Introduction
The late Mrs. Uma Shungloo was a very religious, simple and pious,
polite,
self-respecting old Kashmiri Brahmin lady. She was dutiful,
scrupulously clean and without any modern-day evils. Once she fell
seriously ill and during her week's treatment I had to go to her house
almost daily to watch the progress. Even after she became completely
free from symptoms, my visits to her house increased on account of her
motherly love and affection towards me. The demarcations between doctor
and patient vanished and a son and mother relationship got fully
established.
I had seen Mrs. Shungloo performing puja, putting
flowers on the feet of Maharaj Neem Karoli Baba's picture, doing arti
and bestowing prasad. She was a great devotee of Babaji, narrating to
me stories about his miracles. At one point, she extracted my
'gentleman's word' that I would accompany her to 4 Church Lane in
Allahabad where Babaji used to pass his winter days.
The
house looked deserted. I was slightly dismayed and perturbed at the
fast approach of Gora, Dada's pet dog, but with Ma's assurance we dared
to enter the house. Mr. Sudhir Mukerjee, my mother's 'Dada,' greeted us
and welcomed us with folded hands. Mother touched his feet and took me
to an adjoining fragrant room where I saw a plank covered with a nice
plain bed sheet and a picture of Baba's feet surrounded by a beautiful
floral arrangement. I saw Ram Ram written [in Devanagiri script], not
by any paint or ink, but by buds of white jasmine creeper.
While
my mother got busy putting flowers and showing incense sticks to
Maharajji, I got absorbed in Maharajji's pictures hanging on the walls
of this room. After her puja, she took me inside and introduced me to
Dada and Didi (Mrs. Kamala Mukerjee, Dada's wife). When I encountered
Dada, for reasons not known to me, all the pictures which I had
witnessed in Baba's room became visible in Dada's face. Dada's face and
Baba's face looked alike to me. There was a spontaneous reflex in my
subconscious mind that Baba had appeared before me in Dada's
embodiment. Ma had told me that Baba had left this work, but I was
visualising Shri Maharajji in the body just in front of me.
Many
thoughts started hovering in my mind which I wanted to narrate to
mother, but she wanted me to take prasad in the near verandah in front
of the courtyard, which is almost a fixed place for Dada. After tea and
prasad was served, we came back and I dropped Ma at her residence.
It
was repeatedly coming in my mind that I had had the darshan of Baba. I
went to Dada's place twice or thrice on different dates. Whenever I
visited, I noticed that Dada's subject of incessant talk is only about
Maharajji's life and nothing else. I noticed his complete surrender and
dedication towards his guru.
All the personalities of the world
who have acquired fame and greatness can broadly be categorized into
two classes: people in the first category look very great from a
distance, but if you approach closer, you find they are surrounded by
many evils and worldly lures. In my opinion, they are the smallest and
worst type of people, having created a false halo around themselves.
But the people of the second category look very small and unassuming
from the distance. If you study them by coming nearer, you find that
they are very humble, polite, and devoid of any worldly evils, but are
full of godly qualities. I would call Dada one of the great ones
because of his great devotion, dedication and compassion.
Dada
has reached the terminal phase of Bhakti yoga. I can say with
confindence that he has acquired all the powers by his undaunted
devotion and dedication towards his guru, Neem Karoli Maharaj. Dada is
always in trance and absorbed into his Babaji. He is fully and
completely in his dhyana while performing his routine
duties—walking,
sitting, eating, sleeping, talking. He has developed these qualities
due to his uncompromising and non-shakable faith in his deity.
Shri
Neem Karoli Baba is no more with us, but by hearing remembrances of
Baba as narrated by Dada, Baba's life becomes visible before our eyes.
Whenever Dada starts telling the stories about Baba's life in bodily
form, it becomes crystal clear; you feel that his whole life is being
televised. Another such lively commentary of Baba's life you cannot get
easily. Taking this into consideration, Baba's devotees in India and
abroad have given great emphasis to getting down some things from our
Dada in black and white.
When Mr. Ram Dass and Mr. Jai Lakshman
visited Baba's place last, they requested me to get all relevant
information regarding their guru and stories of Maharajji recorded in
cassettes. My efforts were ongoing, but it seems that Maharajji
motivated Dada to pen down some things and to my surprise I found that
my work was done. After Baba's inspiration, Goddess Saraswati also came
down. This holy confluence has made it possible for us to learn about
Baba's life and the life of some of his great devotees.
When
the great Vyas was toiling with the idea of writing down the
Mahabharata, he required an expert steno, and Shri Ganesh presented
himself to render his service for this pious work. Ganesh was so great
an expert that he could pen down everything even before the ideas came
in Vyasa's mind.
During the period when Dada was busy in his
work of writing the stories of Baba, his pen did not encounter any full
stop. He was absorbed to such an extent that he almost forgot his
routing obligations. Occasionally Didi would put tea or lunch on his
table, but it would not draw Dada's attention. Lunch and dinner times
were disturbed. Didi was quite anxious and used to tell us about it.
My
only job left was to continuously supply him with dozens of notebooks
and ball point pens so that there might not be any hindrance due to the
shortage of these materials. After the manuscript was complete, the
typist did not dare to undertake the work. I had to take the challenge
and personally sat several hours each day and in the night with the
typist for this work to be completed.
Although Dada's manuscript
is primarily in English, specially meant for devotees of Maharajji
residing outside of India, a decision was taken by a very senior and
great devotee of Maharajji, Shri Sarvadaman Singh Raghuvansi, to bring
out the book in Hindi also. My elder brother, Shri Radheshyam Gupta,
who is expert in this work, by his hard labor completed this
translation within a very short time.
There is an old saying
that a touchstone can convert iron into gold. Undoubtedly, our saints
and sages, with their tender touch of earthen materials like human
beings, can bring about marvelous changes. Innumerable people who came
in close association with Maharajji got changed and transformed
completely. This book is the collection of a few selected flowers from
the garland of many devotees who were rejuvenated completely. The book
not only throws light on the phenomenon involved in this complete
change of life, but also gives glimpses of the inner lives of these
saints and sages of India.
I trust and believe that this book,
which is in your hand now, will lead all devotees to follow the path
shown by our Maharajji and get moksha, becoming torch bearers to the
whole of mankind in their search for godliness.
Dr. Gupta
Shaligram
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