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A Lost Mother Found

In July 1972 the wife of Jagannath Anand of Haldwani was suffering from mental health problems and wandered away from her house.

In spite of a heavy search, no one could find her. Someone said that she was seen in Kanpur, but after searching there, they still did not find her.

Anand had four daughters. Sarla, the second one, had contracted polio as a child and was disabled, but she moved about by dragging herself along the ground. She was feeling sad because of her mother's disappearance, so she decided to speak her heart to Baba.

While her family was devoted to Baba and she had heard a lot about him, Sarla had never been able to see him because of her disability. Nevertheless, she took a bus to Kainchi ashram by herself one day.

It was dark by the time she dragged herself into the ashram, and when she found out that Baba was in Bhumiadhar not Kainchi, she became very disappointed. It was cold and had been raining heavily in the hills, so an ashram attendant gave her a blanket and showed her a place on the veranda. However, he would not open a room for her without Baba's permission.

After a little while, at about 8 p.m., Baba arrived at the ashram. First he scolded the attendants, saying that they had killed his daughter in the cold. He then got a room opened immediately and made a bed for her to rest.

Sarla wanted to tell him about her problem, but Baba made her eat a meal and then rest. He said, "Tomorrow we will talk."

The next day when she told Baba about her mother, he said, "Don't worry. Leave your worries. Your mother will be found. Your father is spending a lot of money unnecessarily in trying to find her. She will be found without going in search of her." Baba sent Sarla off.

No one knows how her mother reached Balrampur in the district of Gonda, but one day as she was passing by a shop, the wealthy shopkeeper saw a woman of good family in a pitiable condition and felt compassion for her.

He took her home to his family, who bathed her and gave her clean new clothes to wear. They disentangled her knotted hair and got the wounds on her head treated in the local hospital.

While she was recovering from her wounds, she herself gave her Haldwani address in a moment of lucidity. The shopkeeper wrote to his son-in-law, who had a factory in Haldwani, and asked him to inform the woman's family. Sarla's father received the good news on 31 August 1972 and immediately went to Gonda to bring her home in the beginning of September.