The Inexhaustible Pot of Kichadi at Bhumiadhar Ashram

Before Kainchi Dham was established, Maharaj Ji spent significant time at Bhumiadhar, a quiet hillside hamlet near Bhowali. A tiny temple and small kitchen stood beside the mountain road.

One evening, word spread through the neighboring hills that Maharaj Ji was staying at Bhumiadhar. Over two hundred villagers, farm laborers, and wandering sadhus walked for miles through the darkness, arriving cold and hungry at the temple gate.

The ashram sevadar was horrified. In the kitchen, there was only a modest copper handi containing rice and dal kichadi, cooked earlier for just five or six residents. There was no more ration, no wood, and the local bazaar was miles away in the dark.

The sevadar whispered nervously: "Maharaj Ji, hundreds of poor villagers have arrived expecting prasad. There is scarcely enough food for five people in the handi. Shall I tell them to return home?"

Baba looked at him sternly and replied: "Send them away hungry from Hanuman Ji’s door? Never! Bring the pot here to my takhat."

The small pot of hot kichadi was placed beside Maharaj Ji. Baba took the corner of his rough woollen blanket, placed it firmly over the mouth of the vessel, and said: "Do not look inside the pot! Just take the spoon, reach underneath the blanket, and serve everyone until their bellies are full."

One by one, the villagers lined up with broad leaf plates (pattals). The sevadar reached under the blanket and scooped generous, piping-hot mounds of aromatic ghee-laden kichadi onto every plate. Fifty people ate. A hundred people ate. Two hundred people ate.

Everyone received second and third helpings. When the entire crowd was completely satisfied, Baba looked at the astonished sevadar and said: "Now remove the blanket and see." When the blanket was lifted, the pot was still half-full of steaming kichadi, exactly as it had been at the beginning.