Their boots had stuck so tightly to their skins that the legs of 75 of his men had to be amputated. Aspi was the only one to emerge from the ordeal unscathed. When he saw Baba, Aspi fell at his feet and cried his heart out for his men. Baba consoled him, told him not to worry and informed him that he would have to go back to the front, but that he would return safely once again, and to tell his wife so.
A similar incident involved one of Baba's ardent Sikh followers from Delhi, named Tekchand. Baba asked Eruch to narrate his story:
Tekchand, who is with the Indian Army's frontier road-building team, was deep in the Subansiri division on 9 November 1962, together with 700 unarmed non-combatants, when the Chinese troops began encircling them. They received orders to withdraw immediately, leaving everything behind. Panic seized them as they had no food and no arms! Somehow the Chinese had cut across, severing all communication between them and their base. But Tekchand instilled hope and courage into his men by assuring them they had nothing to fear because the living God, Avatar Meher Baba, was with them! And so no harm would come to them and they would get back safely. The men were visibly cheered, as Tekchand had told them much about Baba.
Taking the help of some hill tribesmen, Tekchand trekked back through the forests with the 700 men. They trekked for seven days and nights, through unfamiliar terrain, without food and without protective clothing in the biting cold, rain and slush. The whole way, Tekchand was singing bhajans in Baba's praise, with the men joining in and taking Baba's name. They encountered breathtaking hardships on the way. At one point they had to swim across turbulent waters when a bridge gave way under their weight, but they managed to get across safely. Others, overcome with hunger, accidentally ate DDT that they found at an abandoned post, mistaking it for flour! They were violently sick and vomited up the poison, and others helped them to carry on. Added to all this was their constant fear of being spied by the Chinese.
At last the incredible journey was over, and the men returned to their base in Assam, famished and terribly emaciated in their tattered clothes, but without a single casualty. In fact, not one of them even suffered from frostbite, or any chest complications in spite of the cruel cold. Thus did Tekchand return from the frontier, instrumental in bringing back his 700 men to safety through Baba's love.