Camps

Gurudev spent half the year at soil survey camps conducted by the Ministry of agriculture.  The richest man alive lived not in star hotels but in tents and sometimes in school classrooms, at times with and often without a toilet attached. These camps exposed his powers to not hundreds but lakhs of people who came to take his help and blessings. Many became devotees and some disciples. People like me and others were trained at these camps. Discover the strategy of his destiny. Join us at these Camps.

Gurudevonline.com presents the pods of enlightenment, an audio biography of one of history's greatest saints.  'The Guru of Gurus' podcast series is comprised of 24 podcasts that present aspects of the mahaguru's life, philosophy, supernature, and mentorship.

Make some aspects of his biography into aspects of your biography.

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Transcript

Some of the most eventful periods in Gurudev’s life were his official tours to various districts for the collection and analysis of soil. They were significant because at these camps, he could perform mass healings, serve lakhs of people and locate and train his disciples from the past.

Camps

Gurudev joined the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, PUSA, under the Ministry of Agriculture, as a soil-surveyor in 1958. He was 20 years old. His job involved soil survey expeditions to remote areas across the northern parts of India. This meant being away from home for close to six months in a year. Being an escape artist extraordinaire, the official tours became a vanprasth ashram by default. 

The Vanprasth Ashram is the third of the four ashrams or life stages in Vedic culture. It extends from the 50th to 75th year of one’s life and involves moving away from the hustle and bustle of city life to quieter places where you can focus on spiritual pursuits and try to look at things in a very minimalistic manner. 

Being Gurudev’s main area of work, the camps became sites for him to engage in spiritual entrepreneurship. Many significant milestones in his spiritual journey, including forging spiritual alliances and performing mass healing, happened at these camps. The irony was that he performed mass healing in places where there were hardly any masses but more on that later.

Anand Parashar, a junior colleague, gives us some technical background about the organization where Gurudev worked.

Anand ji: Our department was related to Soil Survey. The name of our department was ‘All India Soil and Land Use Survey’ which has now changed to ‘Soil and Land Use Survey of India.’ Basically, there is not much difference. Our job was to survey the soil and create survey maps. On the map, we marked the soil-type, note our observations, take samples from the pit, and then we would analyse those samples further. Based on the results, we would categorise them. Then, we had to mark the maps. First, we would have to mark villages on the map but later we worked with aerial photographs. So basically, our work was the conservation of silt coming down mountains. 

Our tour was of maximum 200 days where we had to work onsite in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc. These areas came under North Zone i.e Delhi centre. So, this was field work. Then these maps were finalized in the office. This was done by person who undertook the survey as he had seen the area. He was so perfect in his work, even his vision was perfect and he had a very sharp mind. I cannot express his qualities adequately.

One of the first people Gurudev befriended at the workplace was Nagpal ji, who accompanied him to these camps, proxied for him when it came to backend work, and gave him time to train his disciples and engage in spiritual practises. 

Over to Nagpal ji.

Nagpal ji: As far as government work is concerned, he took it very seriously and did it honestly. Even if he had to go to hard top hill areas, he would. He would say, “Till the time I don’t see it myself, I will not okay it.” As far as Guruji was concerned, he would go there to check every spot. 

Let’s interview some other co-workers to get their views on what happened at these camps. The first is Gurudev’s disciple, Dr Shankar Narayan who was also his senior at the work-place.

Dr Shankar Narayan ji: In his field job, he used to meet lot of people in Himachal Pradesh. He tracking was something brilliant. 

Q: What do you mean by track? 

Dr Shankar Narayan ji: In soil-mapping, without good tracking you will never be able to map properly. Even I used to track very well. So that is how he was. But his field work was 100%.

Imagine if Jesus had to run a furniture making factory and perform his spiritual feats at the same time. It was a similar situation that Gurudev was in. He had to travel to remote areas on official tours, map the soil, make reports, and at the same time mentor his disciples and attend to hordes of patients at some of the public events that were held at these camps. He also had his seniors paying visits to check up on the work they were doing. What a time! It was a huge quantum of work that he had to handle. He did and everybody had nothing but praise for it. 

F C Sharma ji, helps us further understand what the mahaguru’s commercial life was like. 

FC Sharma ji: I would sometimes go on tours to prepare maps for a week or two. Wherever surveys happened, those maps were needed for marking, making soil-pits, and marking from where the soil samples were collected.  That was my work. Guruji had to go on tours for 6 months. During summers, he would tour Himachal, and in winters, Madhya Pradesh. So, on tour, he had an official car and driver, a class 4 person, and a cook. They carried tents. If they could not find a place to stay, they would live in tents. 

Living at these camps was no walk in the park. Many times, Gurudev’s team was unable to find a place to set up camp, so they pitched tents on open grounds. Though I felt I was in heaven just by being in his divine presence, the living was rustic. Occupancies of heaven would have fallen if we were to superimpose the camps there. My introduction to jungle pani or outdoor ablution happened at these camps. It was a unique experience for an urban dummkopf like me but Gurudev had no qualms about it! 

One person who admired him ‘behind his back’ was his agnostic yet indulgent boss, Pratap Singh. In the words of a non-believer.

Pratap ji: He was a hard worker. He had to map the area through satellite photographs and others. We would work with 50-60 kms and keep shifting base every month for work. It was tedious work. We had to travel on foot in the Himachal mountains as we could not take the jeep to certain areas. That meant climbing mountains on foot for 5 kms each time to collect soil. But he was very good at it. He was healthy. He used to run and do the work.

Gurudev propagated and practiced being conscientious towards work, dutiful towards family and of service to others. His spiritual entrepreneurship involved the practice of seva, both in the physical and astral planes. He spent many hours daily engaged in paath. And it was during paath that he would travel out of his body to help and heal those who had visited various sthans that he had set up across the world. Gurudev utilized whatever free time he had at the camps to engage in astral healing. 

Hard to believe? yes! But true, nonetheless.

Gurudev used the camp-sites - be it Kathog, Renuka, Nagpur, Auli, Bharatpur, Srinagar in Uttarakhand, Bathri, Lucknow and thereabouts, and many, many other places to render seva. This led to many spiritual, and potentially spiritual people, coming into his fold, eventually leading to the opening of many more sthans across India.

The sthans were an innovative concept where Gurudev set up centres of help and healing at the homes of his disciples. Since his disciples hailed from various economic backgrounds, this allowed seva to be performed without incurring any additional infrastructural expenditure. Through the multiplication of the sthans, Gurudev expanded the base of his seva to cities, towns and remote hamlets across the length and breadth of India, and eventually some other countries.

The question that begs an answer is – Did the camps lead to the sthans or did the sthans lead, in retrospect, to the camps?

Many of Gurudev’s future disciples like Santosh ji from Nadaun, Chandramani Vashisht from Renuka, Shambu ji from Jwalaji, Shrivastav ji from Lucknow, Suresh Kohli ji from Sunet, Giri Punje ji from Nagpur, Amichand ji from Kotla, Surender ji from Kanpur, Sabharwal ji from Pathankot, Jain Sahib from Jammu, etc met Gurudev at these camps and went on to run sthans till the end of their lives. This is how the mahaguru made a habit of manipulating coincidence. 

What was unique about him was that he was a guru to a few, a deity to many, and a saviour to those who existed as spirits and came to him for release or salvation. 

Spiritual practitioners of all types also came to him for help and blessings. There are many such incidents narrated in the podcasts before and after. 

Often, Gurudev’s camp was situated near a burial ground or a forest where spirits dwelled. And these spirits would reach out to him for help. One of the unique insights that I gained from my time at the camps was that being a disciple of Shankar and a manifestation of Shiv, Gurudev felt duty-bound to help them. In fact, he facilitated the re-birth of some, while freeing many others from their entrapments.

Gaggu ji remembers a unique sighting at one of Gurudev’s camps near Bharatpur. 

Gaggu ji: We had gone to Bharatpur. In Bharatpur, he had set up camp in a graveyard. There were no inhabitants. There was residential area for miles. When he went there, he also called us to do seva. During the day, he attended to the public. In the evening, he called me over, and said, "See, can you see the lights flashing in the jungle?” One light would blink and go dark, and then another light would appear, and so on. He then explained that they were headless forms called Syeds who were communicating with each other. The lights were their way of communicating. But he advised not go near them.

Pravesh Kapoor, a devotee, narrates a story of bewilderment. 

Parvesh Kapoor ji: We had gone to a burial ground. We asked him, “Guruji, why have you come here? There is no one here for miles.” He said, “Son, should I line people up?” I said, “As you see fit.”  He went in samadhi for half an hour. People started coming there asking, ‘Where is guruji? Where is guruji?’ And there were lines of people. This was true. I have seen with my own eyes.

To see one’s roommate cure lakhs of people, and that too as part of mass healings, must have been a massive, cultural shock for Nagpal ji. He recounts the first public healing that happened at Kurwai in Madhya Pradesh. 

Nagpal ji: I had no idea about all this; that such things happen. It started in Kurwai. In Guna, the condition was such that there were scores of bullock carts waiting and every cart had 15-20 people in it who had come to get cured. Someone had family problems; someone had physical problems. 

Q: So, when you used to watch him do this, you were surprised as to how he did it. Did you ask him how he did it?

Nagpal ji: So many times.

Q: When?

Nagpal ji: He used to laugh and ignore the question. I used to ask him, “What is this? How do you do it?”

I’m sure you will empathise with Nagpal ji. Just put yourself in his shoes and see how blurred the picture gets. 

You make a friend at work; he becomes your roommate who is nice but strange. Forces you to watch movies more often than not. Sits at night wrapped in a sheet doing something weird. Makes strange sounds through his nose and mouth, and suddenly, one day, starts curing incurable diseases. How was poor Nagpal ji to digest that? Well, and a deep well at that, for Nagpal ji, Gurudev was nothing short of a Googly. 

An arrogant entrant, who later became a sincere devotee, is Suresh Kohli ji who hails from Sunet in Himachal Pradesh. Suresh ji, Santosh ji and Shambhu ji were all teachers at the school at Kathog where Gurudev had set up camp. Meeting the Mahaguru was a turning point in Suresh Kohli’s life. Do lend him your ears!

Q: How did you first come in touch with him?

Suresh ji: It was just coincidence. I was in Jaunpur in Hamirpur. In March, I was transferred to Kathog. A tantric named Thapa told me, “Sir, there is a gentleman who has come here with an Om on his hand, a trishul, and Om on his chest. He seems decent and I like him” I said, “You must be drunk when you saw it. Oms do not appear on normal people.” He said he was completely sober. I went to teach my class but could not concentrate on teaching as his words kept resounding in my mind about him having an Om on his hand, Trishul and Om on his chest. He must not be an ordinary person. Who was he? I was not able to teach my class. I threw the book and came out of class. Guruji was staying right opposite the school. I went there, saw him. He his sleeves rolled up– A handsome man, a very handsome. I told him what Thapa ji had said. He responded, “Yes, I do have Om on my hand.” I just wondered, “Are you very sure that you have Om on your hand?” He said “Yes.” I asked him to show it to me. He showed me the Om on his right hand. 

I told him I was interested in spiritualism. At the time, I used to chant the Chamunda mantra. He said, “I will introduce you to God.” When I repeated his words, he said, “Yes.” He was so confident with his words. My other problem was that I was suffering from tonsilitis. 

Q: From what?

Suresh ji: Tonsils. So, I could not drink milk or curd as I had a bad cough. Someone told me that I would have to undergo an operation. The first problem that I had was that I wanted to meet God and my second problem was tonsils. Guruji said, “Don’t worry, we will solve your problem with a glass of water.” Again, I was astonished hearing his words. I could not believe what he was saying and was in a fix! I told him “See, I believe Punjabi people were very clever. Are you also being clever?” He replied “No, it is nothing like that. Believe me. I will heal you.” I said, “Ok, no problem.” He asked me to keep doing the Chamunda jaap but to keep a glass of water where I prayed, and keep my eyes open throughout, and they would close on their own. I agreed and returned home. I usually do my prayers at around 11 pm. In my almirah, there was a space lit up with a bulb where I kept all the photos of deities. It was haphazard; there was no system. My friend had given me the Chamunda jaap. When I started doing the jaap with open eyes, I saw a half image of Guruji, like you see a moving picture, in my almirah. 

Q: Almirah?

Suresh ji: Yes. It was moving before me in the light of the small bulb. I wondered, “Who is this person?  I met this person for the first time, and I have no devotion or belief towards him. Why is his picture here?” This picture remained visible for an hour and I kept on doing my jaap. 

Q: So, what I am understanding is, while you were doing your Chamunda jaap with your eyes open, you would see his photograph…

Suresh ji: Half portion only.

Q: But in front of your eyes open or….

Suresh ji: Eyes open. Quite awake. That was there for one hour, continuously that was there and I enjoyed my jaap also. This thing continued for 7 days. On the 8th night, his photograph did not appear even though my eyes were open. Despite my best efforts, his image did not appear. I felt rejected. In the morning when I went to him, I asked him, “What happened today?” His reply, “If you see me like that again, you would have met God.” I was shivering from head to toe from excitement. This was the God I was searching for. I had found him. 

Gurudev was probably an eco-conscious saint who liked to save paper by printing his image on people’s walls! And in this case, almirahs too!

Kathog was a significant milestone in Gurudev’s spiritual life and that of several of his newly acquired disciples who hailed from the neighbouring areas. Raji Sharma calls it a lift off point in the mahaguru’s spiritual journey. 

Suresh ji continues the story of Kathog.

Suresh ji: Lakhs of people came to Kathog.  It was a barren place. He would put steel kadas on people’s wrists and these kadas got over as did the cardamoms, black pepper, and cloves. So many people saw his miracles there. That was his first gathering. Someone complained that the school was empty as all the teachers were busy doing seva; some magician had come there who was giving laungs and elaichis to heal people. When my deputy director of education arrived at the school based on the complaint, he saw there were no classes taking place. People were in the classroom and seva was going on.  He called me and asked, “Mr Kohli, what is going on?” So, then I said, “This is the place.” I introduced him to Guruji and his problems were solved. He went back to the authorities and told them that everything was fine, and the school was running normally. Even he became his follower. 

Q: How was the camp in Kathog? How many people used to come? 

Suresh ji: Lakhs of people. Lakhs of people. It was the biggest camp. The biggest camp was the one at Renuka, but this was not any lesser.  

A few words with Santosh ji of Nadaun who also met Gurudev at Kathog. 

Santosh ji: In May or June 1976, I had health issues. Someone told me that an engineer had come to Kathog who healed people by giving them laung, elaichi and jal. When I went to meet him, Guruji showed me the symbols of Om, Trishul, on his hand. I was impressed and thought I would be blessed to become his follower. After 3 days, on a Thursday, Guruji called me with a kada (a bracelet), laung, elaichi and bottle for the jal. When I went to him, he said “Son, I will uplift you.” At that time, Guruji used to give copper kadas to his disciples. He also gave me a copper kada and initiated me with a mantra or jaap. 

Many people came to get cured daily. I will share one incident which happened in my presence. There was a man named Pradhan ji who lived 5 to 6 kms away. His brother was unwell. He came to meet Guruji. At that time there were no taxis etc. He came to ask for Guruji’s jeep to take his brother for treatment to PGI Hospital in Chandigarh. Guruji asked him “What if I cure your brother here itself?” He replied “Why are you mocking me?” Guruji took a glass of jal and made Pradhan ji drink it. He lifted Pradhan ji’s stomach. The brother had a stomach-related disease. He did this twice and said “Go home now. Your brother is fine.” He went home. Some of us visited him in evening. Pradhan ji said his brother was fast asleep from the time Guruji had made him drink jal. Similarly, many people came to Kathog. I was there, Shambhu ji from Jwala ji, and Suresh Kohli, our retired principal, who at the time was working at the school. Shambhu ji and Suresh ji worked together. Guruji gave three of us seva. We did not know how to do seva. Guruji made us drink jal and said, “You just keep your hand on the body part that needs healing. I will take care of the rest.” We were astounded. This was new for us; how would we do it? But shockingly, and strangely, whoever we touched was healed and left smiling. 

The agenda for most who came to the camp was to obtain cures for their suffering. But for Santosh ji, Suresh ji and Shambhu ji, the 3 S’ of Kathog, it was seva. 

Santosh ji, who was a body builder and a PT teacher, fell hook, line, and sinker for the mahaguru. He recounts one of the many miracles that he was witness to.

Santosh ji: Many people visited Kathog for healing. There was an incident where an old man came to meet Guruji. He walked with two canes and had a bent body. Guruji called him and asked, “Baba, what if I straighten your back?” The old man replied, “My back will only straighten in my grave. I am too old.” Guruji called him inside, gave him chittas and jal to drink. He placed one hand on his back, one hand on his chest, and straightened his back. He told him, “Leave the canes.” The old man was too afraid to walk for the fear of falling. Guruji put the canes aside and helped him walk. He then said, “Put the canes on your shoulders, and go home.” The old man did exactly as was told. Everyone was amazed and looked at the old as if they had seen a ghost. This was one incident which I witnessed. 

Shambhu ji’s eldest son, Pappu Pahadia, witnessed the miracles at Kathog through baby eyes. He grew into an impressive young man and an ardent devotee. His memories present themselves.

Pappu ji: When Guruji first came to this Shaktipeeth in Himachal, he set up camp at Kathog which is three kilometres from Jwalamukhi. My father was a teacher in the school located opposite Guruji’s camp. It all started from there. We began interacting with Guruji. At that time, no one knew he was a guru and it was a small place. We observed that members of Guruji’s staff would call him “Guruji.” We were all perplexed as to why people at the camp were referring to this handsome, modern looking man as Guruji. My father along with a group of 3-4 teachers began to investigate who Guruji really was. Slowly, Guruji began to perform miracles at the place. If someone came to him with a stomach problem, he would tell them to keep their hand on their stomach and they would be cured!

In fact, while Gurudev was performing unbelievable miracles at Kathog, his family in Hariana was completely unaware of this spiritual shift. Let’s head to Hariana for a chat with Gurudev’s sister.

Gurudev’s sisters: He set up camp in Kathog. I asked a classmate named Dilbaag, “How far is Kathog from Jwalaji?” He said, “It is nearby. Currently, there is a Om Baba who has come there.” I asked him, “Who is this Om Baba?”

We knew that our brother is a research officer. We did not know that he was a Guru. I said, “My brother is at Kathog. He is a Research Officer and they have their soil conservation camp there.” He said, “No, there is an Om Baba there. There is a huge crowd to meet him.” When Guruji returned, I asked him, “Brother, who is Om Baba who has come to Kathog?” He asked me “How do you know of him?” I said “There is a boy in my class who told me about him. No one has seen his face but there is a huge crowd of people to meet him.” That is when Guruji revealed everything. He said, “There was a sarpanch who had stomach issues. A voice told me, ‘You have that power to heal this man. Heal him.’ So, I made him drink jal and he felt better.” I do not know whether his pain was cancer-related or something else. He spread the word, and after that, there were people lined up to meet him.

For her, this was nothing short of a googly, and naturally she was clean bowled.

Gurudev was bestowed with very localised titles like Kathog wale Baba, Om wale Baba because people had seen the Om on his hands and understood its significance. Himachal is not called Devobhoomi or land of the Gods for nothing. Many a saint has Himachal presented to the world. Spiritual prowess and miracles are an accepted principle. 

But every solution brings with it an inherent problem. Many of the visitors who frequented the powerful Jwalaji temple, situated near Kathog, drifted towards Gurudev’s camp. 

Raji Sharma tells us what happened thereafter. 

Raji Sharma ji: I do recollect a fleeting mention of the khadau incident. This incident happened after I had left Kathog. Apparently, the pandits of Jwalaji were not very happy because suddenly they saw a surge towards Guruji, rather than towards the temple. And to see his spiritual power they invited him to the temple. They took him down to the basement or a dungeon where there was a pair of khadaus. I do not know whose khadaus they were but they may have been of a powerful khadaus of a tantric or of a siddh purush which he was asked to wear and walk a few steps. He wore those khadaus and walked 3 steps, and that is how they felt yes, that this person who can walk with these particular khadaus is superior or has got higher spiritual powers that what they had earlier deemed to be. He had the power to step in those shoes.

The khadaus were meant to separate the accomplished spiritualist from the pretender to the throne. The priests would punish anyone who could not pass the test. This is hearsay but I was told this story as far back as the 1980s. 

The other camp that created waves was the one at Renuka, a town in Simaur district of Himachal Pradesh. Renuka is the dominion of the immortal Parshuram ji, son of devi Renuka and Saptrishi Jamdagini. 

Let’s shift base from Kathog to Renuka. Both in Himachal Pradesh, but 320 kilometres apart. 

In a tete-a-tete, Bittu ji relives his memories of the time he spent with Gurudev at this camp. 

Bittu ji: In 1979, Guruji went on an official tour to Renuka. He asked the locals whether there was a place for rent. They told him about an empty plot belonging to Mr Vashisht. They could rent it if he permitted. Guruji spoke to Vashisht, who agreed but said the land was barren, and he could not be held responsible if anything untoward happened there. Guruji saw the place and shifted the camp there. We lived there for a few days but there was no water supply. Guruji was walking ahead of me, and a daily-wage labourer we had hired named Ranjeet. There was a rain-fed water channel near the place where we had camped. When Guruji went downhill-it is nothing short of a miracle- water followed us. We used that water. The entire place which was arid became green. 

At the camp-site, there was a small temple with a shivling inside, which had not been cleaned or maintained. It had spider webs etc. So, a few days later, I asked Guruji if I could clean that temple with his permission. He gave me money to get white paint from the market and paint its walls. He also said I must pour water on the shivling and light an incense stick every morning. After that, when I would light a lamp and incense -- I did not pay much attention – we did this every morning around 6. Guruji used to stand behind me when I performed the rituals. After Guruji left his body, many people have had his darshan at this shivling. 

Q. Mr. Vashisht you spoke of—you said that he saw a figure resembling Guruji for 10 years. Tell us about it? 

Bittu ji: Mr. Vashisht used to see Guruji a soil surveyor. One day, Guruji left for Delhi on official work, and I was at the camp. Mr. Vashisht came to pray at the temple in the morning, the same Shivling temple I mentioned earlier. While drinking tea, he asked—he used to call Guruji ‘Sharma ji’— “Does Sharma ji wear spectacles?” I answered, “No, Sharma ji doesn’t wear spectacles; he wears goggles sometimes.” After hearing this, he left. In the evening, when Guruji returned, I told him that Vashisht sahib had asked me such a question. Guruji laughed. The next day, Vashisht sahib came again. He asked whether Sharma ji had returned. I told Guruji that Vashisht sahib had come and he asked me to serve him a cup of tea, and said he would meet him after he had shaved. After Guruji had shaved, Vashisht asked him the same question, “Do you wear spectacles?” Guruji said, “No, I don’t, but these boys had given me a pair of sunglasses which I wear when I travel by jeep to avoid the dust.” Vashisht sahib repeated the question. Guruji said, “I am a young man and did not need spectacles.” Then Vashisht spoke about spiritualism. After 10-15 minutes, Guruji said, “Come Vashisht sahib, I will also show you something.” Guruji asked me to get water and washed his hands. I have seen him show his Om to many people, but when he showed it to Vashisht sahib, the Om was shining very brightly. I have never seen it shine so brightly after this. When Vashisht sahib saw this, he fell at Guruji’s feet. Later, Vashisht sahib said that for 10 years, whenever he sat in meditation at night—it is called dhuna in Punjabi; it is a pyre where saints sit and pray—so whenever Vashisht sahib sat, he saw a vision of a person resembling Guruji wearing spectacles on the wall in front of him; this would disturb his meditation. He wondered who it was who disrupted his concentration. Guruji said, “Son, I have come here in 1979. I should have come here in 1969. You have been waiting for me for 10 years.”

Gurudev opened a sthan at Renuka in 1980 with Chandramani Vashisht in charge and Parshuram ji as its chief patron. Chandramani Vashisht eventually picked a successor, Dinesh ji, to manage the sthan, and handed the reins to him before he passed on. Dinesh ji gives us some background of the spiritual history of the place.

Q: What is the connection of this sthan with Parshuram ji?

Dinesh ji: This land belongs to Parshuram ji. He was born here. He meditates here. He lives in every corner. You must have heard when Guruji came here, there was an Om on every stone. Even now, when you pick up any stone, you will be able to see the Om on it. This place has existed for thousands of years, Parshuram ji has taken many births during this time; it is his birthplace. Mata Renuka is his mother who lives in the lake seh sharir. Parshuram ji is immortal and in the physical form. Do you understand what I am saying?

Q: In the physical form?

Dinesh ji: Yes, he can appear in his physical form anywhere and anytime. He does not age. He can still be seen in the same form. 

Q: How does he look?

Dinesh ji: He looks young with a small beard and trimmed moustache, and hair tied in a bun.

It was at the camps that Gurudev forged many spiritual alliances, be it with the great Parshuram ji and his mother, Devi Renuka, with several Devi Devtas in Himachal Pradesh; with Buddhe Baba and Augarh, and many others whom we are yet to discover.

When Gurudev first arrived at Renuka, he instructed all his disciples to refrain from addressing him as their Guru. He wanted his identity to remain a secret till he had established a working relationship with Parshuram ji. 

Strange as it may sound, many spiritual greats test other spiritual greats before they can or do acknowledge.

Bittu ji recounts an interesting anecdote from Renuka that involves Gurudev’s eldest daughter, Renu, do listen on!

Bittu ji: At the time of the camp at Renuka, Renu had measles and her condition worsened. She was almost on her deathbed. She kept saying, “I want to meet Daddy” but Guruji was in Renuka. Mataji arrived in Renuka with Renu, Pal, and Subhash. Guruji was on the field when they reached there. When he returned, he saw that them waiting at the camp. He got very, very upset. Mataji said, “I didn’t come of my own accord, your daughter wanted to see you.” He said, “Let her die if she must die. Return immediately to Gurgaon.” It was around 5 pm. In those days, it got dark by 6 pm and the roads to Renuka were quite narrow. I mustered the courage but Guruji said, “They will not stay here!” So, I said they would stay at the sthan at Baayri. He said, “They can stay wherever they want. But they will not eat even a morsel here.” Mataji replied, “I will not drink even a sip of water from here. I have carried food and water with me. Even you can eat it.” He allowed them stay the night but said, “Before I wake up to do my paath, you must all leave.” Later, Guruji revealed that Parshuram ji was testing him. 

Q: Means, he was testing him?

Bittu ji: Yes.

Q: So, testing him to see how trapped he was in emotions.

Bittu ji: Yes. His daughter is dying. They had carried Renu in their laps all the way from Gurgaon. 

Having passed the test, Gurudev was accepted as a collaborator by the immortal one, and an alliance that continues to this day was born. 

Soon after, Gurudev started seva at Renuka and asked a few disciples to join him. Gurudev told them that his voice had gone far beyond the mountains, and he expected a lot of people to show up in this little hamlet. Sure enough, in the days that followed, people came from far and wide. Buses from the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan, offloaded people near the campsite every few hours. In fact, Haryana and Punjab Roadways diverted a few buses to Renuka to meet the unexpected demand.

As word of the miracles at Renuka spread, the Himachal Government sent a few of its officers to investigate the goings on. They took a sample of the jal that was being distributed there to a laboratory nearby, only to find it to be of immaculate purity. 

The camp at Renuka remains the site of the largest gathering of mass healing performed by Gurudev. And possibly any other saint.

My own experiences at Renuka are enough to fill a book. 

I cannot forget Devi Renuka’s regal persona and divine beauty. Due to certain strange circumstances, I had asked her for protection which came instantly. She appeared in all her glory, dressed in white, in the centre of my forehead and touched me with something like a wand or a feather and I could feel a sense of bliss almost instantly. 

Let’s turn back the clock to the events surrounding my visit to Renuka.

Whenever Chandramani Vashisht poured water over the shivling at the sthan established by Gurudev, the graphic of Om would show up. On a visit to Renuka with a few others, I too saw it. But what my co-travellers saw and I could not, was an image of Gurudev appearing on it. Disappointed, but unwilling to believe just because the others did, made me exit the scene in disagreement.

A little later, we stopped at the home of Karamchand, another disciple from Renuka, for lunch. We sat in the open on the mud floor and were served lunch on plates made of leaves. I cleaned the ground before I put the plate down. and after lunch, when I picked up the plate, I was shocked to see a perfect graphic of the Om inlayed on the ground below it. Though I thought it wise not to share the experience with my host, I felt it was a sign and ran back to the sthan to take another look at the Shivling.

Vashisht sahib had left the premises by then, so I jumped over the compound wall and asked the shivling to show me what I had not been able to see earlier. What I saw next was nothing short of a lo and behold moment! An outline of a face appeared instead of the om and stayed there in spite of my complete disbelief. The shivling did not need my faith to showcase itself and its power, but this incident was indicative of how spiritually charged the place was. 

I have recently, after over two or three decades, taken groups of disciples and devotees to Renuka so that they can pay their respects to the power there. Most of them have seen the Om appear on the Shivling when a dhoop is lit in its perimeter. 

For most of Gurudev’s devotees, Renuka is a must visit. It is believed that Gurudev and some of his disciples had in a past life meditated in and around the hills of Renuka and it is said that their samadhis may still be there.

Think about it – if a heavyweight like Parshuram ji found it worth his while to collaborate in the establishment of a sthan for seva, and indulge in its sustenance, then maybe it would be wise to pay more heed to the philosophy and practice of selfless service.

Just because your lifestyle may not include going to camps for long durations, you can do what I do--Make a camp in your mind. Escape from the operations management of your life to the hillside locations in your head. Tune off the mediocracy of day-to-day life, common attachments, family, and social ties, and give yourself the time and space to learn and practice spiritualism. 

Make the mind your paramaatmic retreat. 

For an hour a day, you can make your bed your camp. Your morning or evening walk your camp. 

Let’s camp alone.

Let’s camp together.

Let’s camp with Gurudev!

Sochne se kaha milte hai tamanna-o ke sheher

Sochne se kaha milte hai tamanna-o ke sheher

Chalna bhi jaruri hai, Chalna bhi jaruri hai,

manzil ko paane ke liye, manzil ko paane ke liye