Early in the morning of Tuesday, 28 March 1950, Baba left for Hardwar with his four companions. There he contacted 612 sadhus and mahatmas of the Nathpanthia and Nirmali sects.1 Near the center of the Nirmali camp, one of the elder mahatmas was lecturing the crowd on "the benefits derived by taking the darshan of saints and sadhus." Standing there, as if giving his full attention, Baba listened to the mahatma's sermon on spirituality for a full hour. Afterward, Baba contacted 70 female sadhus of the sect called Matajis (Mothers), and bowed his head at each woman's feet. With these women, this brought the total number of contacts to 4,510.
Returning to Motichur at 1:30 that afternoon, Baba found Vishnu and Kumar waiting for him. Vishnu had brought a telegram from Elizabeth. After instructing him on other pressing matters, Baba sent both back to Manjri Mafi. During their visit, Baba was jovial and made jokes with them, even though he was tired from the work.
March 29th was the celebration of the Hindu holy day Ram Navami — the birthday of Lord Ram. Learning of the arrival of new groups of holy men at Saat Sarovar, Baba contacted 472 sadhus and mahatmas that day. As he would come across them, even stopping them on the main road, which was crowded with all manner of traffic and throngs of people, Baba would place his head on their feet. Some sadhus were found sitting under the shade of trees and some on the banks of the Ganges. Some Baba even contacted as they were bathing in the river. Despite becoming wet and being jostled by the crowds, Baba made his way down the stone steps of the ghats leading to the river and waded into the water to make his contact. Such hardships he bore for the sake of this work.
This continuous strain — the incessant bending down to take darshan, trekking mile after mile in search of sadhus and mahatmas, and living only on one meal of rice and dal per day — finally took its toll upon his health. Baba looked worn-out, but he was determined to finish this work at any cost, because, as he indicated, he "derived a great joy from it."
On 30 March 1950, high winds were blowing from the Himalayas that misty morning and it was freezing cold. Because of the dew and mist, everything was damp.
Footnotes
- 1.The Nathpanthi sect follow the guru Machhindra Nath.