A group of children was chanting Ramadhun in the courtyard of the temple. A lovely, smart little boy was dancing while singing devotional songs. All those, who had gone to the temple to offer their prayers, were deeply impressed by the child's ardent love towards God.
They forgot everything else and stood there like statues watching this little boy dancing and singing in praise of God. When the children stopped singing, the people discovered that the leader of the group was Pragji, the son of Govindbhai, known as Bhagat in Mahuva.
Pragji Bhakta regularly visited this Laxmi-Narayan temple in the company of his little friends and worshipped Hanumanji every-day. It was near this little temple of Hanumanji under the pippal tree, that Shriji Maharaj had once stayed for three days when he was roaming as Neelkanth.
Mahant (head priest) Surya-Bharati was greatly pleased with the devotion of the child. Pragji Bhakta helped the mahant in his work and attentively listened to the story of Lord Rama and pondered over the high ideals exemplified by the great characters of the Ramayan.
In the luscious, green, beautiful sea-town of Mahuva in Saurashtra, this bhakta was born in a tailor family on the full-moon day of the bright half of Falgun in Samvat 1885. The child
was very pretty and luminous and soon became an object of love for all.
The bal bhakta (child devotee) was sent to school but he was too active to remain within the walls of the school. Often he would run away with other school boys to the river Malan that flowed along the outskirts of Mahuva. He would sit in the bed of the river, surrounded by his friends, and talk about God. He used to say, "I have already finished studies. I have come to worship God and make others worship God." Little children always moved in his company and everyone had a natural attraction towards Pragji Bhakta.
Once a festival dinner was arranged at Pragji's house. Pragji Bhakta went to his mother and said, "Mother, I am terribly hungry. Please give me something to eat." But his mother refused to give any food as she had not yet offered the food (naivedya) to the family deity. But, when she went out to do some work. Pragji Bhakta stealthily entered the kitchen and finished all the sweets, weighing seven pounds, and quietly climbed up into a loft and lay their silently.
On returning, his mother was shocked to see the sweets missing. She asked everyone in the house about them. She thought that perhaps some stray dog might have eaten the sweets. But soon Pragji Bhakta spoke from the loft, "l have eaten away all the sweets." His elder brother chased him, but the bal bhakta jumped onto the veranda and quickly disappeared.
The story of this rare feat of little Pragji Bhakta spread faster than the wind in the entire town. Everyone exclaimed, "This is a miracle boy!"
There came a great saint, Sadguru Yoganand Swami to the Swaminarayan temple of Mahuva. Pragji Bhakta who loved saints met this holy man. He experienced bliss in the presence of this great man. He initiated Pragji Bhakta into the fold (satsang) and made him a satsangi Now Pragji Bhakta spent most of his time in the temple in the service of the saints. Once he sold a precious lace of his mother's sari to feed the saints. Yoganand Swami, who was deeply impressed by the zeal, devotion and love of this child observed, "He shall be a great bhakta."