Today is the wonderful Indian tradition by which a girl goes to tie a rakhi on the wrist of her brother and pray for his long life, and her brother promises to always protect her. Many people are thus moving about in the city, and some have come to Maharaj to request his help. He sits on a couch in the “Dubai kothi,” and they speak to him through the window nearby in the glass-paned room.
One childless couple wants to be blessed with a baby. They hand him two apples through the window. Maharaj closes his eyes, holding the apples tightly, and then tells them which one is to be eaten by the man and which one by the woman. He tells them to do so after first bowing at the havan and reciting Nam. Many babies have thus been born over the years by these blessings.
Several other people have come asking Maharaj’s permission to do seva, such as providing clothes (Rumale) for Guru Granth Sahib. Maharaj remarks, “Our country has no equal in terms of seva of parents, and of Guru.”
Then because it is Rakhri Day, Maharaj presents clothes to all the women and children of Gobind Sadan. There is a huge pile of clothes, carefully selected and labelled for each one by Gurcharan Kaur, our manager. Maharaj says, “Making children happy makes God happy.”