In March 2006, Swamishri was in Sarangpur. He had an eye infection. His eyes were swollen and he was experiencing a throbbing pain. The doctors had put a pad on the infected eye to protect the other eye. They had also advised him to wear shades for his protection. Still, Swamishri didn’t take a single day off.

He was meeting devotees and writing letters all day. He would read and write letters in between meeting devotees. The minute he would pick up a letter, someone would come in to meet him. Swamishri patiently met all of them. After they were all finished, Swamishri read the letter for half an hour before another devotee came to meet him.

Swamishri sat with him until 8:30 p.m. and then had dinner. After dinner about a hundred devotees had come from nearby Botad for Swamishri’s darshan. He met them all.

After meeting them, Swamishri asked Dharmacharan Swami to bring more letters. Narayancharan Swami interjected, “Your eyes are giving trouble, yet you do not stop reading letters.”

“If I take a break now, they will all pile up. It’s better to read them daily.”

Swamishri again requested Dharmacharan Swami to bring the letters. Dharmacharan Swami decided to give a summary of the letters to Swamishri so that he wouldn’t have to strain his eyes by reading them.

Swamishri wasn’t satisfied, “You can give me a brief summary, but give me the letter as well so that I can read it.”

Swamishri continued reading and writing until it was time to go to bed.

The next day was the same. Swamishri was trying to get through a long and poorly written letter. Swamishri could barely make out the handwriting. Brahmavihari Swami couldn’t hold back, “Your eyes are troubling you and you are still reading letters.”

“I have only been able to get through one letter today. Every time I pick up the letter someone else comes to meet me.”

“You shouldn’t have bothered reading it. There’s no need to.”

“Of course there is! That devotee must be suffering so much. It must have taken him a long time to write the letter. He must be in so much pain. The least we should do is read it.”

“He is in pain? What about you? We are all in pain just seeing you reading that long letter!”

Swamishri laughed it off and replied, “You try to help and it still seems to trouble others!”

The long, difficult to decipher letters often have very little substance. Swamishri reads them and replies to them respecting the feelings and effort put in by his devotees.