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The World Tour

O COMPASSIONATE Papa! One of your devotees expressed his desire to build an Ashram at his place. He thought that if you lived at this Ashram for six months in the year, the devotees living in places near it could conveniently come to you for Darshan and derive spiritual benefit. So the devotee built an Ashram at his place in your name. At first it was decided to name the Ashram “Ram Ashram”. The friend who was travelling with you during your early tours suggested that the Ashram might be called “Ramdas Ashram.” Hence the Ashram at present goes by that name.

O kindness-incarnate Papa! There are some devotees who have unusually great love and devotion to you. As they are very generous by nature, however much they serve you, they are not satisfied. When I meet such liberal minded devotees I feel immense joy. In order that they might soon attain God-realisation I ask them to freely utilise their wealth in charity.

O love-incarnate Papa! Among such devotees there was one mother who was planning to go on a foreign tour. You had also thought of going on a world tour. You were saying, “Ram will take Ramdas abroad some day.” This mother came to know of your idea; so she felt it would be well if she could accompany you on the foreign tour. She broached the subject to you and you agreed to go. She sold some shares and articles of value and collected enough money for the tour expenses. Another devotee, who was your form, also started with her. Besides those two persons, yourself, myself and a devotee of the Ashram in all five persons made themselves ready to go on the tour. At all the places we visited, this mother served you with all love. Your daily meals were prepared by her. Besides, she was regularly doing Japa of the Mantra with which she had been initiated by her Guru, who is none other than yourself.

O infinite Papa! Wherever we went in the course of this tour, the devotees treated us with all love and affection, and in many places they persuaded us to stay in their homes. Hence the mother who undertook to take us on the tour had not to spend as much money as she had at first expected. She purchased for us a recording machine, cine camera and many other things. She had fixed a certain amount to be spent on our world tour and did not want to retain the balance. Therefore she spent it in buying a motor car for the use of the Ashram.

O Papa, the ocean of compassion! As you are pervading everywhere and are yet beyond everything, we did not feel that we were travelling in strange lands. The sense of difference between India and abroad was never felt. Just as we speak of the parts of our own body as if they were different from one another, similarly, though both our own country and that of another are ours, we refer to other countries as foreign countries. So, all who live in foreign places are ourselves and ours. It was for this reason that all the people in these countries loved us and listened ardently to your spiritual discourses. They had the same love, devotion and reverence for you as devotees in India had. On account of the unbounded love of the devotees whom we contacted in foreign countries, we completed our world tour without the least difficulty and at last safely reached Ceylon. There was some disturbance among the Ashramites who joined us there. In the end, peace prevailed and we came back to the Ashram. The same mother who took us on this Bhu Pradakshina brought us back to the Ashram and, leaving us there returned to her place.

O grace-incarnate Papa! When we were on the world tour many of the devotees of the countries we visited promised that they would come to the Ashram here. As there was no proper accommodation and convenience for them in the event of their visit, the mother who took us on the tour offered enough funds for constructing a new building with all the necessary fittings and equipment. We constructed this building in great haste and furnished the rooms with chairs, tables and cots. In all, the building cost us about thirty five thousand rupees.

Before we went on tour abroad, this mother, in co-operation with another friend, had constructed a separate small room with an attached bathroom and toilet for your use on the left side of the main Ashram building. Besides this, the mother also joined with others in rendering financial help for the Silver Jubilee Celebration which took place in the Ashram in 1955.