10. First Recognition

There was one significant and miraculous event, which took place, when Jalaram was still a child. An old saint came from Ayodhya. He was on his way to the holy Girnar. He called at Pradhan Thakkar's house and asked Rajabai to bring to him and show him Jalaram, their second child. Even as he was telling this, the child Jalaram came there, leaving his toys with his friends and fell prostrate at the feet of old sanyasi. The latter asked Jalaram, "Do you not recognize me, my son?" As the saint said this, in Jalaram's mental vision, the memory of the whole life of his previous birth flashed itself. His eyes beamed with an expression of recognition of the old saint. He fell at the saint's feet. After the prostration, by the time he raised himself the old saint was gone. But the link had been forged with his previous life, and the chant of 'Ram Nam', which he used to do without any intermission in his previous life, caught up and started on again as unceasingly as his breath.