In the summer vacation of 1968, while most of the students had gone home to spend time with their families, some students had stayed behind in the Akshar Purushottam Chhatralay in Vidyanagar to study. Among these students were those who lived in Room 14.  Late one night a few students were reading in their room when, all of a sudden, there was a knock at the door.  Since the door was open, the students decided not to get up and assumed the person at the door would just walk in.  Slowly, the visitor began to push the door open and to the students’ surprise it was Pramukh Swami!  Swamishri and his attendant sadhu explained that they just arrived in Vidyanagar from a nearby village and the parshads who looked after the hostel had already gone to sleep. They saw the light coming from their room and decided to knock on the door.  They were carrying their potlas and they looked very tired.

The roommates offered to go wake the parshads so that Swamishri could get a proper room to sleep in.  Swamishri immediately stopped the students and said, “There is no need to wake them.  Let them sleep.  We will spend the night here in your room.”  The youths were delighted to have Swamishri stay in their room.  Some time passed and the students’ regular teatime had arrived.  One of the students built up the courage to ask Swamishri, “We were going to make some hot milk.  Will you have some with us?”  Swamishri’s reply shocked the students.  He said, “Let me make it, let’s see how it turns out.”  Swamishri went to the balcony where the stove was and began making the hot milk.  His attendant sadhu started to arrange the potlas in one corner and laid out the bedding for Swamishri.  Within no time Swamishri entered the room holding three cups.  The students were shocked to see what Swamishri had made for them.  He had not make hot milk, but made tea for the students!     

One of the students exclaimed, “It’s tea!  Swamishri, how did you know that we really wanted to drink tea?”  Swamishri softly answered, “It’s obvious, isn’t it!”  Swamishri handed the cups of tea to the students and without taking any tea or hot milk for himself, he sat on the bedding that was laid out on the floor.  The students begged Swamishri to sleep on the bed but Swamishri stayed on the floor while the students slept on their beds.  The next morning, one of the parshads, Jaykrishna Bhagat, came to wake up the students.  He was surprised to see Swamishri sleeping on the floor.  He immediately began performing prostrations (dandvats) to Swamishri.  Jaykrishna Bhagat could not believe the story about the previous night.

Two years later, Swamishri met one of the students again and said, “Until now, you have been drinking tea.  I think it is time that you put an end to that habit.” Pramukh Swami is the President of BAPS, yet he chose to sleep on the floor of a hostel room.  He cared so much for the parshads that he did not want to inconvenience them and so let them sleep.  He was able to understand the students and know their wish of wanting a cup of tea.  These are all unique qualities of a Satpurush.  Let us strive to live simple lives and care  for our fellow devotees.