Love Conquers Hate

THE Sadhu seemed to enjoy the treatment. He was calm and contented. Ramdas, wishing also to taste the pleasure, requested the Sadhu to exchange places with him and thus offer him also the unique opportunity of receiving the attention of the ticket-clerk. But the Sadhu would not be persuaded to abandon his enviable position. Off and on, the clerk was meting out this treatment to the willing Sadhu. This continued for nearly half an hour. The ticket collection work at last stopped. Now the clerk was totally free from work, and he turned right towards the Sadhus. He approached the other Sadhus, of whom Ramdas was the second, with the object of handling them roughly one by one. Ramdas felt much relieved to see that his turn had at last come. The clerk coming up, caught his hand in a firm grasp and looked on his face in which he discovered a most welcome smile, bright and beaming. At once he let go his hand and drawing himself back a few steps seemed to have given himself to some thinking. It was Ram who was at work. For, next instant, he asked all the Sadhus to go out of the station. Accordingly all the Sadhus left the station one by one.

‘O Ram! When Thy invincible arm protects Thy slave where was fear for him? One thing was proved incontestably and beyond any doubt and that was – Thou disarmest the evil intentions of an adversary when he approaches you in a violent mood by meeting him with a smile instead of with fear or hatred.’ Love can surely conquer hate. Love is a sovereign antidote for all the ills of the world. After all, the whole occurrence might be only Ram testing the Sadhus to see if they would lose their self-control under provocation. All that Ram does is for the best.

Now the time was about 2 o’clock past midnight. It was pitch dark. So the Sadhus sought for a place on the station for taking rest for the night. But conditions for this were far from favourable. The station was full to overflowing, as it were, with passengers. Every available nook and corner of that portion of the station intended for passengers was occupied, and they were all scattered on the floor sleeping in fantastic postures – all space filled up. However, Ramdas and his guide, the Sadhuram, crept near a pillar where there was found room for both to sit on their legs. The cold here also was very severe. The Sadhus sat up close to and pressing each other, so much so, that they seemed almost moulded into one piece. Rambhajan was going on. Ramdas became unconscious and dozed away where he sat and did not wake up until he was roused by a strong and shrill voice asking all passengers to take to their feet and walk out of the station. This was the order of the railway police.

Ramdas opened his eyes and instantly became conscious of his body which was discovered to be in a peculiar condition – the legs had turned so stiff with cold that they had stuck fast at the bend of the knee-joint, and on a look at them he further made out that from the knee downwards both the legs had swollen, and also the feet, as though they were stricken with elephantiasis. However by rubbing them briskly by both hands for about five minutes, he could unlock the stiffened joints. Slowly rising up, he hobbled along for some distance. As he walked on, the stiffness disappeared. About 8 a.m. they reached the city of Jhansi about four miles from the station.