At one point he explained, "My entire plan for 1953 has been upset and has to be radically changed."
They started on their journey and Baba's first contact in the Bhajan Ashram at Rishikesh was Nilkanthwala Mast, with whom Baba had worked during the previous March.1 Baba reemphasized that Nilkanthwala was a mast of high caliber being of the sixth plane, and he was very pleased with the contact. Baba liked Nilkanthwala so much that he worked with him again before the tour ended (on 10 June).
Proceeding to Roorkee, Baba visited the dargah of the Muslim Qutub Sabir at Kalyar Shariff, and inside the shrine bowed down to his tomb. Sabir's tomb is quite famous in Roorkee.
On the road to Muzaffarnagar, about ten miles from Roorkee, Baba saw a mast who was utterly naked. At first Baba sent Baidul to the mast to persuade him to sit under a tree by the road, and then Baba worked with him alone. Baba's contact was over when he laid his head on the mast's feet, and afterward Baba directed the men to pay their respects to him. This mast had never been previously contacted, and he was later brought to Dehra Dun, where Baba worked with him for several weeks.
In the afternoon they proceeded toward Bijnor. Wooden planks had been placed across the desert, forming a crude road over which cars could pass. While riding over them, the wheels of Baba's car slipped off the planks and the car sank into the sand. Hellan did his best to extricate it, but the wheels kept spinning and the car sank deeper. It was mid-afternoon by then; the sun was scorching and hot winds blew. Every man gave a hand to push the car out or lift it with the jack, but they could not move it forward an inch. Despite an hour's strenuous labor and sweat, their efforts failed. It seemed hopeless. They had run out of drinking water. Baba was furious. "His face was red hot," Elcha recalled. There was not a person in sight to help them and nothing but sand stretched out in all directions. Finally, a group of villagers traveling to Bijnor on foot lent a hand, and the car's wheels were placed back on the planks. Before they proceeded across the desert, the villagers who had helped in pulling out the car from the sand were each given one rupee rupee and a short ride in the jeep as they had never ridden in
Footnotes
- 1.Another account states that Nilkanthwala also lived in a cave near Swarg Ashram.