The New Life: The incident that turned a revolutionary into a staunch lover (Part-2 of 2)

Unknown to anyone in the hall, this whole scene impacted one man in the group even more profoundly. He had come with the others from Hamirpur not to love Baba as they did, but to scrutinize Him with the intention of exposing Him as a fraud. He had even hinted that he might shoot Baba.

His name was Parmeshwari Nigam. He was a large and impressive-looking man, who in recent years had been a staunch revolutionary conspiring against British rule in India. He had seen many instances of hypocritical leaders who asked others to risk their lives for political freedom while they always avoided danger, and he had counted Baba among them. However, he had just witnessed a leader who, in order to bring home the importance of obedience, had allowed Himself to be openly humiliated by being slapped in the face by one of His own disciples, and that act had deeply moved him.

This incident, as well as the love that emanated from Baba as He embraced so many men of different castes and religions, awakened in Parmeshwari Nigam the conviction of Baba’s Avatarhood, and later in the meeting, when Baba asked for donations for His work with the masts and the poor, he suddenly stood up in the midst of the gathering, and as a token of surrender, he took off all his clothes down to his underwear and placed them in a bundle at his own feet. He then wrote a quick note dedicating his body and mind to Baba and inserted it, along with all his money, into the shirt pocket that was lying on the floor. Then, sobbing uncontrollably, he prostrated himself from a distance in Baba’s direction.

Seeing this expression of surrender, Baba gestured for him to come forward with his bundle of clothes.

Baba looked lovingly at the clothes, then held the bundle, kissed it, and handed it back to Parmeshwari Nigam, saying, “Put your clothes back on. When this meeting is over, go back to Hamirpur. Continue the work that you have been doing. But remember one thing, that where formerly you were doing it for yourself, now think that you will be doing it for Baba.”

At that time, Parameshwari Nigam was the editor of a Hindi revolutionary magazine called Pukar.

Baba told him, “It is the inner attitude that counts and not its outer expression.”

(Later, Baba renamed Parmeshwari Nigam after his magazine Pukar, and he became one of Baba’s close and dear followers.)

-“Meher Baba’s New Life”, p482

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