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car at home. He had his children and family in America. God
showered on him everything had he wished to live a life of
comfort, but he lived the life of a lotus in water. Nothing such
could touch him. We can witness the things that had firmed up
in his life.

We often say for different people: “So and so works for 18
hours a day and so and so works for 16 hours a day.” They meant
to say that they did not know when time passed while working.
I experienced the value or extent of 18 hours for the first time
when I was travelling with Shastriji.

We hired a matador (a passenger transport) to visit Eklinglji
temple in Udiapur. On the way, whenever there came a railway
crossing and the matador had to stop for some time waiting for
the railway gate to open, during such brief intervals, Shastriji
would take out some papers from his bag and start to write
something, and he would stop writing as soon as the matador
took to road once again, and keep the papers back in his bag. I
had seen with my own eyes how he utilized every minute of
the 18 hours. When he was writing some letters, and if we asked
something, he would stop his hand and talk to us in a quite
natural tone; he never said that we had disturbed him, or
interrupted him, or that he did not wish to talk. So childlike
and devoted his life was.

We visited Abu once. We found it difficult to locate a place
to stay. We went to Raghunathji Temple. The rooms there were
all full of Gujarati community. I was thinking that some
arrangement would help Shastriji get a rest; but it eluded us
there. When I returned, I found that Shastriji had spread his
sheet on the floor and was sleeping comfortably with his little
bag lying near him. I was worried that he would get cold in
Abu, but he was sleeping in all comfort in the open. And in the
morning, he rose early, took a bath in the Nakhilek Pond in
such a chilly cold weather of Abu, and then sat down to pray
Lord Krishna.

As if God Himself had consecrated this Karmayogi to live
the life of a rishi, with all hard work and dedication. He had
crossed eighty years of his life, but this life is meant for action,