Maharajji married Jan and I in September 1972 about a year before his Mahasamadhi.  This  took place at the Kainchi Ashram.  I came to India in 1969 as a Fulbright scholar from the University of California for the purpose of conducting an anthropological study of Indian sadhus (saints).  A friend of Bhagwandas' named Suryadas told me in Berkeley before I even got to India that I must go and have Maharajji's darshan.  Of course, he failed to tell me where to find Maharajji.   Eventually, I met Bhagwandas in Kathmandu in 1970-71 and he told me about the Kainchi and Vrindavan ashrams.  Still I was in India for more than 2 years before I had Maharajji's darshan on the banks of the Yamuna River in Vrindavan.  At that time he called me up to sit in front of him.  Ramdas was there with the American devotees.  In the course of my studies of the sadhus I took diksha (teachings) from a Ramanuja Acharya and main disciple of Deorah baba; he had an ashram in Vrindavan where I was staying. I had loaned him a good amount of money to help run the ashram which he said he would pay back but he never did.  I was upset and perplexed by this.  The first thing Maharajji said: "You gave money to a mahatma? Once you give money to a saint you will not see it again. Jao (Go)."  My mind was totally blown!  How did Maharajji know this about me!  And soon thereafter I felt enormous relief and never worried about the loaned money again.

 

For a month or so I travelled to Allahabad, Chitrakut, Delhi and back to Bodh Gaya to meet up with Jan.  In Allahabad at Dada's home, one of the western women devotees told me that Jan was staying at the Gandhi Ashram and was planning to do another meditation course and that she shaved off her long black hair.  I was dumbfounded.  What did this signify?  Only one thing: that she was, of course, now committed to a life of celibacy and Buddhist meditation practice.  A romantic relationship with me was now out of the question.  Yet I still had to go see her for myself.  Yes, she did shave her head in Bodh Gaya along with her close friend Susan from New York. She still looked beautiful. And, yes, she still wanted to travel with me to Ajanta and Ellora and do a course in Nasik and then we would go to Almora.  There was still hope I felt.

During those months we travelled together, sat another course or two, and got to know each a lot better. Eventually we headed to the Himalayas and went to Nainital where we connected again with Ramdas and the western devotees at the Evelyn Hotel.  Jan and I were anxious to see Maharajji and have his darshan as soon as we could.  We weren't thinking about getting married at the time.  One day while sitting with Maharajji he called Jan up to his takhat (cot) where he was sitting wrapped in his signature plaid wool blanket.  He asked her if she was travelling with an "Englishman."  She said, "yes," and he immediately said, "don't walk with that Englishman."  And then he told her to go.  She was quite upset by this since this was the first time she had Maharajji's darshan.  She came up to me and told me what he had said.  I became alarmed and felt we needed some help because I obviously was the "Englishman" Maharajji was referring to.  Fortunately, we ran into Draupadi (a western devotee from Greece) who was close to Maharajji and asked her for advice on what we should do.  She told us to wait where we were and that she would go and talk to Maharajji.  Maharajji had gone indoors and was holed up in a tiny private room (kutir) at the ashram.  After some time, Draupadi returned and said we should come to see Maharajji immediately.  I was filled with anxiety.  I knew Maharajji was the greatest saint I had met in India and I wanted him to bless us and our relationship.  I did not want him to send me away or tell me to leave Jan.

We went into his little room which was dark except for some light filtering through a partially opened wooden window.  The room was painted blue and he was lying propped up on another takhat with his blanket around him.  We sat down in front of him at the edge of the takhat, and Draupadi was nearby to assist and help translate thought I knew basic conversational Hindi.  She explained that we needed to talk to him.  He said to Jan who is this angrez (Englishman) to you, and she said he is my dost (friend).  The he asked me who Jan is to me, and I said she is like my sister.  Maharajji then shouted at me that she is not your sister.  When he started shouting he literally grew in size, his blanket slipped down around his waist and the entire room became engulfed in bright red and white light.  He quickly said: "buy her a sari and give her a gold ring." "Shaadi karo." "You both are married now"! "Jao." With that we felt as if we were forcibly ejected from his kutir.  Stunned we just sat outside until Draupadi came out smiling.  The whole darshan-marriage took no more than few minutes but it felt like nuclear fusion.  Jan and I smiled and couldn't believe that Maharajji just married us.