Young Papaji Sees the Gods

David: Do you remember the incident that occurred at Lyalpur when you were a young boy? You had the holy vision of Bhagavan [God]. While your dear mother and her lady friends were doing ras lila in the middle of the night, she said, ‘Tonight, during ras lila, we will have darshan [a vision] of Bhagavan’. She loudly sang a bhajan that had the following words:

Come, come, O my Krishna, come!
Though my heart is fluttering,
nothing is in my control.
The night has become dark.
Black clouds have spread everywhere.
Krishna, save me from this separation from You!
Krishna, please come, come!

Completely losing themselves in singing this song, dear mother and her lady friends went into a trance and lost their outer consciousness. After they went into that trance, Radha [Krishna’s consort] and Krishnaji appeared from the other room. You could not stand the splendour of this dazzling sight.

You said to Him, ‘Bhagavan, I have not called You. Dear mother has called You. Go to her.’

Later on you described His appearance by saying that both His crown and His clothes were studded with diamonds and pearls.

You also said, ‘On seeing His striking appearance I truly became His own, but His splendour and His decorated dress made such a glorious sight, I could not stand the sight of this vision for very long. That’s why I asked Him to go and see our mother.’

Dear mother then regained consciousness, but as she did so, Sri Bhagavan disappeared. After this unusual and strange incident, you could not leave your bed for several months.

Throughout his life Papaji has had an ability to experience words, rather than merely think about them. This unusual faculty manifested on many occasions, and it partly explains why gods kept appearing to him. When he heard stories about the life of Krishna, Krishna would often appear in front of him. Later in his life, when he heard about the traditions associated with other deities, these gods also appeared before him. Sometimes he says that it was his innocence that caused the manifestations. Because he had no doubts that the gods were real, and because he never questioned their ability to appear in front of him, they manifested.

Excerpt from Nothing Ever Happened Volume One, pages 33-34
By David Godman