It was my habit to worship Baba with Sahasranamarchana every Thursday, for which as well as for the preliminary Anga Puja and Ashtothara Puja, at least some twelve hundred flowers are required at the rate of one for each name. One Thursday in the winter of '42,I forgot to gather the flowers in the morning and remembered it only late in the evening a little before sunset. No flower could be had at that late hour. However, in lieu of flower tulsi dhalams (twig endings with two leaves and a bud), could be used. Fortunately, we had a bed of tulsi bushes in the neighbourhood. So, along with some of my student friends[3], I set about gathering tulsi till sunset after which tradition forbids it. Each of us kept count of the number plucked and the total came to about seven hundred only. A recount of all put together confirmed it. I decided to make up the deficiency with Akshatha.
However, when once I began the Puja, I forgot all about the shortage and went on with one tulsi dhalam for each name, reassured and beckond by the generous heap in the tray before me. Not till the puja was over and I relaxed after partaking of prasadam was my attention attracted to the substantial quantity of tulsi still left in the tray. I checked with those present to make sure that I had continuously used only the tulsi for each 'name' of the archana. On counting the quantity left over I found nearly three hundred dhalams.
How else could I explain it except as Baba's leela. "Ask and it shall be given."