← In the Vision of GodHis autobiography, book two

CHAPTER XX

Mount Abu

(i) Sri Shanti Vijayji – A Pure Saint

Ramdas again occupied Atkhamba on the bank of Lakshmi-talao. On the day of his arrival he had an attack of high fever which lasted for three days. Ramkinkar attended on him. He grew extremely anxious about Ramdas and sometimes wept when he had very high fever. Ramdas refused to be treated with medicine and suggested a fast for a day or two. At first Ramkinkar opposed the idea but had to yield when he saw the fever continuing. A two days’ fast cured him of the malady.

Here Ramdas received an invitation from mother Elizabeth, the English lady, who was then living on Mount Abu. He made up his mind to visit Mount Abu. Ramkinkar and other friends of Jhansi proposed that he should have an ashram somewhere in Bundelkhand. After some discussion they fixed Gohkar Parvat as a place suitable for such an ashram. They insisted upon his return after the visit to Mount Abu. Ramcharandas also came to Jhansi about this time. He requested again that he be allowed to keep Ramdas’ company. The latter asked him to go in advance to Mahoba where he would meet Ramcharandas on his return from Mount Abu. Ramdas once more met Swami Nirbhayanand and his noble wife at their kuti. Before leaving Jhansi he had his last dinner with them.

A wire had been sent beforehand to mother Elizabeth of Ramdas’ coming. In due time, he reached Abu Road station. Raja Ram’s sepoy was awaiting his arrival. By motor-bus, Ramdas with his escort went up Mount Abu about twenty miles. At last he came to the bungalow of mother Elizabeth. She had at the time two prominent guests – the Thakore Saheb of Limbdi and Sir P. Pattani, Dewan of Bhavnagar State.

Mother Elizabeth greeted Ramdas with manifest joy. A room in her villa had been prepared for him. Next day the party was joined by a saint of Jamnagar, Ramprasad. Ramdas preferred to live on milk and fruit diet. He would sit at the mother’s table in the company of her distinguished guests for taking his milk and fruit. The mother was overwhelming in her love and kindness. She would almost feed him with her own hands. He remained at Mount Abu for about twelve days. He would here chronicle only one or two important incidents during his short stay on the hill.

He was ever having the Ram-mantram on his lips. The room in which he dwelt was ringing with its sound. Now mother Elizabeth had engaged some masons to raise a compound wall round her house. They were working about twenty yards from his room. One day the mother came in a hurry to him, and asked:

“Ramdas, have you taught the mantram also to the masons? I hear them repeating it while they are at work.”

In fact, the mantram was automatically uttered by all in the compound. In the nights after three, Pattani Ram – so he was named – was heard singing the mantram. He had a suite of rooms close to Ramdas’. The brahman cook and sepoys of Raja Ram and other servants were also found singing the mantram to themselves. Once when the mother with Raja Ram, Pattani Ram and Ramdas was motoring towards the famous Dilwara Temple, the car was ringing with the loud music of the mantram; every occupant of the car was singing the mantram at a high pitch. It caught everybody like a contagion.

The Dilwara Temple which they visited was a very picturesque edifice carved in white marble. The sculptor has freely lavished all his genius and skill in making the temple a unique piece of architecture. As you entered, you came upon a quadrangular set of structures with a central block in which the main image of Mahavira, the great saint of Jainism, was installed. The quadrangles consisted of long verandahs, open inside, having on the walls, ceiling and pillars exquisite carvings of emblems and designs with the figures of nude Mahavira at intervals in the niches on the walls. The cupola of the central dome was also a wonderful piece of sculpture, carved in artistic devices.

The Jain saints, who resided within the temple, were kind enough to take Ramdas round and show the interior of the shrine. At its front, there was a small structure of marble with a number of caparisoned elephants, fashioned out of pure white marble, and on the decorated howdahs of these elephants were seated effigies of ancient Jain kings.

Mother Elizabeth looked upon a Jain saint, Sri Shanti Vijayji, who lived in one of the caves of Mount Abu, as her guru or spiritual teacher. Once she had proposed to take Ramdas to him, but he evinced no enthusiasm in the matter, and the idea was dropped. But suddenly one morning the mahatma himself turned up at her villa. The mother introduced Ramdas to him. He was seated on an asan on the floor of one of her rooms. Ramdas going up to him embraced him with great joy. He returned the embrace with as much delight. Then Ramdas sat beside him. He was humility personified. He was a stout and short figure with full black beard. He wore only one cloth across his shoulders. The cloth was at places torn and dirty. His eyes had a distant look of meditation. He radiated purity and peace. Ramdas had no talk with him. He could speak only in Gujarati and Ramdas was a stranger to that tongue.

(ii) Knowledge Is to Know You Know Nothing

One day the mother took out Ramdas for a walk on the hills and she showed him the extent of her property. She said:

“I always like the society of saints; any other kind of company jars me, especially of householders who are immersed in worldly things.” In the course of the talk, Ramdas had to say: “Mother, Ramdas’ weak body may not live long. There is a presentiment that it is to drop shortly.”

“Don’t you say so, it has yet to do great things,” she returned. The period taken up by the walk was about half an hour, after which they retraced their steps to the villa.

The mother wished in her heart that he should eat meals prepared by her hands. Her silent wish strangely produced a response in him. He involuntarily requested her to feed him with food cooked by herself. With the greatest delight and overflowing love, she got ready some wheat roties for him which tasted quite heavenly.

Another day a sepoy of Raja Ram, a kind friend, took him out for a stroll. He asked the friend to lead him to a solitary place, away from the haunts of men. But being of an officious nature, the sepoy escorted him to a distant cave occupied by a sannyasi. In the midst of a jungle he found himself in front of a large wide open rock-cut cave. In it was seated a young sannyasi, clad in ochre coloured cloth, clean shaven, with a number of books scattered beside him.

The kind friend whispered into Ramdas ears: “This is Swami Kaivalyanand.” Ramdas went up to the sannyasi and prostrated before him.

With a look of surprise he asked: “To whom are you offering this salutation?”

“To Ram,” Ramdas replied.

“Who are you?”

“Ramdas.”

“Ramdas, Ramdas, funny ain’t it? There is only one Truth. Why do you assume this false duality?”

“It is Ram himself, being One, has chosen to be many.”

“Wrong, He is always one; many is false, is illusion,” he said.

“Truth has become God and His devotee for the sake of lila or play.”

“Why play?” he asked.

“For love and bliss; so, when Ramdas prostrates before you, it is yourself who do it in the form of Ramdas,” Ramdas rejoined.

“Bosh, there is only one, never two.”

“To whom are you talking then, Swamiji?”

He reflected for a while and replied, “To myself.”

“Exactly – you assume there are two, although in the light of absolute Truth there is only one.”

“No, no – no realised man believes in duality.”

“What of Tulsidas, Surdas, Kabir, Samarth Ramdas and many others?”

“Oh!” he laughed, “they had not attained jnana. They were struggling still on a lower plane!”

“But their teachings and works show that they possessed high illumination. They held out parabhakti as the highest realisation,” Ramdas rejoined.

“I maintain they were ignorant folk,” and, taking a book from the pile near him, he added, “brush them all aside, here, take this book and read; you will understand things more clearly.”

“Ramdas does not need to understand. Knowledge has been defined to him as that state in which you know that you know nothing.”

“Well, well, I say read this work; it is written by me.”

He pressed Ramdas hard to accept it. A glance at the book revealed its title and its author: “Will to Satchidanand by Swami Kaivalyananda, M.A.” Ramdas took leave of him after his usual way of a parting dandawat at his feet. He carried the book with him.

Again Ramdas, in the company of the same sepoy friend, visited the Ram mandir of the place. Here he met many Vaishnav saints who treated him with great kindness. While returning they passed through a road beside a large lake, sparkling with limpid blue waters. On the bosom of the lake were seen Europeans, in their bathing dress, rowing in pleasure boats. Mount Abu is a beautiful place, cool even at midday in the summer. The sceneries and landscapes are charming. The air is pure and refreshing.

(iii) The Mother’s Love Prevailed

On the following day, at the morning meal, Ramdas announced his desire to leave the place for Wadhwan and Limbdi wherefrom he was receiving repeated calls, the last being an urgent telegram.

The mother was greatly upset by the news. She appealed to him to remain for some days longer and looked to her guests for their support. They also, at her pressure, tried to persuade him to stay.

“Ramdas” said the mother, “the heat in Limbdi nowadays is terrible. We hear reports that even birds drop down from the trees and die on account of unbearable heat. You should not go into a fiery place from the cool heights of Abu.”

“Mother,” Ramdas replied, “love knows no discomfort. The people of Limbdi and Wadhwan are very anxious to have him with them. It is their love that calls him so imperatively.”

“No, you shall not go. I am your mother; I would take care of your frail body. It needs rest in a cool climate. Please don’t go.”

Ramdas was adamant.

He left the table and went out to the verandah. The mother ran after him and with folded hands said: “You must, Ramdas, stay with us for at least four days more; don’t say no. I depend upon you. You will oblige me so much.” Ramdas stopped and was silent for a tense minute. The mother’s appealing eyes changed the side of the balance.

“All right, mother – for four days more,” said Ramdas.

When she heard the reply she went into ecstasies. She skipped with joy and rubbed with her hands his two palms which he had held up in the mode of salutation. What a glorious heart she possessed!

Many prominent men who had come up to Abu for the summer visited Ramdas in his room and held long conversations with him. Love poured in on him from all sides. Amongst them there was also a saint named Ramprasad, from Jamnagar who lived in a small detached house, close to mother Elizabeth’s villa on the same grounds. It appeared he had founded an orphanage in Jamnagar in which the poor and helpless children found rest, training and food. The saint had expressed a desire that Ramdas should pay a visit to the orphanage, but Ram did not afford him an opportunity for fulfilling his wish.

On the day previous to his departure, Raja Ram suggested that as he was to return to his state four days later, it would be as well for him to travel in his company. As an inducement he held out:

“Ramdas, I am going in my special saloon car and you can also travel in it.”

“Ramdas’ departure tomorrow has already been fixed; he cannot change it. He travels always third class. Even if he were to travel by the same train as the one you were to go by, he would prefer a third class carriage to your well-furnished saloon,” replied Ramdas.

Raja Ram became silent. Now the mother wished to have somebody to escort Ramdas as far as Wadhwan. He made her understand that an escort was quite unnecessary as, being a fakir, he was accustomed to travel long distance alone.

“No, Ramdas, for my satisfaction I would send with you Raja Ram’s sepoy,” she said.

Raja Ram also agreed with Ramdas that there was no need of an escort for him. But the mother was unshakably firm in her resolution.

Next day the kind mother motored him and the sepoy to the bus-stand. She made him sit comfortably in the bus. As the bus moved she turned back in her motor and cast a last lingering look from eyes that were moist. She must have felt the separation very keenly. O! mother, what infinite love you have in your bosom for your child, Ramdas!

The sepoy friend, who had a basket of fruits kindly provided by mother Elizabeth, led him to a third class compartment and was about to open the door of the carriage when a sadhu, sitting near the door, shouted that there was no room in the compartment. He firmly pulled the door inwards to prevent its being opened. But the sepoy friend, a strong man, opened it in spite of the resistance and asked Ramdas to get in. When he was entering, the sadhu stretched his arm in front to obstruct his ingress. But the sepoy coming up brushed his arm aside and made way. Both found seats in the train. There was room sufficient not only for two but for ten!

In the carriage there were about a dozen sadhus. The train moved on. It reached a catering station where it would halt for over half an hour. Here the sadhus ordered for purees and curry from the platform vendor of eatables. Now they were busy with their meal when a passenger got into the compartment with purees and curry, of course, for his own dinner. The moment he entered, the sadhus rose as one man with their sticks in hand and threatened him to leave the carriage at once.

“You polluted wretch! how did you dare to get in with your meal in this compartment in which we, sadhus, are eating? Get down at once or we shall belabour you with our sticks.”

The poor passenger, like a frightened rabbit, jumped down to the platform and made his way towards another carriage.

“This is sadhuism, maharaj,” remarked the sepoy friend to Ramdas.