New Delhi (PTI): It was a chance encounter with a leprosy patient, in the last stages of the disease, lying huddled in a bundle of rags and exposed to the rain, that became a turning point in the life of Baba Amte and initiated him into the service of leprosy patients.

Terrified of being infected with the disease and to see the man with no fingers and maggots crawling on him, Amte ran home.

But a young Amte began feeling guilty about leaving the man out in the rain and forced himself to return to feed the man.

He also put up a bamboo shed to protect him against the rain.

The man, Tulshiram, died under Amte's care and the episode changed the life of the social activist.

"I have never been frightened of anything. Because I fought British tommies to save the honour of an Indian lady, Gandhiji called me 'Abhay Sadhak', a fearless seeker of truth ... But the same person who fought goondas and British bandits quivered in fright when he saw the living corpse of Tulshiram, no fingers, no clothes, with maggots all over," Amte had said, recalling the incident.

"Where there is fear, there is no love. Where there is no love, there is no God ... That is why I took up leprosy work. Not to help anyone, but to overcome that fear in my life. That it worked out good for others was a by-product. But the fact is I did it to overcome fear," he said.

In 1949, Amte went to the Kolkata School of Tropical Medicine to learn more about leprosy, returning armed with the wonder drug diamino-diphenyl-sulphone that had made the disease curable.

He began treating leprosy patients in 60 villages around Warora in Maharashtra as he set out on a life-long service of people suffering from the disabling disease.