Through out Mahakumbh I remained in that state of present. Due to the repeated sangam dips and the circulating dust as mentioned in my previous post, most of us fell sick with cold, cough and fevers. It so happened that one of the days, we had to go to an ashram at arail ghat to onboard pundits on our app. When we went there, chandi homa was happening and had to wait for a long time. Meanwhile, we decided to go to another ashram which was closely located. That was the Phalahari Baba ashram. A baba who ate only fruits. As we went there we met a super simple baba who was about to leave to meet another saint. He was seated on a stone bench outside the ashram wearing some simplistic white clothing in the traditional style. A young vedic student came running and said baba " car key lijiye" Baba asked laughing "kya car tum chalavoge". Nahi Babiji mujhe sirf rakhne ke liye diye hain" The boy who had to drive the car came. Seeing us waiting Baba asked me what do you want? I explained about our daiv app and I understood he is a person who is very positive, interacting with everyone, listening to each of them and solving problems then and there. He called his disciples to help us out, he mentioned that he will be back in an hour and support us in our promotion. He interacted with many who were waiting in a very casual style asking their problems and trying to resolve most. I decided to stay back in the ashram till the baba comes. I was so tired as I had reached the ashram which was located in Arail Ghat, along with my team members with great difficulty crossing three bridges across the ganga river. My team said they will visit another ashram by the time the baba comes. My phone was off and I could not charge my phone due to power cut. I went inside the ashram which was a large altar with a temple structure where the beautiful idols of rama, lakshmana and seetha were placed. The place was so huge and around 50 people from all over the country slept on the sides close to the walls. There were four huge pillars covering the central place just in front of the ram mandir. I just rested taking support of a pillar. In no time I went into deep sleep state forgetting myself. As soon as I woke, the head cook came and asked me I hope you are not going anywhere. Not knowing what to say I said no. He immediately got a huge bag of peas and asked me to peal them. I had no answer. There was neither the news of baba's arrival nor any news of our team members. It was almost three hours of time. I started working with all those ladies who were staying in the ashram, pealing peas and potatoes. I had to answer several questions about me and my family and my visit to the Mahakumbh. I could not tell them about my main purpose, as I had my own doubts if they could understand. They all started feeling that I should stay with them and started pushing me to ask the baba to give me a place to stay. One lady said "idhar tumhe theen baar accha khana milta hai, do baar chai, aur khub bhajan". I was surprised to know that in a day 2000 people were fed in the ashram. I had nothing to say as we had our own arrangements. I didnot understand their thoughts about me. All women advised me to go and request Baba for stay arrangements.. I was so blessed that around 8 pm baba arrived.By that time the whole ashram had an altogether different vibe, a team of musicians came and were singing siya ram ki bhajans, everyone started moving to the centre of the altar.
I went and sat in front of baba, along with many women who were waiting to request him for a place to stay. He was very courteous, he enquired about their whereabouts and granted them the place. He also had several calls from people who had already moved to prayagraj searching a place to stay in the night. Baba taking the name of 'Ram' inbetween his talk as though he was calling Ram to make the arrangements was handling all those requests. And he asked me for how many days? I said no I have come here to address the pundits. He was surprised and asked "Are you waiting for such a long time?" Again he started remembering Ram and Ram. He called one of disciples and asked to help me out. He generously shared his number and gave a banana to me and my team member who just then arrived. I bowed to him and touched his feet, felt so contented and asked him if I can click his picture and he agreed. Way back I met a lady who asked me "Baba haan kaha kya?" I just smiled.
