CHAPTER XXXIV
SHAHJAHANPUR-JAMMU
(i) A Divine Pair
Shahjahanpur is a large town, four miles distant from
Pathankot, on the bank of a swift flowing river. Ramdas
strolled up to the town in a slow and leisurely fashion. He
directed his steps into the yard of a house in which lived
the family of a postman of the place. The master of the
house was out. His wife, as soon as she saw him, fell at his
feet and begged him to be seated on a cot standing in the
shade of a tree in front of the house. He complied with her
request. Immediately, entering the house, she got a
lota of water and a wooden seat. Clearing a part of
ground in the yard, she sprinkled water over it and placing
the wooden seat in position fetched from the kitchen a
plate of a fuming meal for him.
"Maharaj, I am blest by your darshan. Kindly accept
our Immble hospitality," she appealed turning to Ramdag,
her palms joined in salutation.
Ramdas washed his hands and sat down for the dinner
offered so promptly and with such love by the mother. He
now remembered the words of the sadhu at the Nilkant
cave about the unique love and devotion of the Punjabis.
The meal over, the master of the house turned up. What
a divine pair God had united together in the persons of the
poor postman and his wife!—so humble, so pure and so
simple. Blessed was Ramdas that he had the sight of this
heavenly couple! They represented the true devotional
summit to which the bhakti cult of Hinduism can raise its
votaries. All the time, when both the husband and wife
were engaged in their service of Ramdas, a four year old
child of theirs was lying on a rug on a cot close by, reduced
to a skeleton from a wasting disease. He approached the
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