Bombay – Sojat Road – Kasaragod

As usual Ramdas halted at Sanjivrao’s house. On this occasion as well he went through a programme set by the friends of the place, almost similar to the one at the time of his last visit to Bombay.

He delivered a discourse in the Saraswat Association Hall before a crowded audience on God-realisation. Then again he was invited to Santa Cruz where he spoke for a short time on the principles of devotion, after an exposition by Janardan Pant on some portion of the Dasbodh of Samarth Ramdas. At Sanjivrao’s, evening bhajan and pravachan on Dasbodh by Janardan Pant became a daily programme. Suddenly Anant Buwa also turned up. At Sanjivrao’s request he performed a kirtan in his rooms. He was a fine musician and was assisted in his performance by his two sons who were experts in playing upon the harmonium and the tabla in the course of the harikatha. Anant Buwa gave an apt illustration of the incorrigible human nature which does not allow a person to keep up a steady and unruffled longing and aspiration for God. He said: a mother in the house rocks her child in the cradle and, lulling it to sleep, goes on her task of fetching water from the well. She returns with the pitcher filled and, passing by the way of the cradle, peeps in to see what the child is doing. Finding that it is sound asleep she goes in and empties the pitcher and, when coming out again for another turn, she hears a low cry from the child. Going up to the cradle she gives it a swing and the child sleeps again. Once more she fetches another pitcher of water and finds that the child is a little more restless than before and is crying louder. She goes to the cradle and gives it one more swing and the child sleeps. Thus swing after swing, the child is lulled to sleep. He concluded, similar is the case of people in the world. They cry for the Lord for a time and then forget everything about Him and one birth is gone; another birth, the child cries again and forgets all about it the next instant. Another birth passes away, so on and so forth ad infinitum. Unless and until we cry aloud, fully awake from the sleep of ignorance, we can never dream of freeing ourselves from the cycle of births and deaths and finding eternal union with God.

Of the visitors, mention has to be made of one whose name is G. Balasubramaniam. At the very first sight of Ramdas he felt a strange fascination for him. He was then holding a good position as a shorthand typist in a well-known bank of Bombay. He might have sat with Ramdas for not more than five minutes when he said to him in a spontaneous outburst as it were:

“Swamiji, I will go with you. I am determined to follow you on your tours. I shall be your stenographer and will see that your speeches and talks are correctly put down in writing. I am prepared even to go with you to foreign countries.” Saying thus he awaited Ramdas’ reply. Ramdas looking at him said:

“Ram, are you not married? Haven’t you any family at home? What is this you are saying? Do you mean to leave them and follow Ramdas?”

He replied: “I have nothing to do with all that. My one concern is to cast my lot with you.” Then Ramdas asked him to consider well over the matter and then come to a decision. The subject was dropped. But he did not forget Ramdas. When dictating these lines to him, Ramdas finds that he has been coming more and more intimately in touch with the great mission which God has started through the Anandashram of Ramnagar. Verily, God has not been lacking in providing able instruments to further the work of His service for which alone He has enabled him to dedicate his entire life. Ramdas cannot ignore the fact that the Lord Himself in the form of these instruments is fulfilling His own purpose.

During this visit, among the devotees who came into intimate touch with Ramdas besides Sanjivrao and Ratnakar, were also Karnad Gopalrao, Durgashankar Upadhyaya as also Haldipur Narayanarao. Here, Janardan Pant separated from Ramdas as he had to return to Narkhed in Sholapur district.

Hearing of Ramdas’ arrival at Bombay, Bhuderbhai and Chhotabhai of Wadhwan came down to take him over to their place.

In Wadhwan, as on the previous occasion, he stayed with Dr. Shukla. The latter and his wife Shantiben bathed him in the streams of their pure love. Bhajan, devotional music by Chhotabhai and talks with the visitors who assembled day after day to listen to the words of Ramdas, comprised the routine. At the request of the headmaster of the place, he delivered a speech in their school hall on universal love before the students who had assembled for the occasion, and also paid visits to the Bala mandirs.

Ramdas visited Zoravar Nagar where he spent a night in the house of Chunibhai and also paid a visit to the prominent Congress leader of Kathiawar, Manilal Kothari, who was at the time ill and bed-ridden. He was delighted to see Ramdas. In the course of conversation, he asked Ramdas whether he should continue to take part in politics after recovery. He was much dispirited because Mahatmaji was at the time in jail. He opened the talk with the remark that he wished he had the same free and blissful life which Ramdas was leading. Ramdas replied that the work he was doing was great and noble. Worry comes in when any work, political or otherwise, is done with a selfish motive. The secret of liberation in action lies in doing all works without the ego-sense. Here what is demanded of us is perfect self-surrender through dedication of all our actions to the Master power that controls the universe.

“Oh! how hard it is to be free from the ego and then act. I feel I am simply caught up. I cannot imagine that I could perform action bereft of the ego-sense. It is so hard,” he said.

“Nothing is hard provided you strive whole-heartedly to attain the end in view. It is quite possible to live and act as a free instrument in the hands of the Almighty,” Ramdas rejoined.

“You may be right – nay, you are right, but for myself such a state is not within the realm of possibility. However, I shall not forget you. Some day I shall make you come to me again; if not I shall go to you. Now a link is formed between us which nothing can snap,” he spoke with vehemence.

“The link is there always. We are eternally united. We are eternally one. Realise this.” Saying thus Ramdas took leave of him after partaking of some refreshments.

In Wadhwan Ramdasanudas came all the way from Northern India to meet Ramdas. On account of some malady his sight was very weak. However, he stuck on to Ramdas for over a month during his tour in Kathiawar.

From Wadhwan Ramdas proceeded to Limbdi. In Limbdi he met the old friends Raja Ram and mother Elizabeth and a host of others. The same programme as on the last occasion was gone through.

At the instance of mother Elizabeth, Ramdas was called upon to deliver a discourse in the State High School on universal love. In the hall, besides a large gathering of students, were also seated near Ramdas, mother Elizabeth, a European missionary and Pratap Singh. He spoke for about three quarters of an hour on the universal nature of love, a subject which was so dear to him. He said in the course of the speech that human life attains its highest perfection only when it is gifted with the vision that sees the one eternal Life Principle, pervading throughout the universe and dwelling in the hearts of all creatures and things. The animation and activity inherent in all the objects of creation, have their inception in the basic Truth underlying the entire manifested universe. At the conclusion of the discourse, he cited instances from the teachings of the great incarnations of the world in support of his statement:

“Buddha, Krishna, Mahaveer and Muhammad, all stood for universal love and their messages insistently proclaimed that the supreme nature of the ultimate reality or God is love. To realise love and make it an active power in us, it is essential that our heart should dazzle with purity and intellect enlightened with wisdom. Unless these conditions are fulfilled none can enter that kingdom of immortality which would bring him face to face with the supreme Deity who is eternal splendour and all-inclusive Love.”

When the speech ended, the Christian missionary congratulated Ramdas on his speech, but reminded him that he had made a grievous omission in not mentioning Jesus Christ in the same breath as the other incarnations. Ramdas assured the missionary that although he had failed to refer to Christ, he held Christ in the highest reverence and understood him as an exalted example in whom is revealed the highest glory of universal love.

A little later he again had an opportunity to meet the kind missionary at his bungalow. It was evident that the missionary was a great lover of Christ. He asked Ramdas: “Why don’t you follow Christ?”

Ramdas replied: “Ramdas has enthroned Christ in his own heart and ever feels his union with the great Teacher whereas you seem to believe that Christ is an outside ideal to hold communion with, as a person apart from you. Christ is truly the Lord of our life, soul and body. Does he not say ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’? Verily God or Christ is ever with us.”

The day of his departure from Limbdi was fixed, but Raja Ram and mother Elizabeth pressed him to postpone it for a day later, for the next day Raja Ram would start Bhagavat saptaha at his palace in memory of his late Rani saheb. Ramdas agreed to be present at this religious function only for the first day. The saptaha continues for seven days. So on the opening day of the saptaha he sat for a few hours in the midst of the devotees who assembled to listen to the reading of Srimad Bhagavat by an aged Pandit of the State. The succeeding day he departed from the place.

In company with Dr. Shukla and Popatbhai, Ramdas visited a distant village called Dhanduka. Mother Rewaben, the headmistress of the school, had invited him to her place. She had paid a visit to him with this purpose at Wadhwan. He spent a day under her hospitable roof.

From Dhanduka he and the party made directly for Rajkot via Wadhwan. He had only two companions with him during this visit, Popatbhai and Ramdasanudas. At Rajkot he met Madhavram Raval, a pure and devout soul. This young man had spent the early period of his life in the ashram of a famous saint, Sri Nathuram Sharma, undergoing strict spiritual discipline. He was now in Rajkot in the employ of the State. Ramdas and the friends with him occupied the Travellers’ Bungalow. The devotional temperament of Madhavram would reveal itself whenever he sang bhajan and got into moods of ecstasy. On the following day the party left Rajkot and as planned, reached Veraval in due time. From Veraval they travelled by taxi to Una where Maganlal was living.

During his visit, he and the friends resided in a newly built hospital ward near the quarters of Dr. Mahadevia. The friends of the place treated him, as on the last occasion, with great love and hospitality. A few days after their stay, there took place a riot between Hindus and Muhammadans in which many, on both sides, received severe injuries. The friction between these communities, breaking off and on in several parts of India, has been creating a perplexing and grievous problem for the leaders of both the communities to tackle with. What is needed on the part of both is an attitude of respect for each other’s faith. Both the Muslims and the Hindus have, at their back, equally brilliant traditions, and that they should fight each other exhibits their ignorance or wilful forgetfulness of their glorious past.

After a week’s stay Ramdas and Popatbhai took leave of the friends and travelled towards Wadhwan again. As Dr. Mahadevia desired that Ramdasanudas should continue to remain with him for the treatment of his eye-disease, he decided to stay behind.

Duly reaching Wadhwan, Ramdas with Dr. Shukla, came to Ahmedabad.

On the way to Ahmedabad they alighted at a wayside station where they went for the darshan of a Jain saint in an ashram which was said to have been occupied, at one time, by a famous saint, known as Mastram. It appears that the saint originally belonged to the European community.

In due course they reached Ahmedabad where they stayed with Dr. Shukla’s brother. Here many friends of the place came to see Ramdas. Except that he reprimanded in strong terms an educated man, holding an academic degree, for his gratuitous attack on saints in general, there was nothing worthy of note.

From Ahmedabad Ramdas travelled towards Sojat Road where Dr. Raval lived. On his way by train at the Abu Road station, a Gujarati devotee pressed him to break his journey. He spent a blissful night in the company of this friend and the pious members of his household. It has been very often expressed by the householders that it is next to impossible to live a life of utter devotion to God in the midst of the world. This statement was falsified so far as the household of this Gujarati friend was concerned. All members of the family lived, moved and had their being in absolute remembrance of God. Calmness and patience ever prevailed in the house. The friend was a pure man eking out his bare subsistence from the income derived from a petty job. Even kings and potentates might well envy his contentment. He was so pure, simple and loving. Life is indeed blessed when it is lived in the spirit in which this young man lived.

The following day Ramdas prosecuted his journey and the Gujarati friend travelled with him for some stations and then returned. Ramdas reached Sojat Road where Dr. Raval was eagerly waiting for him. Here he spent a few quiet days. One evening Raval took him out for a stroll to a distant railway bridge. They sat down on a selected spot. In the course of the talk that ensued Ramdas expounded three main principles that should guide the conduct of a human being.

(1) Right food; (2) Right action; and (3) Right society.

“Right food consists of such food as is free from the ingredients that cause irritation in the body and the mind. Satwic diet comes under this head. What is to be avoided in regard to food is the food that would set the mind in a whirl of desires and cause disease in the body. This comes under the name of rajasic, i.e. fiery, and tamasik, i.e. stale food.”

“Right action is that action in which the idea of the self is totally absent. Here the consideration of ahimsa or himsa does not apply. Any action performed with the object of attaining a selfish aim should be avoided, be it of the nature of himsa or ahimsa. Therefore, selfless action is right action and selfish action is wrong action.”

Right Society: “That society in which you feel that you are elevated, in which the mind is purified or even drawn inwards and you come by the peace of the Eternal, is right society; be the person, with whom you associate, of a lower or higher caste, of a western or eastern nationality. Avoid the company of those people by whose contact your mind is defiled and your senses go out of control, even though they happen to belong to the highest caste or race. Associate with the pure and eschew the company of the impure. This should be held as the standard which is ever true without regard to any other considerations.”

After a brief stay with Raval he caught the train for Agra.

He travelled, of course, by third class. After passing some stations Raja Ram, i.e. Thakore Saheb of Limbdi, who was also travelling by the same train in his special saloon, came to know that he was in the train. He approached Ramdas and persuaded him to occupy his car, at least as far as a certain junction where the trains were changed. Raja Ram was on his way to Delhi. There was a small compartment in the saloon-car fully equipped, which was used by mother Elizabeth when she also travelled with Raja Ram. Ramdas occupied this compartment. Before doing so he talked for some time with Raja Ram on the greatness of universal vision. The unexpected meeting proved to be highly blissful. At the junction Ramdas separated from Raja Ram and returned to the third class carriage.

Having been informed of his coming, Ramchandra Gupta was waiting at the station to receive him. He took Ramdas to the city and made him occupy a small newly built dharmashala in the precincts of a temple. Here he met many devotees and friends of the place.

It is common knowledge that the Taj Mahal of Agra is a world-famous building. Ramdas, in the company of Ramchandra Gupta, went to see this fascinating structure. Many a poet and writer of imagination has lavished his genius in describing the charming beauty of Taj Mahal. It is rightly said by one of them that the Taj Mahal is ‘a dream in marble’ It is erected in memory of Mumtaz, wife of Shah Jahan. The mausoleum exhibits the exquisite art of Moghul architecture. To fully describe it here would cover pages. He entered the Taj Mahal and witnessed the designs and carvings on the walls and the dome in the centre of the building. Next coming out he ascended one of the four minarets and remained at the top, a spectator of the vast scenery all around and the Jamuna river flowing close at the back of the mausoleum. Beautiful gardens with rectangular water reservoirs, facing the building, were laid out to heighten the enchantment of the place.

The next place he visited was the huge fort of Agra. His sight was charmed with the innumerable Mahals on which also the sculptor had exhausted his rare skill and unremitting labour. They are also of the Moghul type. When they were returning from the fort they met outside, a huge crowd of locusts settling down on the plain, in front of the fort. These creatures, as everybody knows, are the most dangerous pests that feed upon the crops and devastate the land upon which they choose to alight.

Having received a call from Jhansi, Ramdas went down to the place. The friends of Jhansi, especially Mahadev Prasad, were keenly looking for his arrival and on seeing him went into ecstasies through sheer joy. This time he resided in a kuti, far away from the city, lying on the way to the railway station. He had the unexpected delight of meeting again Swami Ramanand from whose kind surveillance he had slipped away at Pilikoti Ashram. He also evinced unfeigned delight on seeing Ramdas. On the following day Swami Ramanand left the place and Ramdas became the sole occupant of the kuti. All the old friends of Jhansi gave him the joy of their company. Mahadev Prasad remained with him day and night.

Then for about two or three days he was taken out of Jhansi by Triveni Prasad on a visit to Lalitpur and Trikamghar, an Indian State. Later he also visited Mahoba, Konch and Jalgaon in the course of which he met Jagannath, Bankeylal Gupta and Ganesh Bajpai.

Not a week had passed in Jhansi, when a letter from Ramabai at Kasaragod was received by him intimating that Gurudev had expressed a desire to see him, and Ramabai proposed that he should not delay in fulfilling Gurudev’s wish. He did not know what to do. He felt that he could not go back to Kasaragod before he had completed his all-India tour. However, when Triveni Prasad, who was looking after Ramdas in every way, was consulted in the matter, he emphatically suggested that he should respond to the call. He stated that there was no time to lose and Ramdas ought to start that very day. He agreed. Triveni Prasad took him to the Jhansi station and, procuring for him a through ticket to Kasaragod, saw him seated in the night train bound for Madras. Ramdas found himself tearing along towards the south for the Darshan of Gurudev. Duly he reached Madras where he stayed with Dr. G.S. Katre, in Mylapore. Next day he caught the Mangalore mail and reached Kasaragod. Alighting he directly went up to Anandrao’s house for the Darshan of Gurudev. Gurudev was highly pleased to see him. He was at the time almost bed-ridden. Soon after, Ramdas proceeded to Anandashram. Krishna Bai was looking forward to his coming like the proverbial chatak. As in the past she commenced visiting the ashram and rendered him her loving service.

The question arose as to whether he would again travel to the north for completing the original programme. He himself was not certain of the future plans. About ten days later Janardan Pant, hearing of Ramdas’s return to Anandashram, suddenly turned up. He had now availed himself of a sufficiently long leave to go with Ramdas on his visit to various North Indian cities in response to the invitation of friends of those places. He was eager to see Punjab and Kashmir. So he suggested that Ramdas should start again for the North and that he would keep him company. Ramdas agreed with him. Once more there was a flutter amongst Kasaragod devotees. They laid all the responsibility for this tour on the shoulders of Janardan Pant and roundly took him to task for it. This attack on him was the first of its kind, as he had to face worse music in the course of his travels with Ramdas.