At Pandupol there is a well-known temple dedicated to Hanumanji. The Swami went straight there and slept the night in the temple-compound.

In this village they spent the night in a temple dedicated to Nilakantha Mahadeva._x000d_ The story of Shiva as Nilakantha Mahadeva runs thus. When the gods and demons churned the ocean, many wonderful things issued from out of the seething mass: for instance, a magnificent elephant, a stately chariot, a great horse, a beautiful maiden, a priceless jewel. Both gods and demons seized what they could. Then a poison, Halahala, whose very odour was fatal to life, came out. The gods and demons were faced with the problem of getting rid of it, in order to save their lives. They were directed by Vishnu to appeal to Mahadeva, who had all along remained indifferent to the prizes that the churning had produced, sitting far away in His abode, absorbed in meditation. On hearing their cries for help He arose, and, scooping up the poison in His hands, swallowed all of it. As a result His throat (Kantha) became blue (Nila). For this reason He is called Nilakantha Mahadeva-the Great God with the Blue Throat._x000d_ To this well known story the Swami gave his own interpretation. All beings, he said, who dwell within the folds of earthly consciousness, churn the ocean of Maya, that is, human life, and obtain treasures that are pleasing to the senses; but soon the poison, death, must come to end the show. The monk,however, stands apart. Absorbed in the Self, he desires none of the enticing gifts which Maya offers; but like Mahadeva, he is ready to come to the assistance of those who lust after sense ¬pleasures, when, in the presence of death, they come to him (the monk) to save their souls. Then he destroys their Maya¬ their ignorance-and releases them from the fear of death. He also shows by this that the man of Realization has no fear of death.

Next morning the Swami and his companions walked some eighteen miles Farther on, to the village of Narayani, where the Mother in one of Her many forms is worshipped. Every year a great Mela (fair) is held here, and from all parts of Rajputana people come to worship Her.

On the following morning he abandoned the bullock-cart, and he and his party went on foot some sixteen miles through a mountainous region, infested with wild beasts, to a village called Tahla. But the members of the party were so occupied with the stories, now amusing, now serious, with which the Swami entertained them, and they felt so blessed in his presence, that they had no thought of danger.

The Swami now left the others and went on by himself to the next village, Baswa, some sixteen miles distant where he took the train for the city of Jaipur.

He had been pressed to go there by a devotee who had met him at Alwar. This devotee had come from Jaipur to receive the Swami. He boarded the train at Bandikui and accompanied him for the rest of the journey to Jaipur.