One
evening in May, Baba was sitting in a chair on the lawn at Church Lane.
Some families of the judges of Allahabad's High Court were sitting
around him on the ground. I was sitting alone on the other side of the
lawn. Some time passed, and two men came and stood near me. One of them
was dressed in a black coat, like a lawyer, and the other was in the
traditional Indian dress of dhoti and kurta.
Both of
them bowed to Baba in salutation, but he did not look at them. Baba
continued to sit with his head bent, talking to the devotees near him.
The newcomers waited for some time in the hope that Baba would turn his
eyes towards them, and eventually they sat down quietly.
The man
wearing the black coat seemed to be impatient. He was signalling to the
man in the dhoti-kurta to leave. Seeing him so restless, his friend got
up to attract Baba's attention and said, "Maharaj, I have come with a
friend of mine. He is in trouble and wants your blessing." Seeing his
friend standing, the man in the black coat also stood up. Baba said to
the man wearing the dhoti-kurta, "You are a lawyer."
The man agreed. Then baba said to the man wearing the black coat, "You
are not a lawyer." He nodded. Everyone stared at Baba in
fascination. Baba asked the man directly, "What is your
trouble?"
Being nervous, the man did not reply. His lawyer friend said on his
behalf, "Maharaj, he has been involved in a murder case, and the police
are after him." Baba asked the man in the black coat, "Have
you not murdered?" He then told the truth saying, "Yes,
Maharaj." Though no details of the murder were given, Baba knew it all.
He said, "The man who you murdered was very gentle. Why
did you do this?" The man humbly replied, "Maharaj, he
was a stumbling block on my way." With grief and anger, Baba burst out
saying, "His children are still young. How will they be
brought up?" Filled with remorse, the man felt mortified
and could not give Baba any reply.
Baba
told the man that he must do a lifelong penance by taking full
responsibility for the family and ensuring that the wife and children
were looked after. Baba told him to take a vow that he would do so.
Weeping, the man promised to do what Baba commanded. Baba asked the
lawyer, "Whose court is the case to be tried in?"
The lawyer gave the name of a Muslim judge. Baba said, "All
will be well."
By
acquitting the man from the justice of the law, Maharaj ensured that
the family would be looked after. Instead of just a jail sentence, the
man did lifelong penance by serving the family. He realised the
enormity of his crime and suffered great remorse throughout his life.
