There
are so many stories of how Babaji healed people. My own brother Subodh,
who lived with us, was very nearly blind. He was a good student and
joined the education department as a temporary subinspector of schools.
He was in that post for a long time, but could not be confirmed until
he submitted a medical certificate. Because of his poor eyesight he was
afraid to go for a test, knowing that he would be rejected outright. He
kept working on a temporary basis and the result was that he had
foregone promotions and other benefits due him.
Now Babaji knew
everything and it is certain that he must have been protecting Subodh
all along. Once my auntie, who loved Subodh like a son, told Baba that
she worried about him when he went out on tours of the villages and
wanted him to stay home, safe and secure. Baba said, "Maushi Ma, there
is nothing to fear, God moves with him."
However, the question
of Subodh's confirmation remained. One day, Babaji said to him,
"Tomorrow we shall go to the doctor in Pratapgarh and have your eyes
tested." Subodh, of course, was nervous, but agreed since Babaji was
taking him. The next day they drove to Pratapgarh and the doctor tested
Subodh's eyesight. We do not kow what trick Maharaj ji played, but
Subodh received a certificate that his eyesight was quite all right. So
he got his confirmation and continued in his job.
In the
early days Babaji's photographs were few, and he himself did not want
any publicity. When Didi received a picture it would be kept hidden in
her puja room, and every morning and every
evening food would be offered to Maharaj ji's photo.
One
day she found that there were spots on his body in the picture and Didi
was very frightened at what this might mean. A few days later, my
mother had an attack of smallpox and eruptions came out on her body.
Babaji was not in Allahabad, but Siddhi Didi and others later told us
that he had eruptions on his body at the same time and then they
vanished. My mother also got cured very quickly.
In the
early sixties, before we started going to Kainchi, I was teaching in
the university and I was very fond of my reading and study. At night I
sat for at least two or three hours at my desk and read. Then I would
switch off the lamp in my study and pass through Babaji's room,
stopping to bow at the left side of his cot. I would automatically put
my hand on the leg of the cot. One night I felt a deep hole in the cot
leg. Suddenly I thought, "I take this to be Babaji's leg. Am I
mistaken?" I went on touching it, but I knew of no abscess or boil on
his leg.
A few days later, Maharaj ji and K.C. Tewari arrived
for an unscheduled visit. After we had finished our food, I went into
Babaji's room. He was on his bed and suddenly my eyes fell on his
uncovered leg. I saw a deep wound, but said nothing. Babaji said "Kya?
Kya?" [What? What?] But nothing registered; it
didn't even occur to me to bandage it.
After
Baba left, I remembered his wound and the hole in the leg of the cot.
That made me crazy. I paced all night long. For many years I never
talked about it to anyone, it was too painful and mysterious.
I
have been told that long before the temple was built, Babaji came one
night to a house in Bhumiadhar. An old gentleman was very ill and the
family was just sitting, waiting for the last breath to pass. Babaji
came and sat there and everyone began to hope that something might be
done. It was very dark; there was no electric light at the time. In the
darkness, two persons came, stood there and said, "Give us a carpet."
Babaji said, "Give it to them. Do not ask why they want it." So the
carpet was given.
The men left carrying the carpet rolled up on their shoulders, crying, "Ram
nam satya hai. Ram nam satya hai..." [The name of Ram is
infinite truth, traditionally chanted in India by those bearing a dead
body to the burning ghat.] And that old man
recovered.
One
winter day in Allahabad a woman who came regularly said her husband was
very ill. He had been suffering for some time with kidney trouble and
uremia. Babaji told her he should be operated on during the winter
months.
In the month of May that lady came to Kainchi. Her
husband was then in very critical condition and there seemed no hope of
survival, the Ramayana was even being read to
him. When
Babaji was told that the man had not had the operation, he cried,
"Drive her away! Her husband is in critical condition and she comes
here?" Babaji would not allow her to come near him.
She began to cry and said, "Dada, what is the matter? I came to Babaji
for his blessing, what shall I do now?"
Baba
said, "No, no, she will kill me also. Send her away!" And he actually
gave her quite a few slaps. Later I learned that her husband had
recovered and he lived for some time after that.
Sometimes
it seemed that a cure was not possible. A judge of the Allahabad High
Court was seriously ill and his son and daughter-in-law came to see
Baba at our house. That lady cried bitterly and said, "Baba, my
father-in-law is so very ill. You must do something."
Babaji
just replied, "When your father-in-law is so very ill, why are you not
at the hospital looking after him? Why are you coming and wasting your
time here? Jao!"
Baba did not say that he would be all
right. Nothing of the sort. He just rebuked her and sent her away. When
she came again, he said, "No, no, you should be there with him. You can
make him happy."
Then one day Babaji and I went to the hospital to see that man and the
next day he died.
I
have heard from many devotees how Babaji cured them or helped them to
face their illnesses. He would not cure them by giving some ashes from
his dhuni—he didn't have a dhuni—or
by a pat on the
head. He would tell them to see a doctor or take some medicine. The
doctors to whom he sent people would say, "I only gave medicine, Baba
gave the cure."
There was a devotee from Calcutta who was an
amateur homeopath and gave medicine to people. Maharaj ji used to call
him "my doctor." He would say, "I also sneeze sometimes, give me some
of those pills." In this way he was blessing that man and encouraging
him to continue to give medicine.
The man once brought his uncle, who was a sadhu,
to see Maharaj ji. They sat for some time in the room and when they
left, the uncle said, "How very fortunate that you have such a saint as
your guru."
The devotee was rather curious, since his uncle had
not spoken to Maharaj ji. "You wanted so much to talk to him, but you
didn't say anything."
The uncle answered, "Whatever I had to know, he communicated."
One
day Maharaj ji came to Allahabad after having been in Lucknow and he
seemed to be a little disturbed. I went with him to his room and he
said, "Dada, your friend is very ill."
I understood that he was referring to Sang, who was in the hospital in
Lucknow. I asked, "Baba, thik ho jayengi?" [Will
he be all right?]
After a moment he answered, "I do not know." I knew then that the end
was near.
I said to him, "God can cure him."
"God can do everything," was his answer.
Babaji
later went to see Sang. In the hospital room were Sang's wife and
children and a few friends. Maharaj ji's chair was drawn near Sang's
bed. Each and every one had so much on their minds and hearts. Sang, of
course, was not talking. He was just bending down, catching hold of
Babaji's feet. A few tears fell on Maharaj ji's feet. Babaji said, "If
you cry, I will go away."
Sang replied, "Baba, these are not
tears of pain or parting. These are tears of joy and fulfillment. You
are here. I have got everything."
One morning when Babaji
was staying in Bhumiadhar I went to his room and found a number of the
Mothers there. They were very much disturbed and said, "Dada, since
last night Babaji is having great pain in his knee."
I came to him, "What is the matter."
"Oh, Dada, there is very much pain."
I said, "Why are you unnecessarily teasing these persons? You don't
have any pain."
He said, "No, Dada, there is very much pain." So I asked what was to be
done. "Get me that medicine, that mocha [sprain] wallah
medicine—the medicine with the moustache!"
I
could not understand what he meant—could a medicine be made
out of a
moustache? He insisted on having it, so I went to Bhowali, a very small
town nearby, to see if there was any such medicine. I had given up
searching and was waiting for the bus near a small stationery stand.
The owner knew me well and began talking to me. He sold all kinds of
things: books, papers, pens and pencils. When I was looking in the case
I saw a carton with the picture of a hefty person who had a big
moustache—it was Sloan's Liniment. I purchased it and a
packet of
cotton and brought them back to Bhumiadhar.
"You have brought that medicine?"
"Yes, of course."
"And what is this?"
"It is cotton. After the massage, the knee has to be wrapped with
cotton."
"Oh no, Dada, that is not necessary! Only a little massage of that
medicine will do, that is enough."
I said, "No, you have been creating problems for these persons and
making them worry. Now you must have your knee wrapped."
He said, "No, just put a little liniment." That was done and the knee
was all right.
An
old devotee, Kali Babu, came often to Kainchi ashram. He, too, had pain
in his knees and joints and he used to put on an elastic bandage. When
he came, Babaji asked, "What is that? What are you wearing?"
"Babaji, it is a knee bandage, and I wear it when I have pain. It gives
much relief."
"Can
you get one for me? I also sometimes get a knee pain." So he got it and
Babaji actually sometimes would put it on in his room, but he would
never come outside with it on.
Maharaj ji had serious kidney
trouble at Vrindaban at a time when none of the Mothers were there.
Many doctors were called who gave medicine, but with no relief. After
three days, Babaji came to be all right. Everyone was very disturbed. I
heard about it when I came to Vrindaban a month later and asked Babaji
about it.
"One day I had something wrong with my urine. It was
coming too often. These persons got upset and called a doctor. He came
and examined me. He said, 'The tube has burst.' I said, 'My tube has
burst, but your tube is all right. Enjoy your good tube.' After that a
bigger doctor came from Delhi. He said, 'The urinary bladder has
burst.' I said, 'Let your bladder be broken, my bladder is all right!'"
This
is how he was narrating the story with his inimitable gestures and
postures. Then he said, "I told these people, 'Let these doctors go,
don't get any more of them. They do not know anything. They are giving
wrong advice and frightening you.' Then I went to my devotee, that
great doctor in Agra, and he said, 'Babaji, there is nothing, only that
you caught cold,' and he gave me a tablet. I was all right."
The
next year the Mothers said to me, "Dada, Babaji had that trouble with
his urine. Something must be done to test it. Also, he is not
interested in taking his food." He had stopped eating sweets
altogether. So they thought there should be a test of his urine. Of
course it had to be done in secret.
One morning the urine was
collected and I took it to a doctor's clinic in Vrindaban. That doctor
was known to us and I waited for him for some time, but he did not
come. His father said to leave the sample and it would be tested when
the doctor came and the report sent to us. When I returned to the
ashram, Babaji asked, "You got the report?"
I said no, and
explained the situation. He shouted at me, "What a fool you are! They
will mix up the sample and send a report that is wrong. This is how
they go on with their business. They will make a complicated report and
prescribe a lot of medicines and injections. Go and get it and throw it
away. Tell them I don't want any test." I did that, but, of course, the
matter did not end there.
Three or four days later, the Mothers
again said I should take a sample to the Ramakrishna Hospital nearby.
This time it had to be done in my own name. When I got the report it
said everything was all right. When I brought it, Baba said, "You have
got it?" He actually threw that report. "You people are unnecessarily
bothering me. Nothing is there." So that is the kind of thing that was
going on.
In 1972 Babaji once complained that there was
something wrong with his heart. It was painful and he could not sleep
at night. Of course, there was no question of his sleep—he
would be
awake all night whether ill or not. Someone suggested that he be taken
to Dr. Joshi, the Civil Surgeon, at Nainital. Babaji just looked at me
and said, "Joshi is coming this morning." He was a devotee and
sometimes came to Kainchi and had actually said he would be coming on
that day.
When Dr. Joshi heard the story, he said Maharaj ji
should come to have a test at Ramsay Hospital in Nainital. The next day
the devotees took Babaji to the clinic where the electrocardiogram
machine was kept. All the talk was about the machine, where it was
made, how it was made, and Babaji wanted to see how it worked. There
was no talk of disease or illness. The test was made and nothing was
wrong.
Before Maharaj ji took his mahasamadhi there
was such a drama created in Kainchi. For two days all the devotees were
confused and upset because it seemed that Babaji had had a heart
attack, but the doctor had come and said he was all right. On the ninth
of September when Babaji said he would leave, Inder at first refused to
take him to the train station because Baba had not been well. However,
Babaji insisted and it was done. On the day that he took his samadhi,
he visited his devotee in Agra, the doctor, who examined him and found
everything—heart, pulse, everything—perfect. How is
it to be explained?
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