About Neem karoli baba
- There are instances when Baba has come out as an incarnation of Lord Hanuman. I have heard that once in Kainchi he decided to feed a bucket of milk to Hanuman ji. He admonished that all should look away otherwise whosoever turns, shall turn blind. I have heard that there were sounds of someone very powerfully taking huge gulps of milk. He put the pail back on the ground after some time. There was no milk left in it.
2)I have it on reliable authority that the writer of the Guru Chalisa first read out his poem before Baba and the saint made him shut up. It was only after the Baba’s departure that Sri Prabhu Dayal Sharma dared to bring out his Chalisa before Sri Ma. Since then, we all know that the Guru Chalisa is recited all over the world by Bhaktas and is now considered totally authentic. Therein, the writer has declared Baba to be Lord Hanuman himself. This is also the current belief and has always been as such, since Baba’s arrival to Neeb Karori.
- I have also heard that sometimes when he took off his underclothes they had sindoor spots on them. (Sindoor is now a lead preparation. Earlier it was prepared from sindoor pods which grew on Sindoor trees). All of us know that Hanuman ji loved to apply Sindoor on his body. Once the Baba was annoyed with a very prominent bhakta, who had transgressed some unwritten rule of the Baba, he hollered at him in full fury. Those who stood outside the room heard the sounds of a huge monkey grunting and snarling in anger. My elder brother Rabboo Joshi was present there and he is a personal witness to this incident on that evening. Sometimes, the tell-tale signs of Baba’s connection with Hanuman ji became apparent to everyone.
- I cannot think of anyone else, other than Sri Ma and a few others, who may have ever seen his Hanumat form. I think he did this for the safety of the Bhaktas. An uninitiated bhakta, still not ready for Baba’s radiance, would die if the Baba revealed his divine form before him. The shock of witnessing divinity is not a soft one. The guru prepares his disciples for several years before he gives him something special. The disciple has to be trained to handle the surge of power which is transferred by the guru. He gave returns to the bhaktas according to their preparation. He freely gifted prosperity to many but he revealed the radiant spectrum only to the very select ones. I have also heard that a toe-nail of the master was red. I do not wish to indicate any specific meaning here to this. To my mother, my elder brother and me, Baba was an incarnation of Hanuman ji on earth. We do not require any litmus test to authenticate this.
Excerpts from Manjul Joshi’s book- “Journey Maharaj to Ma”.
What do you think?
Bhavin