Tribute

Rikhia-Wale Baba

Swami Vedananda Saraswati, Germany

For any person, coming from outside Bihar, it is next to impossible to take a foothold in Bihar, not to talk about founding an organization or an ashram. And Sri Swamiji did it twice! He became the Munger-Wale Baba and he became the Rikhia-Wale Baba.

How did he do it? I can only tell how he did it with me. He certainly didn’t do it by performing big miracles. He did it in the way he lived and handled each and every situation in life, one by one, in a perfect, but simple manner. Each and every small thing was perfectly planned and executed, or changed in a second, if the situation required it. He was very conservative in some matters and absolutely revolutionary in others; he could be very soft and a second later very tough. In short, he was everything. Everything in one. He was what the situation required in that special moment. And most of all he was Mother! Vibrating this unconditional love in each and every action he did.

I know today, and I knew it then: we cannot know and we cannot appreciate the real value and blessings we received and are still receiving through him.