Reference: posted by: vejeestu on date: 7/12/00 to Kirpal Singh Satsang Club; Message number 518-522
The following article by Malek Radha Krishna Khanna concerns his relationship with Sant Kirpal Singh. This article comes from The Ocean of Grace Divine. It is worth noting his beautiful description of Kirpal Singh's nature.
"He was completely honest...from the beginning He had a very clean and very high character."
When I first met Sardar Kirpal Singh, His humility was such that it never allowed me to think that He would ever rise to such spiritual heights. He was regarded as a holy man and the man to whom our Great Master Baba Sawan Singh Ji had entrusted the Satsang work at Lahore (which was then the capital of Punjab) and as we had a very spacious Satsang hall there, He used to give discourses on Sundays. After I came to know Him, which was in the late thirties, He was also commissioned by the Master to hold Satsangs at Amritsar where a beautiful new Satsang hall had been built. I also remember that He went about like an ordinary man with no show or pretentions of any kind. It was widely known that He was always by the side of ailing satsangis at Lahore whenever He came to know about their ill health. He would always go and try to comfort them when they were in trouble. That was all that was known about Him.
Once or twice when I was coming from Multan, and having changed trains at Lahore so as to proceed to Beas to be with Hazur Baba Sawan Singh, I saw Sardar Kirpal Singh traveling by train, Third Class. I knew He was a Government Officer and that He was entitled to travel First Class and that He must have been given a First Class pass. But He always made it a point to travel Third Class.
When He went to Beas, He made it a point to sit in the last row at Satsang, while I, as an unregenerate soul, or whatever you might say, used to think, "Well, I've come from more than two hundred miles to see Hazur, and attend the Satsang, why shouldn't I avaiI myself of the best place so that I can hear every word?" And I used to sit in the first or second row. Actually, whenever I sat behind the front row, the Master used to beckon me to come and sit in front. Well, once I met Maharaj Kirpal Singh; we had been talking to each other for some time and when we went to the place where the Great Master was holding Satsang, I thought that I might also sit with Him. And there I found that I had a better darshan of the Master in the last row where Kirpal Singh was sitting, and I also heard more of the Satsang! Now I was astonished. I said, "This is where the true devotee can benefit by knowing things." After that we came much closer together.
Some time later we were together at Sikandarpur where Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji's son had extensive agricultural land, and his daughter was getting married. But Hazur fell ill and everybody felt a great deal of anxiety. At midnight I found Maharaj Kirpal Singh, who was staying in the room next to mine, going in to see Hazur almost every half hour. As He was feeling so restless and anxious, I asked Him if the Master's condition was indeed serious? He said it looked like that, and He had prescribed some homeopathic medicine which the Master had taken, and He was just waiting for the result. After some time the Master improved, but He didn't altogether get over it.
Later, when the Master fell ill at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh at Beas it was a sort of continuation of the same illness which He had developed at Sikandarpur. Maharaj Kirpal Singh took leave from office and was there to attend on Him. Some people who were close to Hazur, not exactly close spiritually but His relatives, old associates, or members of His family, didn't very much like these repeated visits of Maharaj Kirpal Singh.
Although He was in the grip of illness just a few days before His physical departure, I could always see a faint smile on Hazur's face. whenever Maharaj Kirpal Singh came into the room. Kirpal Singh didn't disturb Him; He was able to comfort Him.
At that time Dr. Schmidt from Switzerland, who was the President of the World Federation of Homeopathic Doctors and an initiate of Hazur, was staying in the Dera and was treating Him with homeopathic medicines. Now Maharaj Kirpal Singh used to have consultations with him because He also knew something about homeopathy. However, it was decided that Hazur had to go to the hospital at Amritsar for treatment. Maharaj Kirpal Singh went with Him and so did I. There also, Maharaj Kirpal Singh looked after the Master. It so happened that one of the satsangis, who was a medical student, was anxious that if there was any transfusion of blood to be given to the Master as the doctors there suggested, it should be his blood. When his blood was tested, it did not quite match with the Master's and, medically, it was not the proper blood to be given. But somehow he got round one of the female sevadars and persuaded her into agreeing that his blood be given. Being a medical student, he told her, "Well, there is not much of a difference." So a bottle of his blood was kept ready, and the doctor was told that it was according to prescription. I came to know of this later, along with Maharaj Kirpal Singh. So the blood was given and it had a very serious effect on the Master. He almost looked like losing His life, but He recovered the next day. I was very angry over all this; I was thinking that we should complain to the Master that it was due to this sevadar that the wrong blood was given. But Maharaj Kirpal Singh said,"Well, forgive her. What's the use? Now He has recovered. Whatever had to happen, has happened." Such indeed was His greatness and magnanimity.
Some years earlier, when Hazur was giving Naam, He told Sardar Kirpal Singh, "Well, you must do this work today. I don't feel inclined; it is a strain on me, I have been doing a lot of work and you must take over today." He declined with folded hands, saying, "In Your presence I am nobody." The Master smiled and initiated the seekers Himself. Later on another occasion Maharaj Kirpal Singh did give initiation in Hazur's presence.
In 1948 when I lost my Master I felt miserable. But then after some time I had the comfort of Maharaj Kirpal Singh which made up to some extent for that great bereavement. We are to pass the remaining span of life which is allotted to us as best we can. Maharaj Kirpal Singh was a source of great Light and comfort to His initiates, His friends, to all persons who came in contact with Him.
After He became the Master He spread Hazur's Mission over several continents. Master Sawan Singh never went out of India; and like Vivekananda with Ramakrishna, it is Maharaj Kirpal Singh who has spread Hazur's Mission and made the name of His Master famous in many parts of the world. Throughout His Service He was completely honest, wouldn't accept any gift or even meals from anybody, wouldn't dine out; from the beginning He had a very clean and very high character.
I became Maharaj Kirpal Singh's literary advisor about sixteen or seventeen years ago when He wrote The Crown of Life and The Life of Baba Jaimal Singh. He sent the manuscripts to me, and I went through them — somewhat as a literary man as I have my M.A. in English, but more as a lawyer—so that I could check that there was nothing objectionable. My close association began then. I might mention that I took Crown of Life with me when I went to London in 1961 and presented copies to the British Museum, the Library of the Guildhall, the London University Library, and to Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and they were gladly accepted. I even tried to get it published in London.
Many other books passed through my hands. I came to Delhi and set up practice there in 1960. Thereafter, when any legal question arose about Sawan Ashram or the Satsang's affairs, Maharaj Kirpal Singh always sought my advice and acted on it. Now in regard to Sawan Ashram there were land acquisition cases — the Government wanted to acquire some portion of it. I also acted as Maharaj Ji's legal advisor.
I think He didn't require my legal consultation so much as I required His grace by doing some seva. So He had set up a show of my service for my own benefit, to give me grace, as our Master had done years before in a case at Dalhousie which was conducted by me. Maharaj Kirpal Singh and I became very fond of each other, and whenever He used to come to my house every month — and He did not come on every occasion to consult me about legal matters — we talked of many things: about His satsangis in America, about the satsangis here, about the situation in the country, about what was happening in Manav Kendra, about what He intended to do, and all that. On several occasions He told me, "Now look here, I have satsangis in this country, and they don't take to their meditations seriously, while satsangis in America and other foreign countries, some of them take to it very seriously. They consider it as serious as any other task in life, and they are making much greater progress than the satsangis here." These are His words, and He added, "Some of them have crossed one or two regions." Now, He was very friendly with me, and I happened to remark, "Maharaj Ji, Your regions must be nearer than the regions of Your Master, because in His day it took much longer to cross these regions." He laughed and said, "Well, they are the same regions, but people in the West take to it assidiously, much more seriously, and I am much pleased with their progress."
Maharaj Kirpal Singh sometimes used to say in a jocular vein that I had a greater number of occasions to have the physical darshan of Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji than He had, that I had passed more time with Hazur at Dalhousie and Beas than He because He was in Service in those days and could only go when He could get leave. I told Him, "Well, externally I may have seen more of Him than You, but You see more of Him internally. When I went away to Multan I couldn't see Him, but You could see Him all the time, all the days wherever You were. So don't say that — You are in a much higher place in the Master's grace than I am." And He laughed at that.
I would now like to tell about an incident that made a deep impression on me. One day I met a satsangi who told me his mother had fallen ill, very seriously, and she said that the doctors told her that she would be dying within a few hours. She expressed a wish to see her younger son, and she also added that she would not die in peace unless she met him, as that desire would linger. This lady was an initiate of Maharaj Kirpal Singh, so the elder son went to see Maharaj Ji who said, "Well, the doctors are right. She has to go this evening, but now that you have come and conveyed her wishes to me, and you have also been serving the Mission for a long time, I think I'll have to intercede. How long will it take for your brother to come and see your mother?" "It will take two days." The Master said, "All right. Tell her that she will not go before she meets her son." And then He added something which struck me then as significant, "All right, I'll send her by the next train to the other world. Let today's train go with other people.," Now this is what Master Kirpal Singh said. These things are there forever to remind us of what He was.
I would like to end by telling how the Master showered His grace on me. I met with a serious accident about two years ago and it was extremely cold during those days — it was cold all over the country. It was the 4th of January, 1974, and the accident took place in the evening just before sunset. I could not go to the hospital on account of this extreme cold, and no surgeon would come to my house. They all said; "These operations are carried out in the hospital, we don't go to people's homes." My right shoulder had been dislocated, and there were fractures on my right arm and right leg. I passed that night in in extreme pain. The next day my son again went to the surgeons, and they all refused to come. Then they said, "It must be x-rayed before anything can be done." I couldn't move so I could not go for an x-ray. It was extremely cold those days and I am very susceptible to cold. Then with great persuasion an x-ray operator was induced to come here, and he took the x ray.
The same evening Master Kirpal Singh came to see me. At that time my pain was even more excruciating than on the previous day. I could hardly survive, and in order to do fomentation on those parts, bricks were heated, and applied wrapped up in a cloth. Only extreme heat could give me any relief. But it burnt some of my skin and a part of my bedding also. A few minutes after all this happened, Maharaj Kirpal Singh came and said, "How are you?" I said, "I've met with an accident." "Yes, yes, I know that," He said and told me the exact time and place. I said' "Yes. But I didn't send You information." He laughed But then I said, "As You know everything, You could have come yesterday or on the first evening." He replied, "You had to undergo this trouble for some time because the karma was very serious and it was in consultation with Hazur that it was delayed, but We took care that you would not expire during that time." Those were His words. Then I said, "What will happen now?" He replied, "You will see." He stood on the left side of my bed leaning, or rather pressing against the wall; there was hardly space for Him. He didn't want to shift my bed; He said, "No, no, no! I will stand here." He stood with eyes closed for half an hour. Then He asked, "How about your pain?" I said, "It has become tolerable." "All right, you will pass the night more comfortably now. Tomorrow some eminent surgeon will come. Everything will be set, don't worry." I owe my survival to Him.
After the plaster had been removed my right arm couldn't move. The plexus of nerves near the arm-pit was injured and the blood didn't flow as it ought. The neurologist who examined me — and he is the most eminent one in Delhi — said, "Your arm will not move for the rest of your life, but try to move it with your left hand otherwise it will get stuck to your body and it could be such a painful thing that your arm may have to be amputated." I was feeling rather distressed when Maharaj Kirpal Singh came again to see me. I said, "I can't move my right arm. I can't write, I can't even withdraw any money from the bank as I can't write out a check." He said, "No, no, no. You can't move?" He took hold of my arm and began to move it up and down. And from that moment my arm seemed to be all right. I have full use of it now, and it is a constant source of wonder to me. Not only that, I may add that I owe my survival to His grace. I know Maharaj Ji told me that all that was done was in accordance with Hazur's wishes, but I know deep in my heart that I owe much to His loving care and consideration.
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