Muni Kishan Lal
Some seventy years ago Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Deendayal Shastri and Pandit Motilal Nehru had gone to Rishikesh near Haridwar. Pandit Malviya had been a religious and pious person. Every day he used to go for a stroll near River Ganga and if he heard about a Yogi and his penance he used to go and meet him and pay his respects to him. One day he saw a yogi who had long plaits, sitting on a tree. There was a hat hanging down from the branch of a tree. On enquiry it was found that the yogi used to do penance sitting on the top of a tree. He gets down once in the morning to take bath in Ganga and then get back to his seat of meditation. If anything was found in the hat he would take it and that was all he ate for the next 24 hours. If nothing was found in the hat, he went without any food. Malviya was quite fascinated by this incident and his reverence, regard and respect for that 'sadhu' or yogi was manifold. Next day Malviya reached the place earlier than before. Yogi was not found there. He had gone to bathe in the river. When he returned he had a pot full of water. He was old and there was a saintly aura about him. They prostrated before him. He said, "What do you want?" Malviya, pointing at Motilal Nehru said that he wants to be blessed with a son. On looking at Motilal Nehru yogi said that it is not in his fate. The moment he said this, Malviya and Deendayal said that he being a Karma yogi, he could convert the impossible into the possible. If he could not then who on earth could help them?
Deen Dayal recited a few shlokas and said nothing is impossible for a karma yogi and such persons should not hesitate in helping people. The yogi did not reply but was thoughtful. Then he took water from the pot and thrice he tried to sprinkle it and on the fourth time he sprinkled it on Motilal Nehru. Then he whispered to them saying they had taken the fruits of his penance and it was too much. The moment he said he was losing his aura and he climbed the tree again. All the three returned next day. When they went to see the yogi they saw the dead body of the yogi under the tree. He had forsaken his hard earned penance for them.
After ten months Motilal was blessed with a son and he was named Jawaharlal. This incident was mentioned in a letter by Madan Mohan and the Urdu daily Sher-e-Punjab published it. On reading this report Shri N.V. Sen wanted to investigate the truth behind this report and even asked Pandit Nehru to throw light on this report on 25.5.1957.
Nehru's personal secretary Sri C.R. Srinivasan replied that Nehru had read the report of Sher-e-Punjab. He also said that he had not heard about his birth from anyone.
On getting this reply Mr. Sen asked the editor of Sher-e-Punjab regarding the facts. The editor replied that this is narrated by Malviya in a letter to his friend which is with him.
Shri Nehru replied to Sen that if that was the case he would have been told by either his father or Malviya. But according to Mr. Sen probably both the elders would not have revealed to Jawaharlal for some specific reason. If one has to judge the facts one should feel that this was more a blessing.
