Installment 5 – In the Interior of India
18th-30th August 1924, folios 25-32
Having canceled the tramp from Hardwar to Sakori, Baba and the mandali now embarked on a tour of the interior of India. The first port of call was Moradabad, located in the north. From there they traveled south by train to Bhopal, Rutlam, Baroda, Ujjain, Mortaka, and other cities in what today is known as Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. After a hike up into the Pavagadh Hills, the chapter concludes with a trip to Bombay.
Particularly notable during the stay in Moradabad was the contact with what appeared to be a filthy madman whom Baba explained to be “drowned in Divinity.” Here Baba explained to the mandali what a mast is, [continuing their “education” about masts which had begun in 1923 with His earliest recorded mast contact in Quetta.] At Ujjain Baba contacted many sadhus; one of them, a leper, was, as Baba explained, spiritually advanced. The three-mile trek up into the Pavagadh Hills brought Baba and the mandali to a temple dedicated to Kali and the tomb of a Muslim saint. Throughout this period of strenuous travel and walking, Baba continued to suffer from acute dysentery. Meanwhile, to the aggravation of the mandali, He went on denying His spiritual status as a “Baba” and even went so far as to claim that His Masters Babajan and Maharaj had no “stuff” in them. “Maharaj is not even a saint,” He said; “then what of a Sadguru?”
The Urdu lines on folio 30 translate as follows.
The first line reads: “Won’t you allow me to meet this man?”
Then addressing himself to Baba, the man said, “Can I shake your hand?”