Evolution of Love 2

DIVINE MOTHER

It was a summer evening in the month of Vaisakha of the year 1946, when I had the chance of seeing Mother Anandamayi for the first time.

The occasion was her fiftieth birthday. The celebration was taking place in my locality at Ballygunge, Calcutta. I got an invitation letter and I at once thought of taking the opportunity of seeing Mother about whom I had heard for a long time.

I went and found a very large crowd of men, women and children, not only inside the Ashram where Mother was putting up, but also in the street in front, making it almost impossible for anybody to push through. In any case, it was hopeless for me and I decided to go back, when fortunately a friend of mine, a senior advocate of the Calcutta Bar, accosted me and I told him why I had come there. He said that Mother had gone out for an evening drive in the car of a devotee and would be returning soon. Both of us were standing in the street and my friend requested me to wait. I did so and looked at the crowd waiting in eager suspense for the return of the Mother.

Within a few minutes the car came. In the meantime I was wondering what the Mother looked like. I imagined an austere old woman with long matted hair or perhaps with a head clean shaven a samnyasini in 'gairik' dress. I also wondered as to why such a large crowd of different ages had collected. What did they find in Her?

The car came and I was practically pushed near the door of the car by my friend who was a man of influence there. The door opened and to my utter surprise, instead of a rigid samnyasini of the usual type, a very soft and sweet personality in the form of an extraordinarily handsome woman alighted from the car. She was dressed in a clean white dhoti and a silk chadder was wrapped round Her body.

I bowed as many others did from different directions.

I was introduced by my friend who was well known to Her. She seemed to take no notice of me. I looked at Her face and saw a peculiarly distant look in a beautiful pair of dreamy eyes, the like of which I had never seen before. The face and in fact the whole personality was radiating, as it were, with a singular and distinctive glow which it is impossible to describe in words. I was deeply charmed. I realized at once what the people were mad for.

My idea was just to see Her once and perhaps, to talk with Her for a few minutes and finish with it. But after I had seen Her, my attitude changed and during Her short stay in Calcutta for the occasion I went every day, and more often, twice daily, just to have a look at Her from a distance and to hear Her talk if possible.

I heard Her replies to questions put to Her by different members of the crowd. I have heard learned scholars and philosophers asking intricate questions on religion and philosophy as also boys and girls in their teens asking simple unsophisticated questions. She answers them all and sometimes bursts out into laughter.

Apart from what She says which, as I have been told by experts, reveals the highest philosophical truth in its simplest form though She has never received any education in the ordinary sense of the term, the way She talks fascinates all, and the ring of Her laughter one is bound to bear in mind long after it is heard no more.

During the period I have known Her, I had the good fortune of coming in close contact with Her on more than one occasion.

I have seen, not only in Bengal but all over the northern India, a large number of people of either sex, of different ages, belonging to various strata of society collecting around Her wherever She happens to be, looking at Her for hours and hours in a spirit of deep reverence and, almost without exception, unwilling to move away so long as She can be seen even from a distance.

I have seen many young boys and girls, coming in contact with Mother only for a short while, weeping bitterly at the mere idea of separation. I have seen how She looks at them and how She smiles. I remember an occasion when a young girl of the Matriculation Class, who had been with Mother only for four or five days, started weeping in the evening merely at the prospect of leaving Mother the next day, though she was going back to her own mother and family. What is the secret of this mysterious attraction?

I once asked Mother the question straight.

She laughed and said:

"I am the nearest and dearest to you all though you may not know it."

I heard later from a very reliable source that Mahatma Gandhi, on an occasion when Mother was with him, asked Her a question, more or less on the same line to find out the mystery behind it.

I am told by one who knows that the late Sm. Kamala Nehru was a great devotee of Mother. She was always looking for an opportunity to come in close contact with Mother and often took Mother away from the crowd in her car to some solitary place so that she might feel the proximity of Mother's presence all by herself in silence. And on such occasions she often went into a sort of trance and remained like that for a pretty long time. I have been further informed that she wrote a letter to a friend in which she stated that she realized Sri Krishna, her God, in the personality of Mother.

Not only Indians, but I have seen many foreigners too, deeply attracted towards Mother. I shall only cite two or three instances. A young lady from Austria has given up practically everything of her life to be in Mother's company and she is now living the life of Indian Brahmacharini under Mother's care. A doctor from France who, I am told, had a very large practice at Marsailles and who came to India as he became interested in Buddhism and wanted to know more about it, came in contact with Mother and was so deeply touched that he surrendered completely to Mother and is now leading the life of an Indian sadhu under Mother's direction. I have seen him standing for hours with folded hands looking intently and with deep reverence at Mother even though it may be from a great distance, whenever he gets a chance.

The case of a young American engineer is very interesting indeed. He is the only son of his parents and while doing higher studies in Radio Engineering he came in contact with an Indian sadhu who was on a lecture tour in U.S.A. and as such became interested in the spiritual culture of India. He decided to come to India and according to the direction of Mahasiddha Sachchidananda wrote a letter to one of the lady devotees of Maharshi Raman at Maharshi's Ashram.

He booked his passage and started before he got any reply to his letter. He told me that while the ship in which he was sailing was still at sea nearing Bombay, he became very nervous because he had not the slightest idea of where he was going as he hardly knew anything of India or anybody here. Standing on the deck and looking at the sea he was in deep thought when suddenly the image of the face of a woman with long hair and closed eyes appeared before him under the sky. "I was not in a trance or anything of the sort, you know", he said to me: "I was wide awake and fully conscious."

However, he came to Bombay and there got the letter from Maharshi Raman's Ashram. In that letter he was directed to go to Benares to Mother Anandamayi.

"I had never even heard the name of Mother Anandamayi before that", he said.

He went to Benares and saw Mother there and at once recognized the face he had seen. "I want to be with you always", he implored. "Will you be able to do whatever you are asked to do?" was Mother's question. He said: "yes" and he told me later: "I said so before I knew what I was saying as it came from within."

That is what I have seen of Mother Anandamayi. What She is I do not know. What She represents I have not realized.

Swami Vivekananda said:

'There is another set of teachers, Christs of the world. They are the Teachers of all teachers, God Himself coming in the form of man. They can transmit spirituality with a touch, with a wish, which in one second make saints of the lowest."

Does Mother belong to that category?

To me She is Divine as She suggests something eternal, something which inspires in us a sense of the Unknown, which is Beauty, which is Purity, which is Love. An all embracing and unchanging kindness of a mystic character seems to radiate from Her personality and everybody in Her company is fascinated by a peculiar sense of joy which is not to be had in the ordinary pursuits of our mundane life. That is perhaps the reason why She is looked upon by about seven lakhs of devotees all over India as the Incarnation of the Great Power which is nursing and sustaining the entire creation the Divine Mother.