Day 238 | 6 September 2015 | Nirahar Satyagraha in Ahmedabad

Today was an exclusive day for Walk of Hope as it marked the second Nirahar Satyagraha – Aatankvaad Aur Himsa Ke Khilaf (Against Terrorism and Violence), the first one being in Pune earlier in the padayatra. This Nirahar Satyagraha is observed as an homage to all those who have suffered as victims ofterrorism and violence across the world.

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The venue for the fast was Samutkarsh Academy of Yoga, Music & Holistic Healing and there were around 200 people present for the event. The day long fast was dotted with interactions with Sri M, soulful melodious bhajans by two well-known groups that set the right background and some quiet moments. Sri M addressed the gathering after the initial invocational chant of the Gayatri Mantra. “Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih Om, May All become Happy, May All be Free from Illness. May All See what is Auspicious, May no one Suffer. Om Peace, Peace, Peace. Loka samasta sukinoh bhavantu - May the entire universe be happy” “Respected Sri Surender Bhai Patel, Swami Adhyatmananda, Sri Karsanbhai Patel, Harish Trivediji who is the Secretary of Samutkarsh Academy and the musicians who welcomed us here with their bhajans. I would like to tell you that it is Om Bhur Bhuva ‘Svah’, and not Om Bhur Bhuva ‘Svaha’ - and all those who are seated here, my friends and my dear padayatris, I would like to say to you that Upavas, if seen in depth, is something else.” “When we see the current state of India; when violence breaks out now and then, I feel sometimes it is we have forgotten our culture. It is not outside influence or anything like that. If Indians remain firm in their culture, there will be peace and harmony. There will be no terrorism if we remain firm in our culture. Loka Samasta sukinoh bhavantu was said 3000 years ago, it is not something new. It is a part of the Vedas. It is the responsibility of anyone who considers himself or herself a citizen of India to maintain peace andharmony. We did the Nirahar Satyagraha in Pune and it will happen again in Bhopal.” “This is a symbolic Nirahar Satyagraha so that attention can be broughtto these matters. As Swamiji said, we should think about the welfare of others. Wealth comes and goes; today there is wealth, tomorrow it is not. But this Humanity, this Oneness is not found that easily. In the olden days, there were Rishis and wise people who advised kings.These days, it is not so. People are needed who can advise our rulersand leaders, there is a lack of such people today. From our rulers, knowledge will reach us, the common man. With this, we have started this padayatra and this Nirahar Satyagraha is here today and next in Bhopal.” “It is very easy doing a Nirahar Satyagraha for a day; nothing is going to happen to you. In fact, your mental faculties will be sharpened; the sadhak will find that his meditation will improve after a fast. It will be better than when one meditates on a full stomach. Apart from the spiritual aspect, this is also a token gesture for society. I wanted to do this for 2 days, but they convinced me to do it for aday. You can eat in the evening; do not think of that. I am only saying it so that you do not think the whole day about the time when food will come. Sit quietly and meditate. This message will reach out to many people.” “I would like to thank the trustees of Samutkarsh who have provided us the venue for this event. I would also like to thank Swamiji for taking time off from his busy schedule and being here with us.” Samutkarsh officials handed over a set of books to Sri M and dignitaries on the dais. Sri M was looking through the books and he had the following to say on a book of collected quotes from the Vedas: “Surendra Patel Bhai has made a book that has chants from the Vedas. I was reading it and I found one that has a connection to our upavasa today. One chant from the Rig Veda says - ‘Death is not caused only through hunger, death is inevitable for those who eat to the fullest, and for those who do not have enough to eat. The man who distributes his wealth among others is blessed by God; one who does not share his possessions with others, this includes knowledge, can make no friends’. Let us keep this in mind so that when we break our fast, we will share our food with others.” “When I showed this to Swamiji, he said that sometimes the person who eats to the fullest goes faster than the person who does not.This is a very good selection, I like it.” During the day, a group of about 70 students in various age groups came to the venue and Sri M sat amongst them for an interactive session: “I would like to thank the organisers who made this possible. This is a padayatra that we have set out on. You do understand what padayatra means, don’t you? It means that we are walking on foot. We are not taking any car or any other automobile. We started this on 12th of January from Kanyakumari. How many months has it been - it has been almost 9 months and we have reached here. I am very happy that you have come here to discuss these things. I do not know Gujarati, I know a little bit - Maja Ma and Khem Cho. We will discuss in Hindi” “You children are not like grown ups, you do not have their conditioning. You are not yet closed in your minds. When one grows up and has several experiences, one is enclosed in many cages. Someone becomes a doctor and is closed in that prison; someone says ‘I am an engineer’ and that becomes a prison. There are many such prisons. Almost everyone is trapped in such prisons.You have not yet been imprisoned. You can still fly. Our flight is this padayatra. I am now 66 years old. My hair is white, as you can see. But, my mind is like yours. It has not grown old. That is because of my guru, Mahershwarnath Babaji who kept my mind open so that it could develop. When he placed his hand on my head, no one had the power to trap me in any kind of prison. I broke all cages and flew away.” “When I see you, I feel that you are the same way. Your minds and imaginations can fly away to such far away places. If you see old people, they do not have that. They will say: we are old, where and how will we go? From Kanyakumari, we have walked an average of 20 to 25 kilometers every day. We have reached Gujarat. We have done about 3600 kilometers. When I went to Ralegan Siddhi, I told Anna Hazareji that people call me mad for doing such a thing. He said it is only by being mad that anything can be done. So, be mad.” “Take any one thing and, with your mind and bodies, remain stead fast on it like a yagnya. People will say you are mad but do not think of that. People say all kinds of things. Do not forget your own inspiration. Swami Vivekananda has said Uttishthata Jagrata Prapya Varan Nibodhata - Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. This is from the Kathopanishad; it is 3000 years old.” “We will now go to Madhya Pradesh. The yatra there is almost for 3 months, it is for 85 days. From there, we will go to UP - we will visit Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan in UP. Like this, we will reach Delhi. In Delhi, we will stay for 10 days. We will reach Haryana from there. Does anyone know where Kurukshetra is? It is in Haryana. From there, we will go to Punjab and then to Jammu and Kashmir.We still have to do 4500 kilometers. We will walk. We have set out with Hum Honge Kamyaab in our hearts.” “Why are we walking? We are walking to tell people that we are all one. Why? Because we are all human beings. You can call a human being by any name, but he or she will be a human being - call him Amar or Akbar or Anthony. This air that we breathe in is the same for all; it is not Hindu air or Muslim air or Christian air. Like that the water we drink, the food we eat is the same for all. And, when this whole drama is finished, we all go into the same ground.On birth and death, someone said, Surat Ma Janam, Kashi Ma Maran. We have come from Surat. Since we have come to Gujarat, we have increased 1 Kg each. They eat and also feed us. Padayatris are happy with that. It cannot be at every place, but it is so here. I have managed this Nirahar with great difficulty, the hosts were saying - please eat before you go.” “This yatra is for Manav Ekta. It is nothing new for India. In the ancient Vedas, in the ancient Upanishads, it is said that we are partsof that great Supreme Reality - Tat Tvam Asi. We are That. We are not this. We are enclosed in a prison and thus we feel we are separate. We have a name and we feel that we are this person and that person and there is a separate existence.I will tell you a story about this, I am sure all of you are interested in stories.” “Once upon a time, three blind men went to see an elephant. How can blind men see? But they went to see an elephant anyway. This is a very old story from the Jain Tradition and it was later adopted in the Sufi Traditions. Jalal-ud-din Rumi expressed this story very beautifully in Persian. It was also the favourite story of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If you close your eyes and want to know who M is, you will touch and form an image. Like that, three blind men went to see an elephant.One touched the leg and said that this elephant is like a pillar that moves sometimes. The second one touched the trunk and said that this is like a rubber hose that moves now and then, sometimes it makes the sound Phus Phus... The third one touched the tail and said this is like a broom that moves to and fro.If you go near it, it may whack you.” “So, these three blind men started fighting over what an elephant was.They started fighting and it turned violent - they did not burn buses,but it almost got to that point. At that time, someone who was not blind reached there - someone like us whose eyes were open and could see. Here, between us, there are many, many people who have eyes but do not open them and see; theylive their whole lives blind. Such a one who could see reached thereand asked them why they were fighting. They said that they all knew what an elephant was and they were convinced of their own definitions;they were convinced that what they knew was the only right description of the elephant.” “The man with sight, said - What you are saying is right, what each one of you is saying is absolutely right. But, the elephant is something greater than your definitions. The elephant is something that cannot be caught by your limited definitions.The Truth is like that. It cannot be caught by our five senses. We are blind. We conceptualise Reality, Truth, God and we say that thisis it, this is the truth, this is the only truth, and there is nothing else, everything else is false. It is notso. Reality cannot be conceptualized. Rishis and Munis, whose eyes were open, knew what actuality is.” “If we have to see Truth and this Universe as it is, it is needed that we open our eyes. How do we do that? First, we should understand that these senses are limited - what we can see and understand is limited. There is much that is beyond this. If you think this way,then you will be able to do many things that have not been done till now. We think that the Theory of Relativity given by Albert Einstein was the greatest work in the history of humanity. I say that there maybe someone amongst you who can discover something greater than that -is it not possible? I feel it is possible.” “First of all, understand that we have to stay together. And second – I know, looking at your faces, that you will do something good in this world, you have my blessings. Do not let anyone forget that we are all one. We may have different names - the elephant may have different descriptions in parts - but we are all One. When you go back, share this with your friends and family. Say to them that someone came here and spoke about Humanity and Oneness.The seeds that have been planted will grow into a majestic tree one day and there will be flowers and fruits of many different kinds. Every flower is not the same and the fragrance of each and every flower will be different. One day, such flowers will blossom in your minds and the fragrance will spread all over India - not only India, all over the world. Remember that there is nothing that you cannot do. Have faith and perseverance.” “Namaskaar”. The floor was thrown open for questions and many of the children came forward with their queries. Q. How many days has it taken you to reach here? A. We have done 3600 kilometers, walking from Kanyakumari. We have done 235 days till now. I feel that we will take 250 days more. What do you think? Will we be able to walk? Q. We players cannot even think of this kind of exercise, of walking this much, and that too day after day. How did you think that you would be able to walk this much? A. This is what I am saying. Do not think that it is not possible. In any sport, be it high jump, long jump - any sport, do not feel that you cannot do what you feel like doing. When you believe that you can achieve something, then a power manifests itself, it is not the common power of man, it is the power of God. It is easy to tap that. The secret to tapping that energy is faith. ‘Faith can move mountains’ - this is said somewhere. Secondly, I have full faith that if you attempt this, then you can also do it. But you cannot leave your school and come with us. Lastly, you said that you were a ‘player’. We are also players. We have set out with that mentality and attitude. We have faith that we can do it. Q. Where did you get the inspiration to do this? A. This is a very good question. I did not get inspiration from any place outside of myself. Because on seeing violence outside, on seeing the acts people commit on each other, I could not stand it anymore and I felt that I had to do something. Many days, I had it in my mind and a time came when I could not contain it any longer. This is how it has manifested on the outside. Many years ago, my guru Maheshwarnath Babaji told me that you would walk one day from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. I told him that I am not going to do any such thing. I told him that I will walk behind him in the Himalayas.He reminded me of the time when he had asked me what I consider myself in relation to him. I had told him that I considered myself his dog. He asked me if I had said that or not. I said, Yes I had said that. He had then said to me, do not wag your tail too much and I said Aadesh. We say that in our Nath Tradition. He just said that I should do what I am told. For many years, I postponed this. I wonder how to do this, why to do this. You are seeing me with many people here, but I am not like this.I love living in solitude. If you leave me alone in a room, then I can stay inside it for many, many days. But, this work has been given tome. And, I cannot bear it in my heart looking at all the violence and killing. With a lot of pain in my heart, I have started meeting people. We have set out with the message of Peace, Harmony and Oneness. Q. The people who are walking with you, how many of them are there with you with their full minds and hearts – sachche dil se? (Everyone breaks into laughter at the question) A. (Laughing) This is a very good question. It is like this. There are 60 to 70 people walking with me from Kanyakumari, this is the core group. I know them from before. I feel that they are walking with their minds and hearts. I feel that they will be with me till Srinagar; this is their goal. Wherever we go, people associate with us, sometimes 100, sometimes 200. When we were in Mysore, then 1000 people walked with us. In Natepute of Maharashtra, there were 600 school children walking with us. I have no way of finding out what is in their minds. But, they do walk with us for a few days. When they walk with us leaving everything behind, I feel it is like a yagnya. There must be something because of which they are walking. There might be those who are walking so that they come in the video or the newspaper, it is so. But, most are not like that. Q. You are a Muslim and there are many there with you who are Hindus. Did your family not say anything? A. It is like this. You said that I am a Muslim. I was born in a Muslim family; it does not mean that I am a Muslim. I am now a Manav. I am a citizen of India. I will tell you the meaning of Hindu - you said that there are Hindus walking with me. There are also Christians, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, Parsis, there are people from all religions walking with me. The word 'Hindu' has nothing to do with religion, people have misunderstood it. Someone who lives in India is a Hindu. When traders from the Arab world came to India to trade with us -there were many trade routes in the Kutch area - this India was known as al-Hind. All those who stayed in al-Hind here were known as Hindi. If you take that ‘i’ away and put ‘u’ there, it becomes Hindu. When people go for Haj, they have a list there of all the people. They have a list of who came from where. The Muslims from India are known as Hind Muslim. There is nothing wrong. They are residents of al-Hind but their religion is Islam. For me, it is not so. I am a Manav. For me, the religion is Manav Ekta. I cannot stay in any other religion. Q. What did you want to become when you were young? A. When I was young, maybe 4 or 5 years, I never thought what I would become. But, when I looked up and saw the clouds, I felt that somewhere far away, there maybe mountains with snow. Where did this image come from? Some sankalpas from my previous life were left. That is why when I was 8 or 9 years old, I felt that I should become a yogi. People think of different things, I felt that Iwould become a yogi. I felt like moving from darkness towards light. A yogi does not mean someone who does asanas - that is also a part of yoga. Yoga, as is said in Patanjali Sutra -Yogas-Chitti-Vritti-Nirodha, helps to calm the mind, to remove veils of the mind and to go within. We feel that we are limited beings but when we go within, we know that we are beings with unlimited potential.We will understand that and experience that. This is the definition of yoga. We grow when this happens - the body remains the same. This was my aim. I had to work very hard for this. With Guru’s grace, I feel that I reached there, I don’t know. Q. How are we to increase our sadhana? A. What sadhana do you do? A child is asking what should one do to increase our sadhana. The adults are quiet; the child is asking such a question! Swami Vivekananda said, Atmano Moksharth, jagat hitaya cha. One must think of the liberation of the soul and the welfare of the world. When one does mantra japa, it is best to take it from someone who has siddhi of that mantra japa. It can be taken from a book also. But, the one who gives the Upadesha, one who has Saakhshatkar of the deity, can plant the seed within. This is the first thing, do your sadhana regularly. This is not done that you do sadhana one day and play tennis the next day - tennis is fine, but prioritise your sadhana. People come to me and say that I want to do sadhana, but there is no time. They say that I want to play tennis the first thing in the morning. Then, I have to take my dog for a walk. Then, it is time to read the newspaper. And then, it is time to go to the office. So, I have no time to do sadhana. They say this to me and then ask how do I do my sadhana, how to progress. This means that the priorities are not right. When one feels and understands that sadhana is as important as the food we regularly, then slowly it will become okay.” “Also, in your day to day life, do things that will purify your mind. If you do not do that, your mind will not settle down when you sit. These things have to go side by side.Cleanliness is a big thing. The inside and outside should be clean. The body should be clean. The mind should also be kept clean.” With this, the interaction with the children came to an end. Before the interaction, the children were shown videos of the Walk. The event ended at the scheduled time and Sri M spoke a few words just before he broke the fast: “Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāramvyāptamyenacarācaram Tatpadam darśitam yena tasmai śri gurave namah (Which) pervades the entire unbroken form of the circle (of creation), moving and unmoving. To that beautiful and benevolent Guru through whom that state was revealed (to me), salutations. Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwara Gurur Sakshat Parabrahma Tasmai Shree Guruvey Namaha The Guru is Brahma (The creator), Lord Vishnu (The preserver, and Lord Shiva (the destroyer) To that very Guru I bow, for He is the Supreme Being, right before my eyes.” “My namaskars to all of you. When this padayatra by Manav Ekta Mission reached Ahmedabad, we felt that we will do this Nirahar Satyagraha at the Sabarmati Ashram. But we did it here and I feel that it is good that we chose this venue. Many of you are here and have done Nirahar Satyagraha with me. First, I want to say a few words on what Nirahar means. Niraha rmeans without food. And satyagraha, you know what that means. What we have done here is a token fast; it is nothing big. We did this token fast against terrorism and violence. The message of this is that we will not eat; we will die but not let terrorism happen. This is our vow.Are you with me on this or not?” (A resounding Yes from the audience) “This India is a land where we live with peace, harmony, oneness and human dignity. To strengthen this, to spread this message is our duty.We are doing this and Nirahar Satyagraha - against terrorism and violence. We will continue doing this until the time when people feel that something should be done about this.” “I thank all of you that you are here with me. I thank the trusteesthat you have let us use this place for this purpose. I thank the organisers for making this possible.” “Has anything happened to any of you because you did not eat for a day? Nothing has happened because there is faith within one’s heart. Keep that faith alive. Do not let go of that faith. As Swami Vivekananda has said Uttishthata Jagrata Prapya Varan Nibodhata - Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. This yatra will not finish in April of 2016, the token yatra will finish when we reach Kashmir, but this yatra will not finish.” “Please break your fast and then we will meditate. I know that you cannot meditate now. When Gautam Buddha was wandering in search of Nirvana with his monk devotees, someone gave him a little food. After eating, he sat under the tree and found Nirvana.” “Thank you and Namaskar.” “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti” After the fast, the padayatris went back to their place and rested for some time. In the evening, they gathered again at the river front Sabarmati Ashram for the evening Satsang. An inter-faith prayer and invocation preceded the Satsang. Gandhiji established Sabarmati Ashram, also known as Harijan Ashram, in 1917 as he wanted to try out some experiments on simple living. He took up an open land to farm, breed cows, weave khadi, etc., The Ashram is situated between a prison and a crematorium. Gandhiji believed that the Satyagraha movement would finally end in any of these places! According to myths, this land was where Rishi Dadhichi’s ashram was situated. Sri M’s evening address at Sabarmati Ashram went thus: “Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih Om, May All become Happy, May All be Free from Illness. May All See what is Auspicious, May no one Suffer. Om Peace, Peace, Peace. Loka samasta sukinoh bhavantu - May the entire universe be happy” “My Namaskars to all of you. I thank you for inviting us to the Gandhi Ashram. The Sabarmati River is flowing close to us. Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi - whom we call Bapu, whom we call Gandhiji - we cannot do even 1 percent of the work he has done. When one thinks of what he has accomplished, one is in awe. Why? Because he did not commit an act of violence. He did Satyagraha and told the Britishers to leave. But, not even once he did not talk about violence. I have read his books; I have read what he says. He says that this Satyagraha is not for a weak person. He says one who is weak commits an act of violence. One who is strong in mind lives with non-violence. He turned prevalent ideas upside down.” “He said that non-violence is a great weapon in the freedom struggle.It was not that Mahatma Gandhiji said these things for the first time. These things were said many thousand of years ago in India. He revived the essence of what was said.Now, many years have passed and he has left us. Whenever I come to Sabarmati ashram, then I see Gandhiji’s face everywhere. It is not as if I see a vision, there is a feeling.” “This padayatra that we have taken from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, understand that this is a lesson from Gandhiji’s life. We felt that people will call us mad but we will do it. That is why we are walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. When I went to Ralegan Siddhi, I said to Annaji that people call me mad. This would have been okay in the time of Gandhiji, but now he is walking like a mad man in the rain, in the sun, where is he wandering? He said, only if one is mad can one do any work.” “If anyone feels like doing some good work, do that good work, do not think of public opinion. If the task is successful, they will give you flower garlands. If the work ends in failure, they will throw stones at you. The world is such.It is very difficult to hug the one who throws stones at you. You may say that it is not practical. But, Gandhiji showed that it ispractical. It will take some time. We plant a seed and it takes sometime. Our work is to plant the seed, and we will do that.The people who we interact with, we tell them that we have left seeds behind and one day a tree will grow under which many can live in peace. With this, we are walking. We do not have any political affiliations, we do not want any votes.” “Babaji said to me once that you will walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.I told him that I have no interest in this. I do not want to take people with me and walk; I will sit somewhere under a tree. Babaji said to me, do what I tell you to. I understood that what he says might not look right for us at the moment but what happens in the end is for the good.” “We have now completed close to 3600 kilometers till now. People from all states are walking with me. People from outside India are also walking with me. First, we have to bring peace in our homes and then we have to take it outside. As is said, Loka Samasta Sukinoh Bhavantu - this yatra is for the welfare and for peace of all beings. That is why people from all states and outside are here. This is yatra for Manav Ekta. Wherever we go, we tell people that your religion may be different, you may have different ideas and beliefs, and you may have opinions but do not forget that you are all human beings. It is better to live together,there will be peace and harmony that way.“ “This is a nation where, Ahimsa Paramo Dharma as Mahavira said, has been practised for thousands of years. This does not mean that you dissolve the police force or the army. This means that this seed should take hold in the mind - that we are all human beings, we are all born of the mother’s womb and we all go into this earth whenthis game is up.There can be a difference in opinions but it can be sorted out through dialogue, there is no need for violence, it may take some time but the result will be good. Understand that all good things take time. There is no short cut in this. For this, we are doing this padayatra. There are many people walking with me. I do not feel I am walking alone.” “I do not think that it works if we go in vehicles and do this. If you take a big car to a village, they will think that you have come there to buy some land, they will not even talk toyou. If you walk there, they feel that you are one of them, that you understand them. Even now 70% of the population of India stays in villages.We feel that we live in the cities, and everything is easy. If one wants rice, one goes to the supermarket, gives a hundred rupees and gets a bag of rice. In a village, if one wants rice, one goes to the fields and grows rice. He knows the value of food. We, in the cities, do not know the value of things. When we go to villages and say these things to people.They say to us ‘what you are saying is good, we also think the same way but we cannot say anything. It is good that you are saying these things.’ Wherever we go, they support us. We have found support from all communities - from Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis – everyone we have met supports us. We have been to every place of worship that we have come across; we have visited temples, mosques, dargahs, churches, etc. We go there and we pray there.” “We could not go to one Parsi temple because they did not allow usinside, so we prayed from the outside. In Parsi religion, fire worship is done in the purest form, as it was done in the Vedic times. They have maintained that. Others are not doing that, only they are. India is a land where we have stayed together as one for thousands ofyears. Our message is to not let people forget this that we are One. If we live together as One, then India will become very strong as a nation. There are many who are walking with me, they feel the same have faith in this message. If it were not so, why would they be walking?” “I would not like to say anything else. Because, talking too much does not work. It works by actually working.Once St. Francis of Assisi was going somewhere with his disciples, he also walked like us. So, his disciples said during the walk, please give us a discourse. St. Francis said, I will, but after the walk. So, the walk finished and they were resting under a tree somewhere. His disciples asked, please give us the discourse like you said you would. St. Francis said, my walk is my talk.” “This is also my state. We walk and people see we are walking and they understand the message.” “Before I finish, let me summarise. Spreading of the message of truth -Gandhiji also said this; doing this through non-violent means;thirdly, simple and sustainable living. Women empowerment; living with love, kindness and compassion. All this comes from my spiritual experience. It has not come from reading anything outside. When we came here, we saw these things written on the wall and I felt nice that all great people think similarly.” “I thank you for providing us an opportunity to have the Satsang here under these trees, in this beautiful environment, next to the river.” “Thank you and Namaskar” “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti” After, this, there was a short interaction with the gathering at the Ashram. Q. Please relate to us your experience with Babaji. A. What am I to tell you about Babaji and my experiences with him? As is said in the Upanishad, Yad vacha anabhyuditam - that which words cannot describe, he is a being like that. The body is there but such beings cannot be defined. But because you have asked, I have to say something. I will not tell you about Sri Guru Babaji, I will tell you about my guru, Maheshwarnath Babaji. If you know about him, then you will also know about Sri Guru Babaji. If you have read my autobiography, then speaking about these experiences is not really needed. I will tell you some experiences that are not there in my autobiography. These will come in my next book, so read it once it is released. Babaji and I lived in the Mauni Baba cave on the way to Neelkanth, on the other side of the Ganges. Mauni Baba used to shift and leave a Brahmachari to serve us. Once when we were living there, 4 or 5 Bairagi Sadhus came there. Bairagi Sadhus are from the Ramananda sect. They came and did pranams to Babaji. He asked why they were there.They said that a wild elephant was wandering here and there in the forest and it broke a temple yesterday and the day before it had killed three sadhus. Babaji asked - why the sadhus were in the jungle in the night. He said that the jungle was the territory of the wild elephant.He told them to go to the forest conservator.The Sadhus said that they did that but nothing happened. Babaji said -okay you go, Ram Ram, I will see. Saying so, he sent them off. After they left, he asked me what I thought of it. I said that they had come to you in fear because two or three sadhus had died. He asked me if If elt that these sadhus had come so that they could have a darshan. I said - No, I did not think that. He said, okay, Dekha Jayega - we will see. Babaji said Dekha Jayega to everything. When I was 19 years old and went to him in Vyasa Guha. I said to him that I will not leave him, and I will stay with him. He said to that Dekha Jayega.So, in the night, at 12 or 1 - we did not have a wrist watch –Babaji said, Utho. So we went to the forest and sat on a rock there. The forest was in a valley, there were mountains on either side and between them was this valley and we were in the valley.Babaji said, Baitho. I sat and was looking here and there like a dog. It was a Pournami night and I saw a tiger on the other side. I felt that we were done for. But, the tiger looked at us and went its way.I felt safe that it was gone and thought that now we will meditate. Everything was silent. An elephant can come close and one will not know, it has that capability. It can come very close without making a noise. It is very big but it can move stealthily. We are here and that building is there, where those trees are (points to a house 10 feet away), the elephant charged at us. You tell me what could I have done? I caught hold of Babaji’s feet and closed my eyes. The elephant charged at us at full speed making a loud noise. I felt that we were done for; I closed my eyes and started chanting Om Sri Gurubhyo Namaha. The elephant came to a grinding halt close to us. Babaji tapped me on the head. I opened my eyes and saw the elephant there (points to a spot about 3-4 feet away). Babaji got up and went up to the elephant and said, elephants do not do such things, like killing sadhus, be quiet. See, if one is quiet inside, then other beings can also become quiet in his or her presence. Please - do not go to a circus and touch the animals there, you are not yet quiet. That elephant raised its trunk and made a noise. I was there, on that rock, looking at everything that was going on. Babaji said, come here. He said - this elephant is connected to you from your previous birth, do pranams. I did pranams to the elephant and that elephant placed its trunk on my head. Babaji told that elephant to go away and the elephant went away. I will not tell you anything else. I understood that this Babaji I am wandering with is something else; he cannot be defined. I do not want to say anything else. One should not overdose on medicine.” Later, dinner was also organised at the ashram; following this, they turned in after a long and eventful day.