In plain words
One day a tall man, his arms reaching to his knees, wearing a white gown, came and stood in front of that house. He called the boy Messing to him: “My child! Your parents think you are mad, and they are ready to put you in a mental hospital or in some school. Do not go anywhere. What your ‘madness’ is, only those who know will understand; what would mad people know of it? Yours is a spiritual madness. If everyone caught this madness, the country itself would be set right. Worldly, material learning will not stick to you. So do not join a school that teaches worldly learning. Learn spiritual learning. I came only to tell you this,” he said. Then the boy: “Grandfather! Where have you come from?” he asked. “I shall tell you all that later. I have come from the very place to which I am now going. Do not forget my words. Study spiritual learning alone. Do not form ties with anyone. Look, I am going now,” he said, and vanished. Messing was astonished. “Where did he come from? Where did he go? Shall I too go back to the very place I came from?” he kept enquiring within himself.
Messing Sees ‘Raju’ at Kamalapuram
Some time passed. His parents tried to keep Messing at home, sending him nowhere, and have him taught there. That was 9 February 1909. “Here they are teaching worldly learning. But that great soul told me to learn spiritual learning. So I must not stay in this house any longer. I must go somewhere,” Messing resolved. Searching the house, he found some money in a cupboard. Taking that money, he set out. He himself did not know where he was going or what he was doing. Little by little he went round the whole world. No one asked him, ‘Where is your ticket?’ No one so much as came near him. In this way he wandered for many years. Then he entered India. He took a seat in a train going from Cuddapah to Anantapur.