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Call and Response Ep. 68 | Maharajji Stories
I just wanted to ask if you could please share your most favorite experience of spending time with Maharajji. Thank you.
“You know, He knew everything. Oh, Jesus. Every single thing. He knew how many times you chewed your toast in the morning. He knew what you were going to do 50 years from that moment. And He loved you completely. Totally. Every part of you.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi Krishna Das. My name is Chad and I just wanted to ask if you could please share your most favorite experience of spending time with Maharajji. Thank you.
KD: I don’t know. One time I walked to the temple from, the town’s about a three and a half, four hour walk over the mountains, and I was practicing my Hindi. Over and over I was saying this, trying to learn how to say, “Maharajji, my life is in your hands.” And I was saying it over and over in Hindi, like, for hours, a big moment, you know? So, I got to the temple and I was up, coming down the ridge and I saw He was sitting all alone on His tucket, on His bed. I ran into the temple, I came. I ran up to Him and I said, “Maharajji, your life is in my hands.” He went, “Get out of here, go on, Jao.”
Q: You said it in Hindi though.
KD: Yeah, I said it in Hindi. I said it backwards. Another time, you know, He would get up, you know, He walked like a kid. He’d like, bounce from one leg to the other. He looked like He was ready to fall over. So, people would put their hand out. And He would take somebody’s hand and walk with somebody. So, one day, I always, I happened to be right in front of Him when He stood up. So, I put my hand out. And He looked at me and He laughed and He grabbed my hand and we went walking to the back of the temple and then He stopped and let go of my hand and He took a couple of steps, so I took a couple of steps, and then He looked at me and He said something I didn’t understand, and then He took a couple of steps, so I took a couple of steps and then again, He said something and He took a couple of steps and I took a couple of steps and then He just looked at me like this, and He squats down and He pees. He just wanted like 18 inches to take a piss and I wasn’t going to give it to Him. Ah, Divine Love. Those are the moments that, you know, it wasn’t all the other stuff. It was those moments where it was just too amazing, you know? One time, so after I met Ram Das, I told you last night if you were there, how I came into the room and, you know, I understood that whatever it was that I was looking for in the world was real. It could be found. It was a big thing. So after that, I actually began to dream about Maharajji and all I’d seen was a little black and white picture that Ram Das had, but I dreamt of Him, you know. So I’d had this dream long before to India, where I came back to my elementary school and I walked into the gym where we used to have school plays and used to play dodge ball and you know, do square dancing and all the stuff that people on Long Island did. And there on the other side of the gym, on the stage was, Maharajji was sitting on the bed, on a cot, and next to Him, standing behind Him was this guy with a white shirt and a dhoti, a cloth, and a black vest and he was standing behind him. And I came into the room and I fell down and I did what they call “danda pranam”. I just full out on the floor like this with my head like this. And I was just praying. I was saying, “Please, let me feel something. I have to feel something. Please let me feel something.” This is in my dream. And in my mind’s eye, I saw Him get up and walk down the stairs at the edge of the stage and come over to me and He put His hand on the back of my head and I started to calm down, calm down and as I was calming down, this bliss started to run through my body like, you know, it was unbelievable and it was getting stronger and stronger and stronger and I thought, “I’m going to die” and at that moment, He took His hand off of my head, went back and sat down and I woke up. So, this was in 1969. So, fast forward to maybe early 1972. I came to the temple. We were living in the town nearby and every day we would come to the temple and hang out with Maharajji and then in the evening we’d go home, go back to the town. So, this day, for some reason, I came late by myself. Usually, either we’d… anyway, so I came into the temple and I was holding some apples that I was gonna offer to Him and I walked into the courtyard and He was walking by Himself across the courtyard, right? Now, I realized that I had never seen Him walk before. We’d always been either brought into the room where He was already sitting or He’d just come out the door and plop down on the tucket out there on the cot right there by the door. But I’d never seen Him walk. And I just stopped at the edge of the courtyard and I watched Him walk and I, my mind completely blitzed out because, He was walking the way He walked in my dream, you know? I was just like, like this. And the next thing I know, I’m standing right next to Him and He’s grabbing the apples and throwing them, I didn’t even offer the apples, I was just like… ahhhhh. And He was going, “These westerners.” And He takes the apples and He’s throwing them to people. It was just an amazing moment, you know? So, He had come to me. They say, when you dream about a Saint, you’re not making that up in your dreams the way we mostly make up our dreams. You can’t create the form of a Saint in your dreams. Only the Saint can come to you. That’s what they say. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s what they say. So, if you dream about somebody, a great Guru or something like that, He or She has come to see you. That’s what they say.
One time, we were sitting with Him in the evening. This was after I was living in the temple. So, everybody would go leave the temple for the day and just the people who were living there and the workers would stay, and He’d come up to the back of the temple and sit and a few people there would sit around Him. So on this day there was maybe about six or seven people and I was sitting kind of behind Him and there were these people sitting on the other side of the cot and it was, the sun was setting, there was a sweetness in the air, there was this fragrance of what they call Raat Ki Rani, the Queen of the Night Flowers, it makes Jasmine look like poop, smell like poop. You have no idea. It’s completely intoxicating, this scent. And that was wafting through the air, you know, and I was thinking, “Wow, this is so great.” He looks over at me and goes, “Watch this.” Or, “See this,” He said. And then He casually just said to this person sitting, He said, “Is it cold in America now?” and in two seconds, everybody said, “Well, there’s different parts of America. There’s the North, there’s the South, and then it could be this, it could be cold there.” It was total insanity and He just looks over to me. It was like, “You see what’s in people’s heads? You thought it was peaceful.” Things like that.
You know, He knew everything. Oh, Jesus. Every single thing. He knew how many times you chewed your toast in the morning. He knew what you were going to do 50 years from that moment. And He loved you completely. Totally. Every part of you. And He knew everything. And if you think it’s easy to sit in front of somebody like that… half the time it was the most incredible unbelievable never-wanna-move, the other half of the time it was like living in hell, because we’re not used to that. We can’t be open. We’re just like… We close down. So, then, He would hit you in the heart with a banana. And you’d look, and then you’re open again. And then you’re closed down. And then He’d bang you with an apple. Or He’d look at you and go Ha Ha. And He’d look and He’d laugh. The minute you closed down, He’d open you up, or He’d let you sit there for a few days like that until you just were burnt to a crisp, you know, and then somebody would call your name and you’d turn and you’d get hit with a pomegranate. And He’d go, Ha. That’s how He taught. He didn’t lecture. He said, “If I know…” He said, what did He say, something like, something like, “I don’t know anything, I just know how to open hearts.” Something like that. And He didn’t want anything. Nothing.
He never took anything from us. We couldn’t even donate to the temple. I mean, nothing. He didn’t want anything from us. To be around somebody who doesn’t want anything, who has everything, is so discontinuous with our everyday lives. Everybody we meet is hungry. We’re hungry for so many things. We live in a hungry world. There are people out there who aren’t hungry, who’ve got everything and who are ridiculously disgustingly happy. One time, so, Ram Das had bought this Volkswagon bus from these people and we used to drive it from the town. We used to get sixteen or seventeen people in this Volkswagon, hanging off the back, up on the roof, and it became a bit of a scene, you know, and the Indian people, like the word was getting out, who were these crazy hippies and everything. People were coming to see what’s going on. So, He broke the bus. One day, it wouldn’t start. Anyway, that’s a long story, but anyhow, so He took the keys away from Ram Das and He gave them to me and He said, “Ram Das, you’re a saint, you have to go on the bus, on the regular bus.” And He said, “Jeff will drive.” Jeff was my name. “Jeff will drive.” And at that moment, He started calling me “driver.” So, for the next year, my name was “Driver.” “Driver! Ha. Come here.” Like this. Not a bad name. Kind of cool. Hey. So, I had the keys to the bus and my desire was to drive Maharajji in the Volkswagon bus. I never told anybody. I never said anything to anybody. But I always had the keys with me. Ready. Right? So, like, a year goes by and I’m just sitting around with Him one day and He just looks at me and He says, casually, “Got the keys?” “Yeah.” “Let’s go.”
We went outside Dada’s house in Allahabad and Dada was one of these great devotees of Maharajji. Unbelievable. And Dada’s walking with Maharajji out to the van. Now, you know, He was short. Indian people, you know, most of them are short except these two basketball players we’ve got here. Where are they? There they are. Anyhow, so He kind of had to throw himself up onto the seat of the Volkswagon bus. You know, it’s a little higher than a car. And He bashed His head on the door jam. I mean, whack. I almost pissed my pants. My desire to drive Maharajji created Him getting His, bashed His head on the door of the car. Oh, my God, I’m so terrible. I said, “Dada. Did you see that?” What did Dada, the great devotee Dada, say? “He did it on purpose. Just drive.” That is a devotee. Because nothing the Guru does is by chance. The devotee knows He does everything on purpose. “He did it on purpose. Just drive.” “ok.” I get in the car and I start driving and I swear to you, He said, “Ok, drive to the sangham.” This very sacred place where the three rivers come together. I’m driving along very slow. He said, “Watch out. There’s somebody there. Be careful. Driver. Oh, you’re going too fast. Watch out. Slow down. Watch out.” The whole way there for fifteen minutes just like that. Nonstop. “Watch out. Over there. Over there.”
So, we get to the sangham, I stop the car, I turn it off. We sit there for maybe a minute. He says, “Ok, let’s go back.” That was that. But the interesting… so, the next day, or the day after, He was sending us down south because Ram Das had promised Swami Muktananda that we would do this pilgrimage with Him down in South India, so we all had to go with Him. So, I was driving and we were, there was this big long curve in the road, a turn, and off to the left there was this reservoir and I entered the turn too fast and I’m trying not to spin out as the car is going too fast and it looks like we’re going to just slide off the road into the reservoir and at the last moment, there was like, whoosh, it’s like this wind came. The car literally went, whoop, back on the road, like this. I think that was the bash on the head. So… He did it on purpose.
