Papaji as a young man
The year was 1919, and in commemoration of the victory of World War 1, the British declared all schools in India closed for a month. The mother of this eight-year-old child, Harivansh, decided it was the best time to take all her children to visit her relatives in Lahore. On reaching there someone decided to make mango and almond milk. Though Harivansh eagerly waited for the drink, when it was handed it to him, he could make no movement to grasp it.
Harivansh had suddenly fallen into a deep mystical trance. So deep was the trance that all attempts to shake him out of it failed. Harivansh stayed in this state for two full days. Thinking that he was possessed the panicked family took him to the local mosque and asked the mullah to perform an exorcism. But nothing worked. Eventually when he came out of his trance, he was unable to say much about it except that he had an “intensely happy” experience and he had experienced “unfathomable beauty and peace”.
Harivansh’s mother was an ardent devotee of Krishna and she came up with the theory that her son’s trance was somehow related to Lord Krishna. Harivansh was shown pictures of Krishna but he denied that he had seen anyone resembling Him. Yet somehow the young boy’s mom convinced him that his experience was the result of Krishna. Harivansh longed to repeat his experience and his mother convinced him that this would happen if he meditated on the name of Krishna. So strong was his desire to return to the state he had experienced, Harivansh began to meditate intensely on the child form of Krishna.
From the moment he woke up he would begin his intense meditation by constantly invoking the name of Krishna. Soon the child-Krishna began appearing before Harivansh when he was alone at night. As soon as he closed his eyes the form of child-Krishna would be before him. The experience was so intense that he could physically touch Him and play with Him and talk to Him. Of course Harivansh was so young that he thought that the child-Krishna appeared before everyone and there was nothing novel in what he experienced. Sometimes child-Krishna came to him so frequently that it tired him as he needed to get some sleep! But when child-Krishna was not with him he always longed for His presence. He lost all interest in schoolwork and play and he was always thinking of or meditating on Krishna’s name. Sometimes waves of bliss would surge inside him but the experience was never as intense as the one he had the first time when he was eight. Continue reading
