Tapaswiji Maharaj and Shivabalayogi

(repost from 2013)

 When Tapaswiji Maharaj met Shivabalayogi for the first time the yogi was 15 years of age and the elder sage 182. Despite the great disparity in age they hit it off but at their first meeting the younger was deep in samadhi and not available for mundane colloquy. Tapaswiji was an adept in the use of rejuvenating herbs and the esoteric branches of ayuravedic medicine combined with kaya kalpa. At the age of 90 he had undergone this course and become a new man. Previously at the age of 55 he had taken up sanyas after an interview with the last Mughal Emperor. The stories he could tell!

When he came back on another visit Shivabalayogi was in everyday consciousness mode

 but due to his long period of sitting in asana his legs had become fixed like the twisting

 of dried cooked spaghetti and he was forced to drag himself about. Using oils and

 massage Tapaswiji made him limber again. He related to him that he was bound 

to do him service as in a previous  incarnation Shivabalayogi had done him service

 during his tapas back in the day. ‘Now’, he said,

 ‘is there anything more I can do for you, to make you comfortable’.

- Well, said the youth, whom it would be recalled had undergone a great deal of

fhardship at  the hands of louts who at one point had thrown his body into the nearby 

canal whilst lost to  the world in samadhi. He sank to the bottom and then

 popped up again like a cork and back on the bank. After this they had

 let him alone.

- Well, there is one thing that is bothering me,that is a great distraction and an impediment

 to my meditation. There is a window at the back there with a loose catch and when the

 wind is in a certain quarter it rattles. Can you get it fixed?
- Done, said Tapaswiji.