This brought the total contacted so far to 794, since he began this work eight days before.
Walking along on their way back to Motichur, Eruch and Pendu noticed two crows mating. Eruch mentioned it to Baba, and added, "It is said that anyone who sees crows mating will die."
"After how long?" Baba asked.
Making light of it, Eruch said, "Within a day. Now both of us won't be alive tomorrow."
"My Kumbha Mela work is pending, and if you both 'cross over,' what will happen? Is there no remedy to save you?"
"There is one way out," Eruch joked. "If any of our relatives or acquaintances is informed of our death, we will be saved."
Baba took him seriously.
"All right. Both of you go back to Hardwar immediately and wire Keki Desai about your demise."
Their joke was backfiring. What would Gaimai say when she received the news that her eldest was dead? What would Naja say when she heard that her brother Pendu was dead? But they had to carry out Baba's instructions. They walked to Hardwar and sent a cable that they had perished.
The next day, Baba told them to send a second telegram that they were alive. As it turned out, Keki received the second telegram first, and therefore did not take the first one seriously when it arrived.
Although the crow superstition is prevalent in India (and also its "remedy"), Pendu and Eruch did not believe it; they had only broached the topic to amuse Baba. But the tables were turned and the joke was on them!
On 18 March 1950, Baba set out with the four companions for Kankhal to contact the mahatmas in the Chaitanya Dev Ashram. Near the village of Marghat, Baba led them to a camp of a sect of mahatmas. That day, Baba made 418 contacts — bowing his head down at the feet of each holy man.
While returning to Motichur late that evening, he remarked to the companions, "My work at the Kumbha Mela is, in a way, related to spirituality, although in the New Life we have nothing to do with spirituality. In the past, such holy places as we visited today were permeated with spirituality, but anyone going on a pilgrimage to them these days will find a complete absence of any so-called spiritual atmosphere."
Baba again, on Sunday, 19 March 1950, trekked to Kankhal, but this time near the Kharkhadi River side, about a mile from the village of Bhimgoda.