In 1972, Swamishri celebrated the Jaljhilani festival in Sarangpur. One afternoon, Swamishri accompanied a few of the sadhus for a bath in the stepwell behind the mandir. One of the sadhus pointed at Brahmaprakash Swami and told Swami that he was an expert diver. Swamishri smiled at him and said, “Let’s see your skills.”
Brahmaprakash Swami went up to the very top ledge and performed different types of somersault dives. Swamishri laughed and was impressed. Lovingly he said, “It’s pretty good how you turn upside down and fall in.”
Some of the sadhus asked Swamishri to dive. Swamishri said, “I can’t jump from the top, so I’ll jump from here.” He stood on the steps and got ready to dive in. All the sadhus got out of the water to watch. Swamishri thrust himself forward, but instead of going in head first, he turned over and fell in flat on his back. There was a loud noise. As he swam out he said, “That was a somersault wasn’t it? It wasn’t very good!” Smiling Swamishri added, “I’m not very good at doing anything crooked or twisted; I only like doing everything simply and straight forwardly!” Even while having fun with the sadhus, Swamishri taught them a valuable lesson.
Afterwards, Swamishri was drying himself. Some of the sadhus noticed that Swamishri’s kanthi was missing. So, several sadhus jumped in to try and retrieve it, but they couldn’t find it. So Devcharan Swami got another one. While Swamishri was putting on his dhotiyu Brahmaprakash Swami said, “Bapa, when once I asked you for your kanthi, you did not give it to me. And yet you let this one go into the well.”
Swamishri immediately replied, “Do you know how much seva this well has done? It has served Shastriji Maharaj and Yogiji Maharaj for many, many years. Whoever does seva always gets his reward!” Again lovingly, Swamishri explained to us all the importance of seva! |