THE ‘OUTSIDE’ DISCIPLES

Sometimes whilst on field walk with Baba, we used to hear and see some very interesting things.

I sometimes saw a man with a shawl wrapped around his body and arms awaiting Baba in the darkness of the bushes.

Another strange man with a shawl around him, would suddenly do pranam with folded hands to Baba, keeping his back towards us.

Baba used to move forward with a minimum acknowledgment to these phenomena.

Once I gathered the courage and asked Baba about these people. Baba only replied that I should not inquire about these matters.

I was curious, because I had never seen any of His disciples act or behave in this way.

Sometimes Baba used to send me back once we had reached the field, saying that some people from “outside” had an appointment with Him.

Once I went all the way to the field and asked Baba, “Baba who are these people that take away our time with You in the field? They rob us of our treasured time.”

Baba replied, “These people are coming from very, very far distances. They are greatly disappointed if I don’t give them some time. This is why I have to ask you to return.”

I asked, “Are they also our disciple brothers?”

Baba replied, “There are many types of people. Some of them are your brother disciples, but they are not in Ananda Marga. I have not permitted them yet. Some of them are not your disciple brothers, but they come once a year with their body for my darshan.

Some of them are my disciples from my previous life. Many of them have reached perfection. They see me in their meditation and know that I am here and then come for my darshan.”

After we had gone a little way, Baba described an incident about His disciples of His previous life.

Baba said, “Once I was passing by the Kali temple in Calcutta.

Suddenly I saw two sadhus in front of the temple on the street.

One of them was shouting and gathering people to tell them their fortune.

The other sadhu was reading people’s palms.

I went up to him and asked him if he could read my hand also. He told me that I would have to wait for my turn, as many people were ahead of me.

I told him that I had to meet somebody, but firmly told him to wait for me until I returned.

He agreed.

After sometime, the sadhu who was gathering people whispered something to the other sadhu. Soon both of them collected their things and ran away from there.

When I returned they were gone, so I asked by-standers about them. They said that soon after I had departed, those sadhus discussed something with each other, and then appeared very scared and finally ran away.”

I asked, “Baba, who were those sadhus?”

He said, “They were my disciples from my previous life. They had reached a very high stage of spirituality. When I forcefully commanded them to wait until I returned, they wondered about me. So they concentrated their minds in meditation to see who I was. Then they realized that I was their previous guru. Just as I demand strict following of the principles of Yama and Niyama from you people, I also demanded it from them. To earn money by reading palms is against Yama and Niyama, so they quickly escaped.”

I asked, “If they had reached such a high stage, then why did they do that?”

Baba replied, “They were actually travelling from Assam to Punjab. They did not have sufficient money for the train fare, so they decided to make some money in Calcutta. Although they were not greedy, and wanted to earn just enough for the train fare, their act was against Yama and Niyama, and so they became frightened of me and ran away.”

That day Baba continued His mystical Lila even more.

He said, “Last time when I sent you back from the field, a siddha (realized soul) had come for my darshan from Barahland. He comes annually for my darshan.”

I asked, “Baba, is he my disciple brother?” Baba said, “No.”

I asked, “Why does he come for your darshan, if you are not his guru?”

Baba replied, “When a siddha, with the power of his meditation, sees that the Taraka Brahma is already present on the planet, he comes for His darshan.”

After some days a brother disciple and I were going on a field walk with Baba.

We saw a man sitting near the fence of a house on the right-hand side of the intersection near the railway colony quarters.

As we passed by, he stood up, stretched himself and rather loudly said, “Hari, Hari. My back hurts, having sat here for such a long time.”

Hearing “Hari, Hari”, Baba started and looked at him, but then kept on walking normally.

Suddenly I thought, “Oh gosh, I hope Baba won’t send me back today also!”

Immediately Baba started laughing and said, “Nagina, how will you feel if I send you back from the field today?”

I said, “No Baba, I won’t go back today. So many times we reach the field and You send me back. I do not want to go back today.”

Now Baba told the other disciple to stay ten steps behind us and said to me, “That gentleman did pranam to me in a coded manner by using my iista mantra. He is a siddha, and has come, walking all the way from Barahland, just to meet me. If I do not give him some time, he will be very unhappy. You go back now.”

That man’s clothing was quite filthy and repulsive, like the clothes of a madman.

He had put on an undershirt and a plaid shorts. Greatly disappointed, I started back with my brother disciple. Before we reached the intersection, I told that brother disciple that we would find that man near the intersection.

There were two roads from the intersection, I took the left and the disciple brother took the road on the right.

We hurried a lot but failed to find him. We could not understand how he could have eluded us, even though we searched both the roads.

The next day Baba quenched my curiosity somewhat.

He said, “Nagina, that gentleman wishes to give up his body now. He had come just to ask my permission for that, and I have given it to him.”

I asked, “If you are not his guru, then why did he come to You for the permission to give up his body?”

Baba said, “There is a proper discipline to be followed in the spiritual world also, and that is why he came to me. His guru has already given up his body, and in his absence, he came to me. I first told him to keep his body for some time to serve humanity. But he insisted on giving up his body, so I finally gave him permission.”

It was incredible! Countless great and realized souls and siddhas used to come to Him, in so many disguises for His grace, consultation, darshan or permission for something that only they knew! We simply witnessed these unusual phenomena!

My faith and devotion for Baba increased a lot, after hearing these stories from Baba.