days and more. So, whenever and wherever there happened to be such a public demonstration, I went there to observe if I could get some clues. From the many performances witnessed by me, I found that the professional yogis who remained buried underground for monetary gifts from the public, invariably selected moist ground in order that the porosity of the earth might cause leakage of oxygen into the pit to make breathing possible in what appears from outside an airtight pit. I therefore deduced that individuals who remained buried in such pits making members of the public believe that it is a genuine feat of samadhi was, in actuality just an endurance show - requiring the performer to remain without food and water for a given number of days. I wanted to try it myself. By long practice, I first trained myself to remain without food and water for two hundred and sixteen hours. Thereafter, when once I was camping at the place of a barrister friend of mine in Bombay, I caused a wide pit to be dug in his commodious garden and remained buried therein for five days with the same ease as I would on open ground. When on sixth day I came out of the pit, there were many people including the Governor to receive me with veneration. The jurist friend had called them all to be blessed by meeting one who is capable of transporting himself into samadhi for many days. All my explanation about the ordinariness of the feat couldn't satisfy anyone. Even after the Governor himself tried it successfully, by remaining buried for twelve hours in the Rajbhavan grounds, my friends thought it to be the direct result of my having blessed the Governor.

A businessman who had lost two wives and who had no children, remarried a barren widow. He used to visit me whenever I happened to be in Rajkot. One day, he told me that he had married for the third time in order that he might yet become a father. It was his submission that he had tried in vain, all the known ancient and modern treatment and other means of propitiating the various gods to beget a son. He also informed that of late he felt that without the blessings of an advanced ascetic his desire might remain unfulfilled. Then, giving the details of a good account he seemed to have heard about me from various quarters, he beseeched me to bless him that the Lord God may be pleased to send a soul to take birth at his place. As usual I replied that everything doesn't happen by blessings alone, but there is something like an ancient tie which operates inexorably and that he should happily accept nature's dispensations without complaining and craving - at least not for such trifles in this short earthly sojourn. He kept on coming to me and everytime his one request used to be, "Swamiji, please just say that I would be blessed with a son." He also used to add that "I have a feeling that whatever you say should and would come to pass." I said nothing and began treating his subsequent visits with indifference. He didn't give up. His daily visits increased and lasted for a few hours at a stretch. Whenever I happened to be alone, he used to submit his request, cringing, as people obsessed by cravings, generally do. Once, he also made it known to me that he was not going to leave me till I uttered the blessings of his choice. It is difficult to handle people who have a way of imposing themselves upon others. All my efforts to pump some philosophical understanding into him failed and day by day he became a nuisance. The only course open to me was to quit the place. That i did abruptly. The resourceful gentleman, somehow picked up the clues of my departure and traced me to another town. That hot chase cost him over two hundred rupees and he just wanted that I should say, "You will soon be blessed with a son." I implored him to leave me alone. But he did not stop pestering me by his continued visits even there. So, in order to put an end to the calls on me and his nonsensical request, I guardedly said, "SHOULD IT BE THE WILL OF GOD, YOU WILL SOON BE BLESSED WITH A SON." He felt happy and tears of joy flowed from his glistening eyes. He thanked me profusely for the blessing and left. I felt very much relieved. Eighteen months thereafter, when I had clean forgotten him and his case, I received a letter from him informing me that because of my blessings, they were all rejoicing over the arrival of a baby boy in their house. I wrote back informing him that it was by the will of God - according to the ancient ties, that the particular soul had taken birth at his place and that I had nothing to do with it. I have not been believed and I am regarded by him and his wide circle of friends as a great man who can intercede with nature and bring about any desired changes in its scheme - in favour of such persons whom I wish to help.

Yet another friend of mine who happens to be a minister in a state government is of an emphatic opinion that I had forewarned him in dream about an impending danger to his life and had that way saved him from imminent death. Narrating that experience, he said, "One night, you swamiji, appeared in my dream and clearly forbade me from travelling by road on the following day with my colleagues. I am this day alive because I was checked in advance and because I wisely obeyed your instructions. Or else, I too would have died as did my two associates who met with a fatal accident and were crushed to death. He has other experiences to recount too; one of which as related by him is:- "Swamiji, because of your timely warning in another dream, I dropped the divorce proceedings against my wife. As a result I have gained abundantly. Her brothers helped me with money and men to fight the elections and I am enjoying a ministerial position and power in the government - certainly a god-sent opportunity to serve my countrymen. I am now getting on well with my wife too." Disassociating myself with his dream experiences, I openly told him that he was reveling in fanciful thinking. He also holds that I am a sensitive who can forewarn people about impending dangers and at the same time influence them, in times of dilemma, to take profitable and safe steps.

I haven't been able to forget the Judge from a High Court of a distant state who came to meet me, having heard about my divine powers which only existed in the imaginations of his informants. When the cab which brought him, pulled up before the ashram, at that time, I was engaged playing marbles with my little friends v/ho were studying in a middle school. After alighting from the taxi, he asked to meet Swami Krishnanand. I submitted to him that I was verily the person he had come to meet. That hearing made him feel confounded. He questioned me out of disbelief. "Are you the guy who is also admired by Mr............... ...............of............?" I replied in the affirmative and requested him to step in the ashram. Instead, he stepped into the cab and ordered the cabman to drive off. I felt sorry the way he left disappointed. I learnt later that he couldn't conceive of a man who is reported to be spiritually evolved would still indulge in such trifles as playing marbles with little boys. We happened to meet again and I am glad he no more believes outrightly all that he happens to hear about little fellows like me.

I have given here only a dozen select incidents from the many situations in which I have been wrongly mistaken to be a miracle man, by a representative section of the public.

When I, an ordinary monk with no efforts on my part, can be labelled as miracle man, because of coincidences and because of flighty imaginations on the part of the simple and the gullible, how much more easy should it be for the crafty, with their propaganda and mastery of sorcery, to install themselves as divine men with super-natural powers and thereby fool and cheat the society? I want my sensible readers to ponder over this point.

As most of us are crazy for something sensational, at every turn of our different roads of life, we bump into a miracle. Said otherwise, we are habituated to give a twist of miracle to many ordinary happenings even, without first trying to understand any event in an obvious way.

What is most appaling is that individuals with the back-ground of modern education are also swept away from their moorings of rational thinking by a wind of this dispicable craze for miracles.

Because of this unfortunate trend of thinking amongst the erudite, an average man too generally regards a saint not only as a good and a holy person, but also views him as one who possesses at least some powers to perform super-normal feats. Then, there are such fanatics too, who, just for the fun of it, spread imagined stories of miraculous powers, in respect of saints whom they chance to meet and take a liking for. This particular tendency of the fanatics, widens all the more, crossing the boundaries of tolerable exaggeration, when it comes to their reports with regard to those saints who are physically no more.

Out of his creative genius, the ignorant and the insecure worldly man brings into existence a miracle saint through whom he mistakenly hopes to gain easily such worldly benefits as, progeny, prosperity, power, position, praise and protection.

The numerous stories in the eighteen popular mythological works of the Hindus, are replete with the accounts of people having prayed for and having achieved such material, gain through saints. Even to-day members of the society approach the saints more for material things than for spiritual advancement. That's why we hear now and then that saints to whom miracle powers are falsely attributed, having secured for their devotees mundane profits only.

So, the ancient authors of epics who have marvelously mystified the various characters and as also the diverse events in their poetical creations, are also equally responsible for fostering in mankind an irresistible love for miracles.

Unless this harmful craze for miracle cult, born out of gross ignorance and superstition, is dismissed outright, religion cannot be saved from the bazaar - where it has been dragged to by the commercial-minded priests and preachers.

May we all give up miracle mongering and ceaselessly strive on realistic lines to achieve perfect peace - having achieved which we need achieve nothing else. Amen.

THE RELEASE

GJH. 362 pulled up in front of the ashram at Bhadran. It brought Sri Kanishta Bandhu and some of his friends.

I happen to know Sri Kanishta Bandhu for quite some years and we meet a few times at least, every year. In the course of one such meeting, Sri Kanishta had casually recounted to a group of us, variegated and interesting details of his life.

I was impressed and saw in it inspiring and consoling truths. So, I had asked him to call on me at his convenience for a repeat narration when I was all to myself in the ashram. He had promised to do so. It was in fulfillment of that promise that Sri Kanishta happened to visit me.

Because he happens to be the youngest son in the family, I have chosen to name him as Kanishta and this is only for the convenience of our recounting. His real name is something very dear to the Vaishnavites.

After the exchange of pleasantries, Sri Kanishta Bandhu said. "If you permit me, swamiji, I shall right away begin my life story in which you happen to evince interest." I asked him to do so.

He began, "I was born as a fourth son and last of the eight children in a family of religious parents. While my father owed allegience to the Swaminarayana cult, my mother was a Vaishnav.

When I was of age, I was also admitted into a school. Looking back now, from my present age of fifty nine, I too feel that the current-day evils in the educational institutions were wholly and entirely absent in my time. There were more government schools, well managed by dedicated educationists and the members of the teaching staff had a natural aptitude for teaching. The teachers were well-cared for, respected and they enjoyed security of service. Working under such a fine atmosphere, the teachers gave their best and imparted a high standard of education. In those days, all didn't go for education and those who did could apply themselves wholly to their studies because the present-day social demands and other impeding attractions were almost nil. Even though such congenial conditions prevailed then, yet, as it happens in case of born mugs, I too could not study and learn. My thoughtful parents didn't think it proper to impose upon me things that I wasn't fit for. As such, I did not go further than fourth-class - and gave up schooling once and forever.

As I was brought up in a town which is popular for notoriety, like the illiterate teenaged dullards with a good physical bearing, I also grew up to be a rough and mischievous fellow. Even with this villainous back-ground, I somehow harbored a little liking for machinery work and my relatives bundled me off for an apprenticeship in Jamnagar. I was seventeen then end earned eight annas per day.

In that distant place with none to check me and most workers in the Railway Workshop being from backward-classes, my evil propensities gained sustenance and I began to become more bad and quarrelsome. I regarded brawling as something adventurous and freely indulged in it. I spent a few years there and as said earlier, because of my flair for mechanical works, I managed to pick-up sufficient knowledge in fitting and repairing. Thereafter, I returned to my native town.

My parents got me married in time and from thenceonwards, opportunities for a settled and secure life of profit started visiting me. I had to begin with the money raised from the ornaments of my widowed sister. I entered into the transport business - a line which demands rough dealing with bad-tempered workers and tough competitors. I was mentally and physically qualified to meet the challenges of my business line and even the popular goondas feared the force of my fists and feet. I got on well and continued enjoying a good income-without having to resort to illegal and unlawful practices generally indulged by persons in this line.

As I had to mix with all types of people, including those who came by easy monies and could therefore afford to squander on trifles like smoking and drinking, I also developed a taste for smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor. Because liquor tastes insipid without the non-vegetarian dishes, as do all confirmed drunkards, I also began to eat the dead and dirty animals' flesh to enjoy the different brands of liquor.

Things went on well for me until the Lok Sabha passed an unopposed resolution in favour of prohibition. Adulteration crept in and moonshine flowed into the market and thus bad liquor was being sold at far higher prices than what the pure alcoholic drinks cost during the non-prohibition days.

I was a regular permit-holder and I continued consuming the poisonous depressant as before, without having to visit the speakeasies where illicit stuff is sold in plenty. Because good liquor wasn't easily available, I very often felt like giving up drinking. But my addiction to it had so completely trapped me that I couldn't do without liquor.

That being the position, I began visiting continental countries for short periods at a stretch to liberally drink Champagne, Scotch, Black & White, Rum, Gin, Vodka and different other brews, available in plenty in the mushroom of fashionable bars and taverns there. That way, I was one of the some who regularly went abroad exclusively for enjoying the luxury of drinking liquor, eating flesh and .for indulging in other cheap pleasures which one can fully revel in, in the free society of western countries only.

Because of these excesses, the efficiency of my nervous system began to decline and emphysema, a lung-disease springing from the habit of chain-smoking attacked me. My limbs began to tremble because of drinking and I had also contacted diabetes due to gluttonousness. Bodily weakness overtook me and I couldn't apply myself even to such little works as filling in and signing a few cheques in succession. In short, my physical frame was almost wrecked by alcohol, smoking and overeating stale flesh and fried stuffs.

My mother, brother, sisters, wife, relatives, friends and all others advised me, nay implored me to give-up drinking. I knew, it was for my well-being and I myself very much desired to be free from the death-dealing habits. Yet, their ancient control over me was so strong that I could not remain without the thought of them, even for a brief while.

In the house of good-people, I was the only black sheep-a slave to bad habits which sire many diseases and cap one with a bad reputation. Even my good-natured son and four daughters didn't like my bad ways. I was a source of worry to all - more so to my affectionate mother. My absence from home, particularly at nights, used to make her apprehensive and cause her to remain awake.

Despite my bad habits, I had my human side of little degrees of softness too and I sometimes used to be fair in my social dealings with people and kind and considerate to those who I thought were good, I never bribed or begged for favour of any sort nor did I ever resort to the mean practice of hitting anyone below the belt. I did realise that this credit side of goodness on my part, seldom came to the notice of the society because of my bad repute as a man of vices, egoistic and haughty.

To my personal surprise and to the surprise of all, however, my bad behaviour and evil habits didn't come in the way of my economic prosperity. My business began to expand and agencies dogged my heels and parties chose to float enterprises in partnership with me. To top the high monetary income from the above \- sources, I also came by landed properties and farms which later brought me handsome gains. I gave away some of them because I couldn't manage them all myself. My bank balances swelled and I have never felt shortness of funds or the need to further expand the business. I never suffered losses and even the seeming losses ultimately rebounded as gains. During my absence from the country, once, the Enforcement Branch of the Finance Department raided my house and took into possession ledgers and documents, alleging that they pointed to attempts on my part to conceal income and evade taxes. The Income Tax authorities, by their ex-parte judgment fined me Rs. 40,000/-. I didn't think it worthwhile to challenge the judgment given by the sleepy and vindictive government department. Someone from my office appealed to the Tribunal and the whole amount was refunded to me. That's how money had a way of coming and clinging to me.

My wife and living elders at home were associated with a pious Brahmin who was himself a good devotee of Lord Krishna. He once took me to a popular Ranchodji's temple in a well-known town and caused me to hear mystical cries of ' JAI' and tried to impress upon me the need to believe in the existence of God and as also to become good by giving up all despicable habits. I couldn't do anything to change myself.

Like the ordinary run of people, I also in some vague way believed in the invisible superintendence of a divine power, over everything that take place in the visible world. Still, I too never cared to know much about religion and God. I certainly had respect for the religious and the saints and instead of being able to love God, I too, somehow, sometimes feared HIM.

So, when perchance, I happened to get caught in the company of those who are used to visit temples and hermitages, I always remained last and aloof, for fear that my presence might pollute the pure atmosphere or that the religious ones might not like me to be there. In other words, I felt myself a misfit whenever in the company of the good and the religious. A feeling of self-deprecation always overtook me. Yet I could do nothing to reform myself.

My mother very often used to remind me of my high lineage of birth in a noble and religious family - a family with which an international spiritual figure Swami Vwekananda was also associated."

In proof of the above statement, Sri Kanishta Bandhu handed me a book-let containing letters addressed to his paternal grand-father, by the popular Swami Vivekananda. It is a rich collection of wisdom - charged letters. With your permission, dear reader, I reproduce here one of the enlightening and inspiring letters from that booklet :—

Chicago,

29th January 1894.

Dear........

Your last letter reached me a few days ago. You have been to my poor mother and brothers. I am glad you did, But you have touched the only soft place in my heart. You ought to know that I am no hard-hearted brute, if there is any being I love in the whole world, it is my mother. Yet I believed and still believe that without my giving up the world, the great mission which Ramkrishna Paramhansa, my great Master came to preach would not see the light, and where would those young men be, who have stood as bulwarks against the surging waves of materialism and luxury of the day''. These have done a great amount of good to India, especially to Bengal, and this is only the beginning. With the Lord's help they will do things for which the whole world will bless them for ages. So, on the one hand my vision of the future of Indian religion and that of the whole world, my love for the millions of beings sinking down and down for ages with nobody to help them, nay nobody with even a thought for them, on the other hand, making those who are nearest and dearest to me miserable. I chose the former, "Lord will do the rest." He is with me, - I am sure of that if of anything. So long as I am sincere, nothing can resist me because he will be my help. Many and many in India could not understand me and how could they poor men, their thoughts never strayed beyond the everyday routine business of eating and drinking. I know few noble souls like your self only appreciate me. Lord bless your noble self. But appreciation or no appreciation, I am born to organize these young men, nay hundreds more in every city are ready to join me, and I want to send them rolling like irresistible waves over India bringing comfort, morality, religion and education to the doors of the meanest and the most down-trodden. And this I will do or die.

About the arati and other things you speak of, they are the forms of worship in every one of the monasteries in all parts of India, and worshipping of the Guru is the first duty inculcated in the Vedas. It has its bad and good sides, but you must remember we are a unique company, nobody amongst us has a right to force his faith upon the others; many of us do not believe in any form of idolatry, but they have no right to object when others do it, because that would break the first principle of our religion. Again God can only be known in and, through man. Vibrations of light are every where, even in the darkest corners, but it is only in the lamp it becomes visible to man. Similarly God, though everywhere, we can only conceive Him, as a big man. All ideas of God such as merciful preserver, helper, protector, all these are human ideas anthropomorphic and again these ideas must cling to a man, call him a Guru or a Prophet, or an Incarnation. Man cannot go beyond his nature, no more than you can jump out of your body. What harm is in some people's worshipping their Guru when that Guru was a hundred times more holy than even your historical prophets all taken together?. If there is no harm in worshipping Christ, Krishna or Buddha, why should it be so in worshipping this man who never did or thought of anything unholy, whose intellect only through intuition stands head and shoulders above all the other prophets because they were all one sided? It was he that brought first to the world this idea of the Truth, not in but of every religion which is gaining ground all over the world, and that without the help of science or philosophy or any other acquirement.

But even this is not compulsory, none of my brethren have told you that all must worship his Guru, NO-NO-NO. But again none of us has a right to object when another worships. Why? Because that would overthrow this unique society the world has ever seen, ten men of different notions and ideas living in perfect harmony. Wait, the Lord is great and merciful, you will see more.

We do not only tolerate but accept every religion, and with the Lord's help, I am trying to preach it to the whole world.

Three things are necessary to make every man great, every nation great :-

Conviction of the powers of goodness.

Absence of jealousy and suspicion.

Helping all who are trying to be and do good.

Why has the Hindu nation with all its wonderful intelligence and other things gone to pieces? I would answer you, jealousy. Never was there a nation more wretchedly jealous of each other, more envious of each other's fame and name than this wretched Hindu race. And if you ever come out in the west, the absence of this is the first thing which you will see in the western nations.

Three men cannot act in concert together in India for five minutes. Each one struggles for power and in the long run the whole organization comes to grief. Lord! Lord! When will we learn not to be jealous. In such a nation and especially in Bengal to create a band of men who are tied and bound together with a most undying love in spite of difference, is it not wonderful? This band will increase this idea of wonderful liberality joined with eternal energy, and progress must spread over India, it must electrify the whole nation and must enter the very pores of society in spite of the horrible ignorance, spite, caste-feeling, old boobyism and jealousy which is the heritage of this nation of slaves.

You are one of the few noble-natured who stand out as rocks out of water in this sea of universal stagnation. Lord bless you for ever and ever !

Yours ever faithfully,

Sd/- VIVEKANANDA

* * * * * *

Sri Kanishta Bandhu continued. "I felt ashamed, and yearned to become good. It was all just an empty longing not backed by firm action. And whatever little affirmation I endeavored to put into action, they couldn't hold water for long. I also felt sad and frustrated.

As I was thus struggling with my bad health and with thoughts for self-improvement, I came in touch with a holy person. He also happens to be from the town where I am settled. I knew him well as one associated with the Gandhian movement and later as having been initiated into the spiritual order by a great Yogi of Madhya Pradesh.

I learnt a good deal about the battles he fought with life and also how he triumphed over physical forces which hinder mental and spiritual growth.

I began to meet him in some functions occasionally and that way started to get myself more acquainted with him and his works. The more I learnt of him and saw of him, the more was I drawn to him. He is that magnetic.

To those who are rational-minded, it would at once be discernible that he remarkably combines the qualities of detached attachment, the rare ability to mingle and yet remain single, love one and all equally and create the feeling, by being accessible to everyone, then he belongs to all, irrespective of caste, class and creed. He does not impose anything upon his admirers or followers, not even religion and God, as do the mundane-minded monks. By personal example he indirectly teaches the society to give, share, sacrifice and surrender the God-given gifts for the greater good of the suffering and the downtrodden. Of him too it can be said without any fear of contradiction that he is one of the select some who truly take a genuine interest in aiding the sincere seekers to enlist spiritual transformation. He can be seen, persistently and tangibly working in this direction. He does not encourage love for miracles, lethargy and reliance on blessings. He is punctual and plans every activity logistically. What outwardly seems to the critical-minded, to be his partiality for the crooked rich persons, is in truth akin to the ways of a wise doctor giving greater attention to those who are more sick. In saying all this about the one whom I also revere, I have been motivated purely by considerations of awakened love for the good and uplifting qualities rather than drum-beating in favour of Him who defies human evaluation. Yet, had I not known that you too, swamiji, happen to know him thoroughly well, I would have kept quiet on this point.

Please now listen to the astounding event which enabled me to stop drinking. I do not know how it was brought about, but today I am free from the craving for alcohol-which according to the wise contention of Justice Tek Chand, preserves the dead and kills the living.

One day, while driving under the influence of good many pegs of liquor, I got myself involved in an accident. While all others who were then with me, escaped, I was badly hurt and had to remain bedridden for sometime. On the very next day of the nasty accident, I had a feeling of having had a vision of that holy personality whom I later accepted as my spiritual master.

After a month, he casually visited our house to meet my mother. He asked me how I felt. Because he is so free and humorous, I plainly told him that because I was bedridden, it gave me opportunities to drink more and remain boozed in the bed. He then questioned me as to when I proposed giving up drinking. To that, I forthrightly told him that it was something beyond my attempt and requested him to see if he could do anything himself to retrieve me from the clutches of the habit. Before leaving us, he gave me a few pills - the ones that he also gets from the person who especially prepares them for the Mother of Aurobindo's ashram. From the time I took those pills, I began to develop an aversion for alcohol drinks and before long I became free from the habit of drinking - to which I was a slavish addict for thirty-five years.

The way of the saints are enigmatical and it is not my case that the pills contained any potential repellants capable of inducing such an instantaneous aversion for the intake of liquor. For, had it been so, the governments of India, U.S.A., and France would have advantageously made use of it to successfully enforce prohibition.

Since I gave up drinking, my liking for smoking and eating non-vegetarian food began to diminish and I stopped smoking and switched over to exclusive vegetarian food. With this restraint and changes in habits, my health began to improve and I started becoming more spirited physically and mentally too.

Later, at the behest of my spiritual guide, I spent different periods in absolute seclusion-doing nothing else but continuously chanting the Lord's name. As a direct result of this self-confinement in solitude and constant chanting, I started experiencing inner quietude and buoyancy which worldly opulence can never grant.

With this much of inner growth, a good many humane qualities commenced to rule my day to day life. Now, turning back to the despicable life that I had led for three and a half decades, I am compelled to believe that but for the compassionate and continued care by my spiritual mentor, I would have grown worse, moving about in the society, accursed by all and as more dead than alive.

Since a few years now, I am usefully spending my time in the warmth of mental remembrance of my holy sire, chanting the sacred syllables recommended by him. Whenever he happens to visit and stay in his heavenly hermitage in the town where I live, I regularly walk the long miles in the early hours, to take tea with him before dawn and remain in his uplifting presence. On such joyous occasions, I massage his lotus feet and feast my ears by hearing him recount numerous colourful episodes and strange experiences of his wonderful life. The ecstasy I experience doing all this, on any single day, far outweighs the total pleasure I have so far derived in owning and moving about in luxury cars, rolling in riches and the cheap sensual enjoyments indulged by me, in the past, with abandon.

Now, my one prayer to the Lord is, that I may grow in greater goodness and also become fit to be ushered into the planes of higher spiritual consciousness. Then, if after the end of my present sojourn on earth, I am to be reborn, according to the grand scheme of evolution, may I be privileged to remain in the charge and company of such saints who are capable of transforming the degenerate and protecting the good from falling."

Sri Kanishta Bandhu finished the gripping account of his bad beginning in life and the newly won sense and strength. Thereafter, he thanked me for having patiently heard him and he left wishing me a good-bye.

Sri Kanishta Bandlm has indeed been released from the harmful habits and bad behaviour, by the timely succour of a saint who is also noted for such performances.

From the truthful account of Sri Kanishta Bandhu, we have before us one more exemplary case attesting to the possibility that through persistent prayers, and transference of mental suggestions, saints uplift even individuals who are thorough-bred villains.

Just as many things of nature exist and function solely for the welfare of the mankind, even so, there are some select souls who truly live and work for the redemption of the fallen.

Saints who are dedicated to this noble cause of uplifting our weak brethren to higher life, don't thunder from public platforms as do the half-baked monks, usually, for pelf plus praise. Instead, these high souls work in a casual way, from behind the screen as though, like the lightening which shines forth from within the clouds - without making empty and disturbing noise.

The venerable spiritual master of the principal character of our narration, is well known as a holy benefactor and as one who champions a good many neglected and given-up causes, purely out of spontaneous, sincere and selfless love for humanity.

As it happens in cases of all holy redeemers, it is abiding peace through ethical perfection that he too ardently yearns to usher into the present disorderly world. This is amply evident even in his salutes, satires, scorns, scribbles, screeches, searches, seekings, selections, sales, sermons, shouts, sighs, signals, silence, sobs, solicitations, sorrows, sports, studies, submissions, supplications and systems etcetera.

Having come thus far, it is but natural that those of you who don't know him-haven't met him, would like to know his name.

I do not know how you will like it, but I have attempted to hide his sweet and -magical in the flowing riddle. Please solve it and permit me to withdraw.

It is first in 'saint', 'service' & 'smiles' too,

Verily there, next, in 'roof, 'raiment', & 'rue',

It is thrice in 'intuition'- but visibly absent in loo,

What is His three-lettered prefix? I ask this of you.

It is foremost in 'meditation' and not in 'pence',

Without it, 'love', 'own', & 'Om', make no sense.

It is in 'great' & 'mysticism' -& nowhere in game,

'It is in 'all', & 'aim' - even in 'fame',

Reversed it is 'atom' what's his four-lettered name?

* * * * * *

Adieu until we meet again.
WE SHOULD FORGET (a Poem by Swamiji)

WE SHOULD FORGET that we are mere flesh, bones and blood,

Empty we must, the binding desires which our minds flood.

So should we dismiss, the notions of 'I' and mine,

Harbour we mustn't, the provincial feeling nor think on communal line,

Oust we must, thoughts of having done good to anyone,

Unassumingly forget whatever harm to us others might have done

Likewise too, we shouldn't recall pleasures indulged in the past,

Devoid of thoughts become that have made us remain down'cast.

Forget we must that we are fettered and can't rise,

Or again, that we alone can make others wise.

Readily should we forget that to live we must sin,

Gainfully drive from memory malevolent thoughts & benevolent vision win

Erase we must, the feeling we are destitutes in the field,

To succeed we must employ 'DISCRIMINATION'-our weapon & shield

Life Sketch of Swami Krishnanand

Man is the superb and supreme creation of God. Among all the animals, he has distinguished himself by his sense, intelligence and awakening to the highest level of life. Even among all the human beings, there are very few who have devoted their lives for others by offering them peace, happiness and mental satisfaction. Though few in number, such Saints are welcomed and worshiped by people. Among such saints the name of Swami Krishnani is glorious, unique and worth to be proud of. Despite having a common name "Krishnanand" he was a very unique and charismatic human being. This is only life sketch of Swami Krishnanand of Shanti Ashram, Bhadran.

Biography or Autobiography is a description of man's life right from his birth till the end, in chronological order. Swamjii never wrote or allowed anyone to write about his life. He very firmly believed that his life was not meant to get exposed in words as he didn't want publicity. Long back in 1980 I very humbly tried to get his consent to write about him, but very quietly and peacefully he denied my request. Every person's spiritual progress is really a personal process. Swamiji believed, when right maturity is achieved by a human being, he does find a Guru [a pathfinder, guide and teacher] who shows path to the follower. It is now for the follower to go ahead on the path. He firmly believed, one person's life and progress cannot lead or encourage other person to live such life. This personal belief did not allow him to write his own autobiography or allowed others to write his biography. Now that he is not with us, I try to write his life sketch for the followers and friends to quench their thirst, to know him a little bit better.

He has never written detailed accounts of his life events but sometimes he described them during conversations and lectures. There were some who used to note down this events. Of those members, Dr. C.P.Goswmi - a pathologist from Ahmedabad, used to keep notes of his lectures. During my 20 years of his company I noted some events of his life, so in this attempt of drawing his life sketch I have taken help of Swamiji's books, Dr. Goswami's notes and my own notes.

Swamiji was Born on 26th August, 1920 at 12.18 p.m. at Maymyo (now Pyin Oo Lwin) in Burma a country near North-East of India. This birth date is confirmed in 'Pathik-na-Anubhavo' (Episodes & Experiences), where a ghost tells Swamiji his birth date during their conversation. Despite being born overseas Swamiji's background was of an Indian family. The family migrated from India some three or four generations back and settled in Burma.

Swamiji enjoyed his childhood in a very rich and happy family. His father was Director in a bank and also a partner in Indo-Burma Petroleum (I.B.P) Company. Though a bit religious, his father was more conservative, well-disciplined and under the Western influence, while his mother was totally religious, having firm faith in God and well cultured. Because his father was busy in business, service and day-to-day affairs, Swamiji like other children, did spend most of the time with his mother. Other members in the family were a maternal uncle, six sisters, and a cousin brother. After five daughters, the family got twins - a daughter and a son. This son was he himself-the Swamiji. Swamiji had most affection with his twin-sister from all the family members; till he took Sanyas (renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and dedicate life to spiritual pursuits).

During the childhood Swamiji was very influenced by his mama-the maternal uncle. After death of his wife [Mami - wife of his maternal uncle] at young age, mama left everything and became a Sanyasi. Mama used to live on the top floor of the house and his visitors were mostly Saints. His father did not like this group of Saints in his house and Mama was also aware of this dislike. But for the child this presence of Saints, religion, God, the talk and discussion-became the foundation for his future. In 1940 Ma Anandamayi conducted a yagya (an ancient ritual of offering and sublimating the havana sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire) at a waterfall known as Aniskhan and Mama went there to attend and remained there till he died. Swamiji used to re-collect this incident interestingly and talked in details.

Born with a very high sense of understanding, this intelligent child started his primary education at home. Then passed his competitive test and straightway entered in fourth grade. Studying in an English medium school of Maymyo, this child cleared all his exams with very good result and used to keep his rank in between first and seventh in the class. He became one of the favorite students of his Principal. He appeared for the 1st year of College test but to the surprise and shock of all, was declared 'Fail'. The Principal himself, along with Swamiji went to the university and on re-checking found the mistake in the total of marks, he was declared pass with 1st class. In 1940, he cleared his graduation with English Literature as special subject and General subjects as subsidiary once. He secured First Class and as a result a Gold Medal. He joined M.A. degree and kept English and History as his primary subjects. But unfortunately before the result was declared, the Second World War broke out. Along with many Indian, Families, this family also left Burma to migrate back to India. So naturally his study for M.A. was left unfinished and reminded so till the end.

Though he was a bright student with an excellent progress, he was a bit timid. Not to get harassed by the co-students, Swamiji used to keep his pockets full of chocolates to please them, he gave them generously. This gave him a nickname of 'Sweety'. Although he was timid by nature, he did play mischief at times. It happened once that he slapped a co-student so hard that the glasses of that boy got broken. The result was obviously punishment. The teacher beat him with a wooden stick in front of the class. Swamiji used to narrate this uncommon-event in his lectures often. He was always quiet eager to learn something. Because of this nature he was loved by the wife of the principal. She compensated the absence of love from his mother who was busy with family duties. Apart from the motherly love from her, he learnt the manners of western life, western education and its impact on human nature. He never went to foreign countries after his arrival in India, but Swamiji was well versed in western manners of life due to the contact with principle's wife.

Generally the studious students are not much interested in sports, but to the contrary Swamiji was taking part in Table-Tennis, Billiard and chess in his college days. He participated in Table-Tennis tournaments and won a Gold Medal, not only this he was also selected at the National Level. Though he remained aloof in other sports in his later age, but he had soft corner for chess. He had very good knowledge of chess; he read many books on it and even used electronic chess. He organized a State Level tournament for chess players at Bhadran. He organized it so nicely that some of the participants remember it even today. He had no interest in cricket and he did not miss a chance to narrate these in his lectures and books.

Due to the Second World War many Indian families left Burma for their home country India. Swamiji's family was one of them. They, with a desire to go to Nagpur, their native place, left Burma. Four married and one unmarried sister left Burma by plane. Before Swamiji, his twin sister and parents reached the airport, the airport got destroyed by bombs during the war. Due to the collapse of air services they were forced to walk to Calcutta. Deserted areas, full of dead-bodies, absence of all the necessities like food and water, no shelter, pools of blood, limbs scattered all over was the picture he saw. Migrants were playing with the ornaments of gold and silver as none was needed, all they needed was food and water. People living nearby exploited the people and charged insanely for water and food. It was very tough to survive on with what little they had or found from empty houses on the way. He used to survive for 5-6 days from small amount of rice by adding water in it. Swamiji helped a rich man by risking his own life to get little rice for him. They reached Calcutta after three months. Swamiji was all with tears in his eyes whenever he used to narrate this horrific journey from Burma to Calcutta in his lectures.

At Calcutta they got shelter at a refugee camp. Now it was time to think about missing sisters who left by plane and about monetary conditions. During this tough time, fortunately they met his father's friend Mr. Bashir who was one of the directors of Indo-Burma Petroleum Company. He helped them a lot, made arrangements for stay in a well-furnished hotel and in search of the sisters who were missing. Mr.Bashir helped to get the family money from the Burmese government, cash for the family's shares in IBP Company and Insurance Company. The family got well-established again after receiving the financial aid.

At the end of 1942 the family shifted to Nagpur and settled there. Next year in 1943, his mother died and at the end of the same year his father died, that left both Swamiji and his twin-sister without family. He got a message informing that the missing sisters were in Manipur, Assam. Both Mr. Bashir and Swamiji left for Manipur to meet the sisters. On way Mr. Bashir got injured in an accident and was admitted to a hospital. Luckily they met the sisters and all came to Nagpur where they lived happily and peacefully. In 1944 Swamiji distributed the family property among sisters. His own part of around Rs. 1,00,000/- gave to his twin-sister. With this carefree position Swamiji left the house and opted for Sanyas.

"I used to be timid from childhood and also was not fully devoted in god, so I took money enough to survive for almost a year. With one pair of clothe I left the house", Swamiji used to tell his followers about his immature state when he took Sanyas. An Astrologer has forecasted when he was in Burma that three of his relatives would adopt Sanyas and so it did get materialized. First it was his maternal uncle, then a cousin brother and then he, himself. There was no intention to seek enlightenment (ultimate spiritual state) nor did he have any childhood dreams of becoming a saint.

By leaving your home you don't become a saint, it was just the beginning of his preparation to become a Sanyasi. He left his home-town and came to Nagpur where he purchased a ticket for Hubli, Karnataka. He reached to Kishkindhaa, a famous holy place. During his stay at Kishkindhaa, he roamed and visited many temples and caves. Then he went to Pampa Sarovar [a lake] where a carefree saint asked him to go to Anjanay cave and pray and visit Kartik Swami's place. On third day he went and spent the whole night of non-stop prayer and meditation but to his surprise his co-partner in that Anjanay Cave was none other than a huge python. Swamiji has described this event in one of his books. He believed his journey to self-realization started from here.

In 1948, he came back to Nagpur from Hubli and officially adopted Sanyas. He was given the official name "Krishnanand" after that. He then started his long-journey on foot. The first long distance journey was from Nagpur to Karachi. Then it was from Surat to Pondicherry. At Karachi he met Capitan Ramdas. After Karachi he went to Sakkar, there he met a saint known as Aghori Mastram and served him well. Aghori Mastram sent him to Mirpurkhas where one Shri Makrana gave him proper guidance to become fearless. He went to Saurashtra where in Adityana in Ranavav he came in touch with Yogini Devi. He also met Vishwapremji and Shantipuriji while somewhere near Shillong he met a well-versed Yogi known as "Punarjanma". In 1946 in Madhya Pradesh he met a great saint who described in detail Swamiji's two former births before this one. All this helped him to learn and increase his own knowledge about spiritual-progress. He ended up in Bhadran first time in 1952.

On the cross roads near Ananand, without any reason Swamiji stared walking towards Borsad and was directed to go to Napa village. He stayed in a Shiv temple for three days. On fourth day when Swamiji started his journey to Petlad the Pujari of temple requested him to spend Chaturmas' [a period of 4 months in monsoon during which the Saints don't travel fearing to crush insects] in Bhadran. Swamiji took the path to Bhadran.

'Shanti Ashram' is located in the west of Bhadran near the narrow-gauge railway station. A Patel built the ashram in memory of his young son's death. The ashram was built in 1925, for any Saints to stay there for few days. When Swamiji came to this Ashram he was given welcome by a blind saint named Shri Gyaniji. Initially he was treated by the local devotees and trustees as an ordinary saint. After a month or so, one of the trustees came across an English book lying by the side of Swamiji, which was biography of Shri Ram Krishna Paramhans. He then realized that Swamiji was a learned one. Slowly Swamiji attracted some old aged and educated people from the town. He was given some facilities, especially that of water by the Late Chunibhai F. Patel and also invited him for the next 'Chatur Mas'. Swamiji liked this quiet, lonely and peaceful place so he decides to spend next twelve Chatur Mas in Bhadran. In 1965, after the 12th Chaturmas Swamiji wanted to visit Cairo, Egypt which was his birth place in previous birth, but he did not get visa as war between India and Pakistan broke out.

After fulfilling his desire to complete 12 Chaturmas, he continued to do Chaturmas in Bhadran. He lived in Bhadran for 37 years more than half of his 69 years life.

In the beginning Swamiji's daily schedule was different, most of the time was spent in prayer, meditation and reading. In the evening he would talk about his own experience from his travels. He was requested to write his experiences in a book to spread the true and inspiring stories. Due to his poor writing skills in Gujarati he started writing in English, which was translated in Gujarati. He was regarded as a very good writer by many, despite him being a saint.

Until 1975, Swamiji used to beg from houses for his food. It was mentioned by an astrologer that Swamiji reached highest pick of his 'sadhana' and achieved the supreme stage of self-realization and enlightenment during 1974-75.

After 1975, Swamiji's daily routine changed. Instead of going to beg for food, he got a kitchen constructed in the Ashram. He also constructed a spacious bathroom near his prayer-room. He made some facilities for the guests also. During 1975 electricity was connected in the Ashram, till then he was using kerosene lamps.

Suitable to the nature of a spiritually devoted person, his schedule of the entire day was very perfect. He used to get up at 2.30 am in the morning every day in Bhadran or while travelling. He never altered this mid-night wake up time. After taking tea, he used to perform prayer and meditation between 3 am to 5.30 am. 5.30 am to 6.30 am for bath and other activities, 6.30 am to 7.30 am morning payers. 8 am to 9.30 am meeting with his devotees. 9.30 am to 10 am lunch, 10 am to 12 pm in the prayer room for meditation and rest. 12 pm to 2 pm was spent reading and responding to letters. 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm was spent for the mid-day bath. He used to meet people from outside of Bhadran in between 4 pm and 5 pm. 5 pm to 7 pm was spent again with the local devotees. Dinner at 7.30 pm and sleep from 8.15 pm was his unbroken daily schedule.

He never missed three occasions to visit Saurashtra.

1)To attend a mela (fair) at Mount Girnar on Maha Sivaratri (Maha Shivratri is a Hindu festival celebrated every year in reverence of Lord Shiva)

2)He would go to Savarkundla on the occasion of Jalzilana Ekadashi in the month of Bhadarva (11th month according to Gujarati calendar)

3)He would go to Bhavnagar in the month of January-Maha Shud Bij for a week.

When came in contact with the followers of Rajkot and Bhavnagar, it was learnt that Swamiji who used to keep his schedule tight and without a little change at the Ashram, he was not very strict follower of it in Saurashtra.

Guru Purnima is the unique celebration where and when a guru – a teacher is worshiped by all of his students and followers. Since his arrival in 1952, Guru Purnima was celebrated without a break.

Despite being a saint he was very proficient in social aspects of the world. He will advise his hosts well in advance of his intention of arrival. He never would use his host's phone or vehicle. He was a very good person to manage long travels. He used to say 'I never forget the person who has invited me for a dinner". He served one of his host's wife in the Ashram with same words and tone, he was served 22 years ago.

As mentioned earlier, Swamiji used to do very long distance travel by foot. He travelled to Badri-Kedar on foot three times, twice from Haridwar and once from Rudra Prayag. Due to extensive travel on foot his health deteriorated and he was unable to perform long travels. Then he started travelling in train, he preferred first class or A.C. Chair car. During his life time he visited Amarnath 5 times and Badri-Kedar 36 times. He has travelled roughly around 24,000 kms by foot and around 29,000 kms in train/car/plane.

Due to his difficult travels by foot his health got affected. First time in 1979 he got mild heart-attack. He needed to stay in Lady Pillar Hospital of Baroda for one and half month when he got the second heart-attack in 1980. In 1981, coronary bypass surgery operation was performed on him at the CMC hospital in Velor. Due to the dust of tobacco near the Ashram, Swamiji was having difficulty breathing. One of the devotee started building new Ashram for Swamiji in Dandi but due to legal issues the work was stopped. In the February of 1988 he underwent surgery for prostate gland, where he lost a lot of blood and experienced significant pain. His health was not very well in the last 10 years of his life. On 3rd August, 1989, while sleeping in his prayer room, in between 11 and 11.30 am he got a severe heart attack and he left us.

The medical students hardly get good bodies for study, which was known to Swamiji. So after the 1981 operation in Velor he decided that he would give his body to a Medical College. He arranged donation of his body to Karamsad Medical Hospital. He strongly recommended not starting any religion or fellowship after his death. He strongly stated that Shanti Ashram is a public place for saints and should not become a private property of his followers.

Swamiji created his own personality by learning and staying in touch with great soul and personalities like J. Krishnamurti, Dada Lekhraj, Shri Pandurang Athwale, Shri Mataji of Pondicherry, Dongreji Maharaj, Shambhu Maharaj and Acharya Rajnish. He accepted Shri Mota of Hariom Ashram as his guru and took deep interest in the activities of Hariom Ashram. Born in Burma, migrated to India and eventually made Bhadran his karmabhoomi (the land where one works). This soul was very unique and a privilege for the human kind.

May God Bless Us All.

Originally in Gujarati written by – N.N.Trivedi.

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Reminiscences

Episodes and Experiences

Sermons in the Storms

Light and Darkness

