Maharaj

In April 1970 devotees gathered at Vrindavan ashram for the festival of Hanuman Jayanti. I had come from Aligarh for Maharaj ji's darshan. At one point I looked towards Baba's feet, which were hidden under his clothing, and remembered that Radhay Shyam Sarraf from Firozabad had said that Baba's feet were not at all affected by what he walked on. The more I thought about it, the more I was inclined to doubt it. I was not able to understand how it could be possible.

Maharaj went out of his room and asked me to go with him. I picked up a blanket in my left hand for Baba to sit on and went. Holding my right hand, Baba went towards the fields at the back of the ashram. I was worried when I saw the rugged field, filled with stumps of corn, jumbled bushes, shrubs, and thorns, but Baba was unconcerned about them. Looking straight ahead, he walked on that thorny field at normal speed. Neither of my hands was free and my feet, pricked by thorns, were soon bleeding. When it became too difficult for me to walk further, Baba took me by the hand and said, "Why don't you walk, what's wrong?" I told him my problem and he said, "How has this happened? Why have thorns pricked you and not me? I am also walking on the same ground." Seeing me at a loss to answer, he asked me to take out the thorns. When I had done so, the burning sensation subsided. Baba again held me by the hand and started walking towards more thorny ground. Gokhru, the thorny seeds of a plant, stuck all over the soles of my feet and it again became impossible for me to continue walking. Scolding me, Baba said, "What has happened now? Thorns have pricked only your feet. Mine have not been touched at all." When he said this, I openly expressed the doubt I had had in my mind. I apologized for my lack of faith and inability to understand the divinity of Baba's holy feet.

-Hotridutt Sharma, Aligarh