Question: Babaji can you tell us about some of the funny incidents that happened when You were with Swamiji?
Babaji:
This is a bit difficult. Immediately such things won't come into my mind. (Babaji's assistant reminded Babaji of the telegram incident that Babaji has told before)
Some times things happen with us in the moment of confusion or nervousness with Swamiji. Some times these telegrams can create such confusion when there is no comma or full stops or such phrases are not there when the lines are written. They are received in a coded way by the post office and the post office clerk whatever he writes, writes the sentence in different ways and it can give different meanings.
So once a telegram came from a father about his boy's leg which needed to be operated and he wanted Swamiji's blessings. There was no comma, full stop, nothing was there. The first line said 'Venkatesh left' in the second line it said 'leg needs to be operated'. I was trying to read and translate it into Telugu, 'Venkatesh left' means that, Venkatesh has gone away somewhere because he has 'left', that's what came to my mind and his leg needs to be operated, he is not available and they are praying for Swamiji's blessings.
Swamiji was wondering "He was a nice boy, where did he go? What happened to the leg they needed to operate on?" For more than forty minutes Swamiji and I were arguing with each other. He was always pulling me up, “Read it properly, are you reading it okay, are you translating it right?” “Yes Swamiji, this is what is given. What can I do? This is what it reads.” “What does it read?” “Venkatesh left.” “What left?” I said, "Left means left. Leg needs to be operated that is clear. His leg needs to be operated." In Telugu I translated. "'Pray for blessings', that is clear."
After 40 mins suddenly it occurred to my mind “Oh maybe Venkatesh's left leg needs to be operated. The apostrophe 's' was missing. It needed to be “Venkatesh's left leg needs to be operated so pray for blessings”. So then I said maybe this is what it means.
So Swamiji said “Ah munda, you killed all of us”. So such things can happen.
