QUTUB TAJUDDIN

(Aug. 1892) On another occasion, a man sought out Tajuddin and then pleaded, “Hazrat, come! My daughter is on the verge of death.” The man had sought the best possible medical advice but the girl’s condition had not improved.

Tajuddin closed his eyes and after a few moments smiled, saying, “Your daughter is all right now. Go to her.”

The man returned home and was amazed to find his little girl sitting up in bed eating dinner. When he asked his wife how she had recovered so quickly, his wife answered, “Just a few minutes before you arrived, a wandering beggar came to the door asking for alms and I gave him some food. He inquired about our daughter and I showed him into her room. He was with her for only a few moments, and when he left he said, ‘Do not worry anymore, she will be all right.'” Later when this family went to see Tajuddin, the wife declared that he was the same mendicant who had come to the house.

Nearly ten years passed while Tajuddin lived in the streets of Kamptee, often sleeping on a bridge near the railroad station. During the day or night he would roam all over the city. Although he appeared as a madman to strangers, or as a fakir to others who knew him, Tajuddin was actually perfected and functioning as a Qutub at that time.

Then on August 26th, 1892, the outrageous incident that caused Tajuddin to be incarcerated by the British authorities in the mental asylum occurred, although there was an uproar of protest among the local people, especially the Mohammedans. However, because one of the British women at the tennis club had been so mentally disturbed by the sight of the naked man, the woman’s husband had been outraged by this incident and, using his influence, had forced the authorities to incarcerate this Muslim. Tajuddin’s trial received considerable attention, and during this time the judge became drawn to him. Although Tajuddin was dressed in poor attire, the judge kept seeing him dressed like a king! The judge became distressed by the court proceedings. Despite the hesitation of the judge, however, the British authorities compelled him to sentence Tajuddin to the asylum for the rest of his life.

Tajuddin was thirty-one years old when he was taken in chains to the asylum a few miles outside the city of Nagpur. Today this place is a public mental hospital, but then it served as a prison for lunatics, where those inside were sentenced to life imprisonment – a place where once locked up the keys were thrown away. It was a madhouse! There was virtually no medical treatment for the inmates and their condition was pitiable.

Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, Original Publication, Vol. 1, pp. 50 – 51.