Chapter VIII

Allaying the Fears

Juxtaposition

One Shri K.L. Moza was appointed as a lecturer in Physics in S. P. College, Srinagar in 1965.

On the river bund nearby there existed the office of the J&K Minerals Ltd. In his free time Prof. Moza usually went there to relax in the cool breeze with his known people and have a cup of tea.

On one such occasion, on the completion of their official work the whole party sat at ease comfortably around a table. Busy in random talks verging on boisterousness at times, the party had forgotten all their woes and worries of this mundane world. Slowly and steadily at the moment, stepped up, in long strides, Swami Nand lal Ji and party. All of a sudden like a flash of lightening they entered into the room. The busy party inside could not but stand up in reverential surprise and pin-drop silence.

Swami Ji went round, applying redlead (sindhoor tika on the forehead of one and all those present in the room, leaving alone Prof. Moza. Swami Ji left out as suddenly as the party had stepped into the room.

Hushed up silence was broken, by whispering waves that filled the air all around the table. Light and serious whispers surcharged the atmosphere. A pleasant wave of satisfaction echoed from the four walls. The employees as a whole were happy at the supposed honour predicting the so-called good luck for them on account of the applying of redlead to their foreheads.

But a lonely, brooding soul, Shri Moza looked aghast and grim like a habitual introvert. He shivered from inside from the fright of something woeful befalling upon him in the near future. He fretted and fumed with terrible dread.

Some of the otherwise jolly employees caught sight of his abject condition and smelled the rot in him. For Shri Moza the lone member in the party who did not have a tilak applied to his forehead by the Swami Ji he felt something wrong was in store for him. A hush of silence overtook the atmosphere in sympathy for him. Moza Sahib was consoled and accompanied back home after they had washed their faces.

Time passed on and one fine day the government headed by Mr. G.M. Sadiq ordered the closure of the J&K Minerals Ltd. The employees were rendered unemployed. Prof. Moza, being freshly   appointed lecturer, was spared as he did not belong to the J&K Minerals Department.

The interpretation of the incident turned out to be quite the reverse what they had thought it meant!

The secret of In and Out 

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

Shri V.N. Tiku's old father Shri Harishwar Nath Tiku was a house-hold saint. Shri V.N. Tiku was a government servant but a saint in the making. Both lived together in a saintly family in their own house at Malik Bagh in Zaindar Mohalla, Srinagar, Kashmir. They usually sat, as many Kashmiris do, on the windows looking into sky, the streets and the compound around.

One day during winter months Swami Ji passed that way. They saw him at a distance. On approaching their house, Swami Ji pushed an old follower of his into the compound of the house of Tiku Sahib and then pulled him out. He repeated the process several times, pushing  him in and out before he and his party went on the usual ramble around the streets. Both Shri H.N. Tiku and his son V.K. Tiku were watching the activities of Swami Ji.

Shri H.N. Tiku pondered over the incident, introspected and brooded over the incident throughout the night. He interpreted it in his own mind and felt that some thing bad was going to happen to the family sooner or later. Next day he asked all the members of the family to stay at home for the day. Obedience was spontaneous. The family engaged itself in usual domestic chores, had their breakfast after  morning prayers and lunch as usual. The family sat together and engaged themselves in an informal chat which verged on to religio- philosophical discussions. Shri H.N. Tiku yawned and asked for water in a weak stammering voice.

An overwhelming atmosphere of silence overtook the happy discussions. A cup of water was quickly offered to the revered father. He tried to grasp it in his shivering hands but could not. Noticing the contents spilling out of cup, Shri V.N. Tiku helped his father to drink water. But Shri H.N. Tiku turned pale. Shri V.N. Tiku rested his father who was heavily gasping for breath in his lap.

But alas! The saintly Tiku went to eternal sleep in his son's lap never to rise again.

The dawn of the spring

Some time after, but not on any very far off date, Swami Nand  Lal Ji and party again appeared on the scene. They entered the  compound of Sari V.N. Tiku's Malik Bagh residence at Zaindar Mohalla, Srinagar with a few small bags and load of paper.

Shri Tiku, the younger saint in the making, was again sitting on the window as usual. Swami Ji filled the bags with paper and hurled these into the house one by one. On the completion of the task, Swami Ji left for his destination along with with his party. Shri V.K. Tiku watched the whole scene with mixed feelings of apprehension and frightful foreboding. He too, like his late father asked all to stay back at home, the next day.

Hushed up silence in subdued sobs overwhelmed the family.  Mixed interpretations of good as well as bad events to come, however, kept the inmates under control and in a confusion. There was anxiety as well as fear in every body's mind. All too unexpectedly, the next day, there was knocking at the door at noon time. Fearing the foreboding of the previous incident someone from the family asked in a hoarse trembling voice "Who is it knocking at the door" ? "It is a messenger from the secretary's office. Is Tiku Sahib inside" ? came the reply. A messenger from the higher office of the concerned department was waiting at the door. Slowly moving with shaky steps came down a member of the family to open the door to the visitor.

"Salem, Babu Ji. Is Tiku Sahib here ? The secretary ( of the department ) has sent for him just now. He has deputed me in his car to take Tiku Sahib along for consultation on some important matters immediately. Please ask him to accompany me just now ", said the messenger.

Tiku Sahib accompanied the messenger in compliance with the call of duty. An atmosphere of suspense clouded the family for the whole day till Tiku Sahib returned late in the evening with smiling face. There after, Tiku Sahib had to deal with all the important files in the department in a higher grade.

Thus Swami Ji by throwing bundles of paper into the house had prophesied the heavy work load and reposnsibility for Mr. Tiku and all the anxieties of the family over the incident and behavior of Swami Ji were gone.

Rejunivation

A devout Muslim admirer, a driver, of Swami Ji at Karan Nagar, Srinagar, owned a dilapidated rickety car condemned to confinement of his garage except for limited movement in secluded and comparatively  isolated road side of Srinagar suburb.

One day while the Swami Ji was holding an audience in the assembly hall of the devotee some highly placed intellectuals  surrounded by others were busy painting maps of India and Swami Ji was in conversation with a top ranking Muslim admirer. The author heard the said driver whispering something to some of those sitting by his side. Quite visibly he narrated an amazing anecdote thus: "Once Swami Ji sent a message to me for an urgent meeting. I rushed to him without delay expecting some urgency of work. I entered the assembly hall and sat among the audience. Soon after Swami Ji said in his usual manner of addressing the concerned in a general way, "One has to go for flying trip to Delhi by road. Let us reach there, the day after tomorrow." Pointing specifically towards me, he asked me to get ready with full quota of petrol for the return journey. " I pleaded with him that my car was dilapidated and rickety. It lay dumped in the garage".

" Never mind take this money and store enough petrol to cover the whole distance from here to Delhi and back", Swami Ji said.

"Stunned and dumb founded though I was, I ventured not to insist on the actual and factual position of my car. Accepting the money in fright of the consequences and foreboding fatal accident somewhere during this hazardous alpine journey, I returned back to him on the stipulated date and time to pack up; though trembling in fear of a major collapse of all of us.

Continuing his narration the driver said "The wheels rotated and the car plied up and down on the zig-zag mountains of Jammu and thence on the plains on way to Delhi. I was quite surprised not only to find the car moving smoothly all the way but also to discover that where as all the vehicles were stopped for check up for different purposes, our car remained uninterrupted throughout the whole journey from Srinagar to Delhi and back".

Such was Swami Ji's spiritual power and magnetism.

Paradox or Hallucination?

One Mr. Qasb's family has been a veritable saintly family in  Srinagar. Naturally it has remained a hub of a many saints, Sadhus, peers and faqueers for long. One such holy man had made their house as one of his sanctuaries. The author knows at least three of them in the city. May be there had been some more such sanctuaries of his in Srinagar.

Once in a free informal talk Prof. Brij Nath narrated some very interesting experiences of his with Swami Nand Lal Ji to the  author. He began one of his experiences thus: " One winter when we were at Delhi home of our business, my father and I decided to go for a trip to Uttar Pradesh. On a Sunday morning we left home in our car and  plied to our destination in U.P. After a few hours when we were travelling in a comparatively lonely terrain on the way I sighted a bullock- cart moving sluggishly forward at a distance. I, on going ahead, sighted a queerly dressed tall, thin man with an odd look and a belt round his waist. He was holding a long staff in his right hand and a bundle of papers in his left hand sitting by the side of the cart driver. I did clearly recognise him from the side. It was Swami Nand Lal Ji.

"Drawing my father's attention towards the bullock cart saying,  'My father, Swami Ji is there on the bullock cart sitting on the left hand side of the cart driver. What a wonderful thing it is to have his august darshan during this secluded journey of ours in this serene   silence of nature in its glorious verdure and scenic beauty.' Quick came daddy's confirmation in surprise, saying ' How fortunate we are to get his golden chance to pay our obescience to him at such a far-off place from home. Let us be quick to pick him up and carry him along on our trip.'

" I directed my car driver to speed up and move towards the bullock cart. Moving ahead of the bullock cart, I parked the car on one side. Alighting from the car we walked on to pay our respects to Swami Ji and pick him up in our car. But when we reached the bullock cart, Swami Ji disappeared, all too suddenly or may be, he was still here by the side of the cart driver but quite invisible to both of us. " What a strange experience !

Father and son had found an oasis in the desert but it proved simply a mirage in the dreary expanse of the burning sand of a Sahara desert of North Africa, so to say.

Could it be a mirage or a hallucination; one cannot say.

However, the author can say with confidence that it was not so. Knowing the saintly background of the whole family and their mutual reverence and respect for the Swami Ji, one can say with confidence and firm faith that it was their devotion and Bhakti that made Swami Ji bless them with his august Darshan on the way to keep them in good humour and make their journey safe and sound.

It is most probable that he wanted to ensure them of his presence  all along their way whether they felt so or not. As for their desire to have him physically accompany them, Swami Ji could never stand in the way of freedom of movement and choice of his admirers and devotees. He did not want to disturb the programme of the father and the son.