P

was morning Raghunath Das realized his mistake,
and with a disturbed mind returned to the cantonment
and told his friends everything. But they
refused to believe him as one of the soldiers had
sent him on duty, a second soldier had handed
over the charge to him, and a third one had taken
change from him in the morning. In order to ascertain
the facts further they all proceeded to the
monks. They were told that Raghu nath Das was
indeed with them for the whole night and left
only in the morning. When a well-known sadhu
of that place was told about this incident, he remarked:
‘All this was done by Sri Rama. In the
disguise of his devotee, Sri Rama had performed
his devotee’s duty. It was his lila.’ Raghunath
Das felt that as God himself had taken so much
trouble for his sake, he should pay careful attention
to his duty. As usual a large number
of soldiers used to congregate daily and sing
the Ramcharitmanas. Some of them repeatedly
requested Raghunath Das to initiate
them into the sacred mantra of Sri Rama.
Seeing their intense desire and deep devotion
he had to agree.
An English officer once tested the
troops and being impressed with Raghunath’s
skills made him their head. Some
complaints against the ruler of the Bhinga
fort had begun reaching Lucknow. The authorities
decided to attack the fort and take
possession of it. The troops were equipped
and after a march of seven days reached the
fort. The king of Bhinga was waiting for
them with his heavily equipped army and
charged. Raghunath Das, as the head of
the troops, suddenly remembered that it
was the auspicious Ramnavami, the birthday
of Sri Rama. He left the battlefield and
sat in a secluded corner to meditate on Sri
Rama. In the meantime the king’s army attacked
Raghu nath’s troops with redoubled
The Blessed Baba Raghunath Das 17
force. Seeing the precarious condition of his devotee
Sri Rama himself entered the battlefield
in Raghunath’s form and single-handedly killed,
by firing a cannon, hundreds of enemy soldiers
and destroyed the ramparts of the fort; cutting
through the panicked soldiers, he arrested the
king. The king surrendered, handed over the
wealth of his treasury, and submitted a letter
accepting defeat. Thereafter, the disguised Sri
Rama disappeared.
Deeply absorbed in meditation Raghunath
Das was unaware of all that had happened on the
battlefield. His meditation over, he was shocked
to see the carnage on the battlefield. He felt worried
thinking that this terrible battle was fought
in his absence. Feeling ashamed he returned to the
'Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana in the Woods' , c.1780
PB July 2011