With Gustadji, Baidul, Eruch and Pendu, Baba again proceeded to Kankhal the next morning, Thursday, 23 March 1950. 678 contacts were made, and Baba and the men returned wearily to Motichur at three that afternoon.
Eruch and Pendu liked to smoke, but they had run out of cigarettes. Satyapal, the teenage boy who prepared their food, knew it and would take pride in tossing a cigarette to them every now and then. Both "beggars," taking it as bhiksha, would enjoy a relieving smoke, and felt grateful to the youngster.
On the morning of the 24th, with Gustadji, Baidul, Pendu and Eruch, Baba trekked back to Kankhal, where many new contacts were made — 568 saints, sadhus, hermits and mahatmas. These holy men of varying types were congregated in ashrams and camps which were scattered throughout the mountainous area.
The following day, Baba again visited several ashrams and camps of different types of sadhus in Kankhal, and 165 more contacts were made.
Baba hiked to the area known as Mayapur with the four companions on Sunday, 26 March 1950. There in several different ashrams and gathering places, he made another large number of contacts — 937. Those in charge of the ashrams, hermitages and camps, would urge Baba to visit their different temples and take darshan of the gods and goddesses residing there. To please them, Baba would comply by bowing to these deities as well. At one crossing, on the opposite bank of the Ganges, a mahatma was standing on a branch of a tree. Baba bowed to him from afar.
On his return to Motichur that evening, Baba remarked to the companions, "My work has no real connection either with the kumbha [sacred ancient tradition] or its mela [festival]. I only want to contact as many saints, sadhus and mahatmas as possible, and take their darshan. The Kumbha Mela has afforded me this opportunity and I am taking advantage of it."
March 27th was an auspicious day of the Kumbha Mela, when thousands of saints, ascetics, anchorites, sadhus and mahatmas marched in a procession to the Ganges and plunged into its water to bathe, chanting sacred songs, mantras and prayers. Baba, however, remained in Motichur that day, washing his clothes and cleaning his grass hut. As Age noted, "The Beloved's clothes had been stained by the sadhus' dirt and ash, but although he appeared to be washing his clothes, he was actually washing the filth out of humanity."