A Moslem devotee invited Maharajji to attend a religious festival at his home.

The whole family and many of their friends gathered together to sing Sufi songs and to hear readings from the Koran. Many Muslim mullahs(priests) and scholars attended the festival to perform the rituals and read the scriptures.

When Maharajji arrived, the devotee escorted him to the place of honor in front of the scholars. They immediately ceased their singing and complained to the host. They said that they couldn't continue the rituals in the presence of a Hindu.

Maharajji verbally abused them for their prejudice and narrow-mindedness.

An ICS (Indian Civil Service) commissioner of Lucknow used to drink ferociously. The superintendent of police said to Maharajji that they should go visit him.

Maharajji agreed, and when they arrived the commissioner had a bottle hidden behind him. Maharajji yelled from the car, "What's the matter?"

The commissioner was furious. He screamed at the superintendent: "Who have you brought here? He has no manners! Get him out of here."

The superintendent opened his holster and was about to shoot the commissioner for talking to Maharajji that way. But Maharajji blew up: "What are you doing? He is a great saint! You see only his outside. I'll never come with you again."

Well, I was staying in Kainchi. I went to Maharajji and said, "Now I have to go. It is my fruit season and I have to be there. Otherwise I will incur a great loss."

I am a worldly man, you know. My fruit must be picked and sent off to Bombay and such places.

Every day I remained in Kainchi, it was getting riper and would be too ripe to send away.

Maharajji said, "No, no you will stay here. You will go tomorrow."

Fifteen days passed in this way. Then, finally, Maharajji said, "Tomorrow I will send you. Be sure about it."

So the next day I came here and the fruit was all overripe. I thought, "Well, Maharajji has given me a loss."

All the fruit was overripe and I could only send it off to the local markets at Kanpur or Allahabad - not to Bombay, where we got better prices.

And what happened?

I had discovered that I had diabetes and wasn't supposed to eat anything spicy, starchy, greasy, or sweet.

Right after that I went to Kainchi for the first time and was served a big plate of puris cooked in grease, some halva, and some spicy potatoes - all precisely the things I shouldn't eat.

The doctor had told me that if I ate such things I could get very very ill.

I thought about what the doctor said and looked over at Maharajji, who was twinkling.

I was trying to decide whether to have faith in the doctor or faith in Maharajji. (At that time I didn't even know he was my guru.) It was my first day "on the job" as Maharajji's devotee.

I finally decided to eat the food. In fact, I was so hungry I ate two big plates of it. Every day thereafter, I would come and stuff myself.

After a few weeks, I went to Nainital and had my blood-sugar level tested. It was down to borderline now.

In 1962 an old woman came for darshan of Maharajji.

When she saw him, she exclaimed, "How can Neem Karoli Baba be alive? He must have died a long time ago!

My father was a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, and my father said he knew Baba for forty years before that.

I am seventy-three now; I last saw Baba when I was seven and he didn't look any different from the way he looks now."