I purchased a dozen oranges to take to Maharajji. We arrived at the tiny temple where Maharajji was visiting and where many Indian devotees already had gathered and were crammed into his room.

As soon as our presence was made known, we were pushed to the space just in front of the wooden table on which Maharajji sat. I offered the oranges to him. There was already much fruit and some sweets on the table.

But then something happened that surprised me. Maharajji started to go at my oranges af if he had never seen food before. As each orange was opened he would grab it and eat it very rapidly. And before my eyes he consumed eight oranges. I was being fed the other four, at Maharajji's insistence, by the school principal.

Later I asked KK, a close Indian friend, about this peculiar behaviour. KK explained that Maharajji was "taking on karma" from me and that this was a technique by which he often did that. (R.D.)

One day when I was sitting by the tucket waiting for him to come out and give darshan, the thought occurred to me that would like to have my heart beat exactly the same rate as Maharajji's.

Just as soon as I thought that, there was a great commotion from within the building, a slamming of doors, and suddenly Maharajji burst through the outer doors onto the porch.

He briskly took his seat on the tucket and sat directly in front of me, his chest only some six inches away. I could feel my heartbeat and remained in constant consciousness of my heart beating in tune with his for some time.

Maharajji often called one devotee, a poor man, to accompany him on long pilgrimages. The devotee always agreed without a complaint, although he often had to borrow money to finance these trips.

Once Maharajji asked him to come to Badrinath. Before leaving, the man pointed to the small picture of Maharajji on their puja table and told his wife that for any reason she wanted to communicate with him while he was gone, she should address herself to Maharajji's photo, since the two would be together.

A few days later, high in the Himalayas, Maharajji suddenly turned to this devotee and said, "Why have you come here?"

The devotee replied that he he had come at Maharajji's request.

Maharajji said, "At your home there is no dal, no flour, nothing. Your wife is very worried because there is nothing to eat and you are far away. You should have at least provided bread for them to eat!"

While visiting in Kanpur, a Nainital devotee had Maharajji's darshan. As he was leaving, Maharajji gave him a message to deliver to the temple upon his return to Nainital. The message was that they should expect Maharajji within a fortnight.

When he got to Nainital the next day, the devotee went straight to the temple before going to his home. He wondered why so many people had come to the temple when Maharajji was away. He overheard them say that Maharajji was inside one of the rooms.

"Come on," said Maharajji to a devotee. "I'll show you a very big mahatma. You'll have darshan (here he was being sarcastic) of a very great saint."

Maharajji and the devotee traveled by car to the ashram of this baba, and Maharajji led the devotee to a young man clothed in saffron silken robes and smoking cigarette.

When this man saw Maharajji, he threw his cigarette away and pranammed to him. They sat down and the sadhu went into his room and brought out a very expensive blanket. (Maharajji's was wearing an old, very plain blanket.)

The sadhu removed Maharajji's blanket and wrapped the new one around him.

"What's this?" asked Maharajji.

"It's a new blanket, a very beautiful, expensive one. That millionaire's mother came and gave it to me. It was kept for you, Maharajji. Here it is. It's a most excellent blanket. Don't give it to anyone."