Excerpt from Sai Rapture, God Hills chapter

“Thus far this trip had been absolutely marvelous. Despite the strenuous travel, I felt very blessed. Baba's Presence guiding and protecting us was undeniable. While staying in Lallitha's humble hut, Padma also had a Sai dream, where she was blessed with padanamaskar. The next day we were supposed to leave so we decided to hike up to Vishnu Paduka early, come back and have lunch before we made our way back to Haridwar. As we climbed towards Vishnu Paduka, I heard Lallitha calling excitedly; a young man with Jesus eyes was talking to her. “See!” she piped with her butterfly voice, “He is a Sai devotee from Kerala.” This young man had unusual blazing eyes. Out of the blue, he had greeted Lallitha, “Om Sai Ram.”
I felt deeply that Swami had sent him, giving us a holy welcome on our sacred trek to Vishnu's footprint. We continued our trek upward. At last, we reached the hallowed spot. A rock-like slab protruded out and orange markings indicated Vishnu's footprint. We all knelt and took padanamaskar from Vishnu. The energy here was tremendously intense. Two sublime rivers converged, Rishi Ganga and Alakananda. It started to drizzle a cold rain. Heavy misty layers hung around the mountain peaks and it was actually snowing near the summit.
I lingered near the Paduka while the others trudged down. The wind whistled very strangely in my ears, almost as if it were trying to form words. I listened intently and distinctly heard, “DON'T LEAVE BADRINATH.” I thought am I imagining this? Then I wondered if this was how Moses from the Biblical account heard God speaking from the Burning Bush.
I started down trying to catch up with the others. I saw Nikhil, or rather Kalidas. (We had started calling him Kalidas, since it was the name Swami Amlananda addressed him by.) He took me to a cave where a yogi sat meditating. The yogi greeted us and gave us prasadam. The cave was a simple gufa but remarkably cozy and warm, offering solace and shelter from the bitter cold Himalayan climate.
I caught up with Padma. We decided to visit another gufa with orange markings. The yogi named Hanuman Baba greeted us. After re- moving our shoes, we crawled into the cave. We were introduced to a young man from Nepal who was spending some time with Hanuman Baba in meditation. Then wonder of wonders Hanuman Baba showed us a photo of Sai Baba that a group of Sai Baba students had just given him only six days earlier. It was a very popular photo of our Swami with both hands raised in blessing and lotus eyes sparkling. I speculated, wondering if it was the same group of students that Swami had blessed in the mandir right before we left on our pilgrimage. Seemingly, that group of students was headed north to the Himalayas on a pilgrimage too.
I told Padma and Kalidas about the words I had just heard whispered on the breath of the wind. We returned to Lallitha's place for lunch. Incredibly, the driver announced that we could stay the extra night and travel back to Haridwar the next day in the early morning. One more night in Heaven! And a strong confirmation of the mystical event I had just experienced in the God Hills. Besides, it was rainy and quite cold, perhaps the roads would have been too precarious to travel on.
We left Badrinath in the wee hours and were able to visit Jyotir Math ashram after about a two hour drive. Jyotirmath is the Northern monastery, one of the four principal institutions established by Adi Shankara, the others being at Sringeri, Puri and Dwaraka. Adi Shankaracharya, was an Indian philosopher who integrated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, non-dualism. His teachings are founded on the oneness of the soul and Brahman. In this philosophy Brahman is viewed as being without attributes. According to Adi Shankara, God, the Supreme Universal Spirit or Brahman is the One, complete and only reality. In other words, only God or Brahman truly exists; everything else, including the cosmos, material objects and individuals, are unreal. Brahman is inadequately portrayed as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, divine, all-encompassing, transcendental reality that is the sacred ground of all Being.”
Source: Sai Rapture, The Ecstatic Journey of a Modern Day Gopi, P. 212-21