by a Mohanji follower
An experience of fulfilment at the Maha Kumbh Mela
This is the long-overdue testimonial of my experience at the Maha Kumbh Mela. By the time you finish reading it, you might understand why I hesitated to pen this down until now. I am still struggling with some deep emotional shadows as I write this, but I simply don’t wish to postpone sharing this story of love and grace any further.
When I was on my way to the Mohanji village in Kumbh, I did not really have many expectations. I was essentially looking forward to being in Mohanji’s presence again. There was only one major desire that I had in mind.
Some weeks before, I had started a japa of a particular Mohanji mantra and had resolved to chant it for a specific number of days. Though it was completely unplanned, it so turned out that the last day of my stay in the Mohanji village coincided with the last day of the japa sadhana. And when I realised that, I was happy and grateful that I would be able to complete the sadhana in the presence of the deity of the mantra.
There was only one problem – that my periods were scheduled to arrive around that day. So then my prayers began. I prayed fervently each day that my periods should come only after I had completed the sadhana.
When I reached the village, Mohanji wasn’t there, but the space was full of Mohanji’s incredible energy, and I instantly felt at home. There have been many beautiful testimonials about the Kumbh experiences and the Mohanji village, and they have described the village, its beautiful energy and atmosphere, and the amazing seva of the volunteers much better than I ever could.
So, I will spare you my descriptions of the same. Still, I cannot proceed without expressing how amazed and inspired I was by so many elements, especially the volunteers who worked tirelessly and went above and beyond in very tough conditions to ensure that everyone and everything was taken care of beautifully. That, along with the sacred dips in the holy river and the processes and meditations, made it a spiritually exalted experience for everyone in that sacred space.
And once Mohanji arrived at the village, the whole atmosphere became so charged and blissful that it often felt as if we were in some other dimension. I had the unbelievably good fortune and grace of being able to take a dip in the holy river with my Guru, and it was an experience that filled me with a contentment and inner silence of the kind that I had never experienced before.
But then, three days before the completion of my japa sadhana, I got my period. And it very much broke my heart.
The next day, as I sat beside the river, a dear friend was sharing beautiful and touching experiences about how Mohanji fulfils the smallest wishes of his devotees. It was a sweet and peaceful moment.
And then, suddenly, a hurt-filled thought disrupted my inner space. Playing its usual role, my mind said, “People have received such great blessings. You asked for a small thing, and even that was not fulfilled.” And in a sudden rush of sadness and disappointment, I got up from the banks of the river while saying, “Mohanji never listens to me. He doesn’t do anything I ask for.”
Yes, it was the most wretched and ungrateful thing that any follower of Mohanji can say.
Anyway, the next day was the second-last day of my stay in Mohanji village. Around three in the afternoon, as I was walking towards the main hall, a Mohanji follower from another country approached me and asked me if I could accompany them to the market to purchase flowers. I agreed, and we set out for the market, which was a short distance away from the village.
As I walked with the other participant, I suddenly began to look around the crowd, searching for someone.
Who was I looking for? Now, for that, I need to give a short background.
I’ve loved to read about saints and realised masters since I was a child, and one of the masters towards whom I have always felt a great love and devotion is Neem Karoli Baba, a great Indian saint who was believed to be the incarnation of Hanumanji, and who had taken samadhi in 1973.
A few days before I left for Prayagraj, I was thinking about how many great and powerful masters are believed to be among the crowds in the Kumbh Mela. Then I thought about the many experiences I had read of people who have seen Neem Karoli Baba even recently.
And then another thought arose – I want to visit Neem Karoli Baba at the Kumbh Mela. Now, this was not an unusual thing for me to do. Since childhood, I have had the ability to make the most preposterous demands of the universe. Thankfully, my rational/normal side has always been able to ignore and tune out those demands immediately, largely. That had mostly been the case for this wish, too, and I hadn’t really thought about it during my stay in the Mohanji village.
But now, as I was walking with the other participant, looking for a stall with fresh flowers, that thought had unexpectedly come back to my head. I seriously started looking around for Neem Karoli Baba. Yes, the whole scene was just as insane as it sounds here.
We stopped by a flower seller who was seated a couple of meters away from the curb. He had reasonably fresh-looking flowers, and we asked him to weave a few garlands. As we waited for him to complete his work, an intense restlessness came over me. That feeling of wanting to see Baba came over me again, and it was so strong that I walked to the roadside and stood there with my hands on my hips, looking left and right, examining the people who were passing by. Almost as if I was waiting for someone to keep an appointment with me. I even muttered, “Where are you, Baba?” quite impatiently, which was a whole new level of craziness even for me.
As I said before, it is not unusual for my mind to come up with these outlandish wishes. Still, they usually just appear and disappear like bubbles in the air, and it was very unusual for my inner self to be so insistent about it.
I went back to the seller, but the strange urge to search for Baba among the crowd drew me back, and I found myself walking back to the roadside.
And then I saw an elderly man, dressed in woollen clothes, riding a bicycle. He strongly resembled the Neem Karoli Baba I had seen in photos. In a state of shock, I just stared at him for a few moments, and then I returned to the flower seller in a dazed condition, standing for a few seconds. Then I quickly walked back to the curb to look for the man.
He was still there, still riding his bicycle. It felt as if he had hardly moved from the spot where I had last seen him. I stared at his face more intently this time. He looked exactly like Neem Karoli Baba. I don’t really remember what happened in the next few minutes. Did I just watch him until he disappeared into the crowd? Or did I walk back to my friend in that state of shock before he went out of my view? I don’t remember at all.
I only recall the intense sense of shock, and feeling a void – a blankness that persisted during the next few hours. Outwardly, I went about being my usual self, and I didn’t speak to anyone about what had happened or think about it. It was as if my mind had blocked out the experience, unable to handle its magnitude.
When it was time for Mohanji’s satsang in the evening, all of us gathered eagerly in the hall. Mohanji arrived and began to speak. And within a few minutes or so, the image of the elderly man on the bicycle flashed clearly before my eyes. And then the whole experience played out vividly before my eyes.
That was when I knew that I had not imagined anything. And I realised whose grace it was that my wish had been fulfilled, and alongside, I heard my own disgruntled voice from the previous day, saying – “Mohanji never listens to me. He doesn’t do anything I ask for.”
I started to cry in the hall, and my tears flowed nonstop during Mohanji’s satsang. Even after that, I couldn’t comprehend the unbelievable grace and compassion that Mohanji, the Master who is all Masters of the past, present and future, had shown towards me.
I had held back on writing this down for many months because a part of me had still been doubting the truth of what I had seen. The part that said I was nowhere close to being worthy of having such an experience, because my everyday life is defined by procrastination, laziness and a continued refusal to step out of my comfort zone.
Then a close friend told me to write it down as something that was only for myself, without worrying about how it would be perceived by those reading it. Highly encouraged by that advice, I managed to write a significant chunk of it one night.
And in the early hours of the next morning, I had an extremely beautiful and vivid spiritual dream that put me into a deep silence for the next couple of days, and gave me the final confirmation that I needed to write down this experience and share it with those travelling on the same path.
But it still took me a couple more months to write it down fully. After I finally completed it, I searched online for the Mahasamadhi year of Neem Karoli Baba, and I realised that I had completed this testimonial on the eve of that very same day.
When Mohanji comes into our lives, every little moment in it becomes sanctified by his presence. There are no coincidences anymore. There is only his grace, his compassion, his unlimited, unconditional love.
I hope to remember this always, that each time I feel overwhelmed by my inner shadows, I only have to reach out to hold the loving hand of my Guru, and all that is darkness will turn into golden light.
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|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 17th September 2025
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