Upalai – Pandharpur – In the Train

(i) The Devil Exorcised

From Angar, Ramdas went to Upalai with Ramcharandas and Bhavanishankerrao and many others and was put up in Govind Joshi’s house as on the previous occasion. Here again he observed a water fast for three days. Vast crowds of people gathered around him. Govind Joshi’s wife was greatly disturbed over the fast. Her motherly heart ached for him. She made several attempts to persuade him to take at least some milk during the fast but he would not take it. Govind Joshi in his overflowing love presented Ramdas with a red woollen shawl and a cap of the same material, for the time was winter and the cold was severe. The red shawl he gave away to Ramcharandas. On the fourth day the people of the whole village arranged for a feast in Vithoba’s temple. People of all castes joined in the dinner.

On the morning of the day fixed for the feast, Maruti, a boy who was famous for his mastery of the Gita and for his wonderful intellectual powers in expounding it, requested Ramdas to pay a short visit to his house. Ramdas agreed and in the company of about fifty devotees went to his house. Along with others Ramdas took his seat on the open verandah. Now a woman of the house was brought out and made to sit in the yard below, in front of him.

“This woman,” Maruti said, “is possessed by a devil; please have pity on her.”

Ramdas looked at her. Her long loose hair was hanging down over her shoulders and arms in a state of disorder, her face was unusually red; her eyes wide open and revolving in a weird manner. When his eyes met hers she suddenly gave vent to a shrill shriek and began to tear at her hair. Now he asked the assembled devotees to sing the Name of God in chorus. The measured cadence of the sound saturated and thrilled the air. At this the woman became wild and furious and, standing up, uttered scream after scream. After the lapse of a quarter of an hour the singing was stopped and the woman squatted down. Maruti had adorned Ramdas with a flower garland. Taking it out and going to the woman, as inspired by Ram, he threw the garland around her neck, and leaving the place returned to Joshi’s house.

In the evening, after the feast, Janardan Pant, who had met Ramdas at Angar, performed a harikatha in front of the temple, a large crowd having collected to listen to him. When the performance was in progress, Ramdas observed an old man pushing through the crowd, carrying in his arms the woman who was supposed to have been possessed by the devil. He took his seat with the woman in the temple at the back of Ramdas. The harikatha lasted for two hours and he retired to the small room which he occupied in Joshi’s house. Here came the old man with the woman. She prostrated before Ramdas and sat beside him. He saw a great change in her appearance. A settled calmness was on her face. Her eyes were lowered and there was a look of resignation in them. Her lips were moving automatically as it were, and a low sound was heard to be issuing from them. Ramdas listened and found her repeating in a low tone “Ram, Ram, Sitaram,” the names sung in a chorus in her presence in the morning. The old man who accompanied her spoke:

“Maharaj, soon after you left us this woman who is a relation of mine fled from the house, and ran like a galloping horse, myself and another pursuing her. We had a hard race. For two miles she ran and then she stopped. However, we overtook her, gasping and exhausted. She cried out in a loud voice:

“Oh! I cannot stay there any longer. I am unable to bear the presence of that saint (meaning Ramdas). I am going away.”

Then it appears the old man asked her: “Are you sure, you are leaving for good? Say that on oath.”

Then she said: “Mahadev, Hanuman, Rama are my witness. I am going, I am gone.” So saying she collapsed and fell down unconscious, and the old man with the help of others had to convey her home. From this time she had become her old self again, but she was still weak.

For Ramdas devils are none other than the evil passions that range in the human breast. They take possession of persons and dominate over them. The only way to drive them out is to awaken in their mind and heart the purity, light and glory of the indwelling Truth. As at the appearance of light, darkness vanishes, so in the presence of the pure spirit of God, the evils of the mind disappear, softening the heart with love and joy.

Some of the devotees desired that Ramdas should meet them again in Pandharpur on the Kartik ekadashi fair, an important annual festival of that shrine, where they would all assemble for the occasion. So Ramdas and others including Janardan Pant started from Upalai, and on the way halted at Shetphal where they stopped for the night. Bhajan and kirtan were performed by the villagers during the night. Ramdas had also the opportunity of again seeing and embracing the shop-keeper who had fed him forcibly during the last visit.

(ii) God Is Love – In Our Heart

The party arrived at Pandharpur on the day previous to ekadashi. Ramdas proposed to occupy the sands of the river Chandrabhaga, and accordingly they settled down on the bank, a few yards from the river. The night was cold. Chill breezes were blowing towards them from the river. The night was spent in wakefulness. Next day, the day of the festival, one by one, the several devotees whom he had met in their villages, began to pour in. Here he came in touch with a new devotee by name Prem Singh, a Rajput. He was fascinated with Ramdas and closely stuck to him. Ramdas observed fast on this day, taking only a small quantity of milk.

As the day advanced, the crowd of pilgrims on the banks increased rapidly. Nearly a lakh of people studded both the sides of the river. The vast crowd was divided into groups and some of them had tents pitched on the sands. From various camps hundreds of lights gleamed in the dark. The name of ‘Vithal’ – the deity of Pandharpur temple – rang forth from thousands of throats, while dancing and singing also commenced in many camps. Large crowds squatted round the central figure of a saint performing harikatha, preaching to the masses the value of devotion. This kind of preaching to the accompaniment of music started at several centres.

He attended one of these performances. He listened for about half an hour to the discourse of Dada Maharaj, a saint from Satara and famous in Maharashtra. Of what he said, one thing struck Ramdas as pre-eminently true, viz. “It is not that we have to love God but to realise in our hearts God who is love.”

When Ramdas had returned to his seat, one of the devotees coming to him said:

“Maharaj, throughout the day there was a huge rush at the entrance of the temple for the darshan of Vithoba. So access to the temple was difficult. Now, it being midnight, the way to the inner sanctum of the temple is clear. If you wish I can take you for the darshan of Vithoba.”

“Ram,” Ramdas replied, “Ramdas is witnessing already in front of him Vithoba in thousands of forms. Can’t you see Him squatting, standing, walking, dancing and singing in these multitudinous human forms? Do you think Vithoba is only seated in the stone image within the temple? Recognize the truth that He is seated in the shrine of your own heart and in the hearts of all beings and creatures. Verily, He is in all. He is all.”

The devotee dropped the suggestion. The night passed. The following day, the whole party of devotees – about fifty in number – had an invitation for dinner from Dhondo Pant, a brahman resident of Pandharpur. After dinner six of the party including Ramdas started on foot for Mohol. A devotee of Mohol led the party and took them to his house.

A small incident relating to Ramcharandas’ penchant for japa mala may be cited here. Before starting from Pandharpur he came to Ramdas and handing him a rosary of white tulsi beads said:

“Swamiji, I would have a mala in future because I wish to keep an account of the japa. Do turn it once on your fingers and give it to me.”

“Ram, japa mala is unnecessary for you. You are expected to repeat the divine mantram at all times and in all places,” Ramdas replied.

“No, Swamiji, I feel the need of a mala,” he persisted.

“All right, as Ram wills” said Ramdas and while revolving the mala between his fingers, it snapped with a sharp sound. The other friends sitting close by exclaimed, turning to Ramcharandas:

“Right, Swamiji told you not to have a mala, so it snapped.”

“Why not?” put in Ramcharandas doggedly. “I shall buy a new one and of a stronger make,” and he disappeared for some time and turned up with a new mala of black shining beads.

“Now, Swamiji, you may hold it in your hand for a few minutes and then return it to me,” which Ramdas did and he got back the mala this time in sound condition.

Thereafter, he would ostentatiously handle the mala and move the beads on his fingers. On the way to Mohol he would approach Ramdas frequently and say:

“Swamiji, I have done five thousand japa today,” to which Ramdas replied with a laugh:

“Ram, as you progress in the task of turning the mala, your ego seems to be assuming vaster proportions while the object of the japa is to diminish it; you are a wonderful Ram!”

(iii) The Supreme Purpose of Life

At night, on the ensuing day, Ramdas attended the harikatha of Janardan Pant at his house in the same village. On the third day devotees from Angar, Anjangaum and Upalai took part in the feast provided by Babooji. The same evening Ramdas, Ramcharandas and Bhavanishankerrao left Mohol for Bangalore by train. At the station Ramcharandas did accept a present of rupees eight from Janardan Pant, although Ramdas advised him not to. Some friends including Janardan Pant and Prem Singh followed them as far as Sholapur station where they had to detrain and catch the Bombay Mail. The train arrived but it was overcrowded. There was no room in the third-class carriages. Wherever they sought entrance into the carriage, they were repulsed by the passengers. Observing their struggle two policemen came to the rescue. They rushed forward and opening the door of a carriage provided sitting accommodation for the trio. The policemen were full of love and kindness. Why this? – because God is in all.

The train started. It might have just passed out of the station when a stout Irani (Persian) who was occupying an upper berth, jumped down and requested Ramdas to climb up and have his berth, upon which a thick quilt had been spread so that one could lie on it comfortably. Ramdas declined his kind offer and said that he preferred to remain where he was.

“May I be permitted to sit by your side for a few minutes?” he asked Ramdas.

“By all means,” answered Ramdas, and made room for him. He wedged himself between Ramdas and Ramcharandas.

“Do advise me,” he urged, “as to how I can remove the illusions of the mind and free it from the turmoil to which it is always subjected, and realise God. I am simply caught up in the attachment to wife, house, money and property.”

“You have diagnosed,” Ramdas replied, “the disease aright and also have a clear understanding of the remedy for it. Know in the first place that the God you seek is within yourself. He is the life and soul of the universe and to attain Him is the supreme purpose of life. Evil and sorrow are due to your belief that you are separate from this universal Truth. The ego has set up this wall of separation. Have a strong and intense longing to realise Him, that is, to know that your life is one with the life of the universe. Then surrender up the ego by constant identification with Him through prayer, meditation and performance of all action without desiring their fruit. As you progress on this path, which is the path of devotion, knowledge and self-surrender, your attachment to the unrealities of life will slacken, and the illusions of the mind will be dispelled. Now your heart will be filled with divine love, and your vision purified and equalised, and your actions will become the spontaneous outflow of your immortal being, yielding you the experience of true joy and peace. This is the culmination of human endeavour and fulfilment of the purpose of life.”

“Oh, how clearly and impressively you present the Truth,” exclaimed the Irani. “I wish I could have more of your society. Pray, come to Secunderabad which is my place and stay with me at least for a day. My wife and relations will be so happy to see you.”

Ramdas could not accept his invitation as his next destination had already been fixed to be Bangalore.