Chapter 36: Interested In Remaining Disinterested
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Eruch once narrated this story, related by Baba, about a Perfect Master who lived in Lucknow, between the 13th and 14th century. The Perfect Master was known as Mahboobi (androgynous), as he dressed like a woman and wore bangles. In medieval India there was a class of hijaras (eunuchs) who lived as wandering minstrels. Although they were outcasts from normal society, to earn a living they were hired to sing and play music at weddings, and also hired to wail and mourn at funerals. Such was their profession. This Sadguru was one of those and the leader of a tribe. No one in Lucknow, other than his fellow hijaras, knew he was spiritually advanced, or was in fact a Sadguru. And this is how his fame spread:
One day a group of ruffians, in a bullying mood, were about to harass and do violence to the small band of hijaras. One of the ruffians pointed out the leader of the hijaras (the Sadguru). As the man pointed to the leader and caught his eye and was about to confront him, the man suddenly stopped and could not take another step and could not lower his arm. For several minutes, no matter how he struggled, he was paralyzed in his tracks. Only when the man pleaded with the leader to release him from this spell and assured him no harm would come to the band of the hijaras did the leader restore the ruffian's ability to move. Soon after, the story spread and the occult power of the leader became known, and people recognized him as a Master.
Later, as the people of Lucknow began to worship this hijara, opposition naturally arose, for he was of a low and disdained class. To disprove the power of the leader of the hijaras, two influential families in Lucknow plotted a ruse. It was decided that two boys, the sons of these two families, would approach the Master disguised as a married couple. One of the boys would dress as a woman and together they would appear before the Master, asking him to bless them with a child. Naturally, this would be impossible, for both were males, and this would prove to the people of Lucknow that the Master was false and they would cast him into exile.
According to the plan, the two boys appeared before the Master, one dressed as a woman, and acted the part of a couple seeking the Master's blessing for a child.
The hijara inquired if they were sincere and if they were certain they wanted a child. They assured him that a child would prove a blessing.
"So be it," said the Master. "You will bear a child."
The boys returned home with the news, and the families were convinced that this would put a stop to the worship of the hijara and expose him as a fraud.