Nine Miracles of Shri Ramakrishna

In this essay I shall try and narrate some of the miracles of Shri Ramakrishna which have been recorded but which are not known commonly. Many of us are aware that Mathur Babu's wife ( Jagadamba) had been cured of a mortal sickness after Mathur;s appeal to his 'baba' i.e., Shri Ramakriahna and that Mathur himself escaped a possible criminal charge after a similar appeal. Kathamrita  records how Bejoy Krishna Goswami had seen and felt (touched) the Master at Dhaka at a time when Shri Ramakrishna was very much there at Calcutta. The Master's power to transmit spirituality by a touch, look or glance is very well documented. Avoiding these and similar incidents which have become sort of common currency amongst the devotees of the Master, I shall select nine of those cases which are not so well known. Some of these have occurred when the Master was in the human body but others took place long after he had moved to the 'other room'. No attempt will, however, be made to arrange these in a time sequence or to classify them otherwise. The miracle's of Ramakrishna have by no means come to an end and we can expect many more in the years to come till his mission is fulfilled. As is known Shri Shri Ma had disclosed in her lifetime that the Master was to 'remain hidden in the hearts of his devotees for a hundred years' i.e., 1986. Perhaps the coming out process is best revealed in the storming of the Russian bastion which has suddenly, almost overnight, voluntarily opened its portals. Let a future generation then docket and classify the miracles of Shri Ramakrishna; it would be sufficient for us to eavesdrop on some of these partly hidden acts.

WILLIUMS

1. I shall begin with one who was born a devotee of Jesus but became one of Shri Ramakrishna also and who, true to Christian traditions, specifically asked for a sign from Shri Ramakrishna. Let the reader decide whether the signal he received was loud and clear enough! Unfortunately the full name of this fortunate one has not been recorded and the chroniclers have referred to him as William or Williams only.

There is also difference of opinion as to whether he was of European or Indian stock. We will call him Williums and consider him to be an Indian Christian and note that he was a teacher, an erudite biblical scholar of Protestant persuasion, and a resident of a city in north west India, probably Lahore. There he came in contact with a visiting Brahmo preacher who was also an admirer of Shri Ramakrishna, Kedarnath Chatterjee by name. What Kedar had told Williums about the Master is not on record but he made the long journey to Calcutta, the then capital city of India, in 1881 and on arrival there waited for an auspicious day for the visit to Dakhshineswar. This he did on Good Friday. He came, he saw and was conquered. Shri Ramakrishna was also greatly impressed by Williums' spiritual hunger and he asked him to come "twice more". On the second visit Williums, on arrival, saluted the Master and said: " Our Jesus performed so many miraculous acts. Would you show something for my benefit?" A smiling Shri Ramakrishna replied: "We shall see about that later. First you go and see my Mother Kali from a distance". Williums removed his shoes, went to the temple of Kali, looked inside and saw - not the image of the Goddess but of Jesus the Christ! Williums was so overwhelmed by Divine power that he virtually collapsed and sat down, while copious tears wet his shirt front. Then, saluting the image, still from a distance, he walked unsteadily to the Master's room. A still smiling Ramakrishna said: " Have you now realized that your Jesus and my Kali are one and the same?"

Several years later, Ramachandra Dutta, one of the principal householder devotees of the Master, who had been present at the time of the first visit of Williums to the Master, saw to his utter amazement that Williums was saluting the image of Siddheswari (Kali) at Thanthania (in Calcutta). On being questioned, Williums said:  " I saw Christ in the image. Shri Ramakrishna crushed my prejudice and has given me a new vision".

Saradananda in his Leelaprasanga has concluded the story of Williums thus: " The person.....came to the conclusion after paying only a few visits to the Master, that the Master was an incarnation of God and he renounced the world as per his instructions and engaged himself in sadhana at some place in the Himalayas to the north of Punjab, till his death".

The interested reader may consult  the articles by Shri Jyotirmoy Basu Roy in the Aswin 1391 (B.S.) number of Udbodhan and also " First meetings with Shri Ramakrishna" by Swami Prabadananda, for further details.

DEVAMATA

2. This story also relates to one born a Christian, a lady and indisputably white. Her American name need not concern us but she became Sister Devamata as a devotee of Shri Ramakrishna and she did the Master's work at the Vedanta Centre at California and for about two years in the Madras Math under the direct tutelage of Swami Ramakrishnananda, one of the direct disciples of the Master. Let the Sister tell her own story in her own words which I am extracting from an Article published in the February - March 1936 Number of the Vedanta Kesari, as a centenary tribute to the Master. She writes:

      The day is coming to a close.....what I write now I had thought to leave for ever unsaid. I shrink from setting on the printed page experiences so sacred and personal that I have never voiced them....

      Those who tell about divine manifestations are simple chroniclers, not makers of literature. Their duty is to preserve the tradition so that the mighty ones of God may live on in the hearts of men. This is my intent in giving out those visions; they were not psychic visions, they were not dreams. They were not imagination, nor was the Great One who came in them an apparition. He was a pulsating presence, a living personality....

If the Sears of Ancient India or the mystics of the Medieval Europe or all those who have seen or heard had locked their visions in the deep recesses of their hearts and kept them secret, the world would have been incalculably poorer.Even the witness of lesser devotees has value to strengthen the faith of men and lend them courage to go forward.

      So, now as the sun nears its setting, I break the silence of years and share this spiritual confidence of my life, in the hope that through it others may gain a deeper realization of the spiritual grandeur and boundless mercy of one of the greatest among the Great Ones who have come to earth as saviours of men.

     I had fled from the hurried life of New York to the calmer atmosphere of Boston and was spending my days in seclusion and silence. One afternoon as I sat alone in my living room troubling over my aimless future, suddenly two figures stood before me. The face of one shone with super earthly smile which seemed to shed an effulgence over his whole being. In quiet tones he spoke these words: " Do not grieve. You have work to do for me". Then both figures vanished but the sense of their presence lingered for many days. 

     In the early spring I returned to New York and soon after became a member of the Vedanta Society being put in charge of the Publishing Department. At that time books came out in rapid succession; my hours were very full and I was in frequent consultation with the head of work. One late afternoon, he called me to his private study to talk over a new publication. As I entered the room, my eyes fell upon a photograph hanging over the mantle. I stood still, transfixed. It was the figure I had seen in Boston. I walked quietly to the fireplace and asked, almost abruptly, "Of whom is this a picture?" the head of work replied "It is my Master, Shri Ramakrishna".

Sister Devamata has in the same article narrated several visions of Master that she had later. These would not however qualify as being miracles because they were bestowed on the devotee Devamata and what is so surprising about the darshan of the 'Ishta' by the 'Bhakta' ? The first darshan was indeed miraculous as at that time the Sister had no knowledge of the Master and the vision came as a call to her to do the Master's work which she did later so nobly. Unfortunately for us, she has not told is who the second figure was that she saw in the company of the Master. The article also does tell us who was the ' head of work' who's Master's photograph helped the Sister to identify the voice which called her to work.

RENU

3. This story is also one of the calls to action but of a male, an Indian and a Hindu. The main point of similarity with Devamata's story is that he also did not have a detailed knowledge of Shri Ramakrishna when the call came to do the Master's work, some sixty five years after the Master's passing away. Faniswar Nath 'Renu' was at the point of death in a Patna hospital when the story starts (1951-52). Till then he had mainly been a political activist and had been jailed in India and in Nepal. He had been awarded a Padmashree  by the government  of India and a pension by the government of Bihar, both of which he had surrendered. He had been smoking and drinking heavily and was drifting to his death, an embittered soul, when (to quote him): 

     " I re-live often the great moments in the hospital at that ecstatic time when I saw a figure like that of Shri Ramakrishna and he spoke to me! before that, photographs of Shri Ramakrishna did not evoke any feeling of veneration in my mind; on the other hand I had a feeling of hostility towards him. I knew practically nothing about him nor did I have any desire to learn anything. Vivekananda, I knew, was his disciple. But without bothering to find out what he had said or done I had developed a similar feeling of hostility towards Swamiji also. The Marxist's do usually consider men of God as if they are opium addicts or hemp-smokers! 

     (On that memorable day in the hospital) " after vomiting bucket fulls of blood I become cold with exhaustion. About half a dozen patients had already died in our (T.B.) ward that day. Electricity had failed, water taps had gone dry and ceiling fans had ceased to work. The spittle was like glue in my mouth and my tongue was stuck inside; breathing was becoming difficult, suffering as I was from a lung ailment but I was still conscious. Many of the patients in the ward were whimpering for a sip of water and though drowsy I could hear them and I could not avoid smelling the hellish odour that pervaded the ward. In my half sleep, I could sense someone bending over me and guessed it was the low caste attendant (dom), who removes the corpses, checking up whether I has ceased breathing before removing any valuables. Finding me stll alive the fellow leapt away. I put my hand under the pillow to check whether the watch and the pen were there. Then I lay down again with the hand under the pillow and tried my best to keep awake. 

      " It was then that a bearded person who looked as if he was crazy or had been smoking hemp, came near me still exuding some smoke. He smiled, exhaling the smoke in my direction and asked (in Hindi), " What makes you weep?" Then still smiling he spoke again, unexpectedly in Bengali, " You rascal why are you crying?" I replied, " I have left a lot of work incomplete and these now must remain so; I cannot also stand this life of confinement to a bed". The bearded one said, with biting irony, " Work! does the rascal think he was working for the country's salvation? He, serving the country! don't you realize that the people are fed up - . But you have a golden pen don't you? "Yes" I replied slightly ashamed, "a Parker - 51". " WHAT HAVE YOU WRITTEN SO FAR?", asked the bearded one. " Have you ever written my name with this pen? This rascal knows nothing yet", and with a laugh he continued,  " YOU ARE NO LONGER ILL; YOU ARE WELL, YOU ARE CURED. GET UP". Then he was there no more.

    " I opened my eyes wide and noticed the sunlight streaming on the Verandah of the hospital wall. I felt better. The fever which had been nagging me unabated for a year and a half that day came down for the first time by half a degree. Dr. Hord attending physician, examined me, and declared " the crisis is over".

     " The day after my release from hospital, I visited a book shop. The cover of a Bengali book attracted my attention- Param Purush Sri Sri Ramakrishna, written by Achintya Kumar Sen Gupta, cover design by Satyajit Ray ( not yet a film director). The photograph inside, as I turned the pages, completely unnerved me!  Yes, it was the same figure I had seen on that great occasion, six or seven months before.

     " I started consuming Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature like a starving person gobbling up his food. The more I read the more I wanted to read". 

Then it was that Fanishwar Nath, the political activict - cum- pamphleteer, sat before a portarait of Shri Ramakrishna to write his name with his 'golden' and pen and slowly, blossomed into 'Renu' the sahithyik. The interested reader may consult the article by Professor Sankari Prasad Basu in the Agrahayan 1394 (B.S.) number of Udbodan were he may learn for what specific work of his Ramakrishna gave a new lease of life to 'Renu' and how that life ended. Incidentally, 'Renu' means the minute, the insignificant particle. Would that we could be called to such insignificance!

Editors note ... to be continued.

With Due Apologies*

     Strictly speaking, I do not belong to the vaunted 1953 batch and can therefore speak freely! No one saw me when the Boys and the solitary Girl of the batch assembled at the Training School in Chennai (it was Madras then), in December 1953. Nobody will see me at Noida in November 2003.

    I took the competitive examination in 1952 all right, and joined the coveted Service in December 1952 too, but at Rewa, the then Capital of the Part-C State of Vindhya Pradesh, now dead and gone. I had been working in the Comptroller's office and some one in the CAG's office had decided that having gone through the SAS drill I knew enough of the FR's and the Codes already to need further training. The deprived me of the paid holiday, which the others enjoyed as also the company of of the batch-mates as a flock. The first of these birds to come my way was Dilip, Chokru to friends, who having it not  become a VIP son-in-law yet, had been pushed to Shillong where I discovered him marking time.Soon enough, after attaining VIP-hood, he moved to Delhi and most surprisingly I followed him there within days! I shall explain later how this miracle happened, but it was this shift to Delhi that put me in touch with the bulk of the flock who sort of flew in to Delhi enmasse and made me one of them. But there were important gaps and the list of missing was headed by the solitary miss whose bewitching charm ha remained to me, to this day,  a matter of hearsay+ only! This list also included V.R.Kate, in my judgement the most talented member of the batch - with the possible exception of V.K.Subramaniam who befriended me in distant Nagaland during his "Blue" period (Circa 1974) when the hostile Hills of the mini-State came alive on innumerable VKS canvases. Kate was a bird of entirely different feather who, given a chance would rather paint the Hills Red! His mastery over several languages including Sanskrit and Marathi enabled him to write stories and articles for which Periodicals actually made cash payments for the privilege of printing them (editor, please note!). Kate managed his day-to-day expenses within these extra pennies and the pounds were salted away for other, more pleasant purposes. Naturally, he never married! Very dark in complexion, he used his considerable savings to make trips abroad from time to time to countries like Australia and Canada where a dark skin was not a disadvantage but an added attraction.

    I met Kate for the first time in my government flat (D-II/A-39) in Motibagh, New Delhi. The bell rang, I opened the door and saw a white bandh-gala coat - Kate's black trousers and shoes and dark hair all being equally invisible in the early morning darkness of a Delhi winter. Then the Coat extended a hand and announced itself (in English): "I am Kate, and I have come for a shave"!

    Thanks to Chokru, I placed Kate immediately and invited him in, gave him the shaving gear and the use of the bathroom. After the operation was over, Kate emerged from the b.r bleeding profusely from several cuts on the cheek. Perhaps he had not had the use of a virgin (blade) for quite some time! We had an early breakfast and as we ate and talked I figured out why Kate had to call on us that morning. He was staying as the guest of Dubious Sachdeva, another batch mate, who lived across the road from us. Now Dubious' real name was DBS, the last letter standing for 'Singh" and like all good Sardars he also sported an impressive beard! The good host that he was, Dubious could and did provide his guest board and lodging, but shaving tackle he just did not have. Of course there were many other service colleagues in the mohalla, including Chokru himself. But Dubious selected me, and Kate and I met for the first time, almost four years after joining the service. The next meeting took place 15 years later, in Kohima. V.K. the Painter had not yet put in an appearance there and I used to host all visits of service colleagues to that hill station. Kate had been posted then to Shillong as Addl, AG (Assam). Stories, untrue, of whiskey galore in Nagaland may have prompted him to visit Kohima. I housed him in the VIP Guest House and told the Manager to look after him well, etc. But what a disappointment it was for Kate that whiskey did not flow free or freely! I could not help him either, firstly because I was a teetotaler and secondly because Scotch, which Kate wanted, was totally beyond my means. After he had made it clear that it was pointless to visit Kohima if he did not get even one peg of whiskey, I decided to appeal to a Naga officer (in the IAS) who was known to be fond of the bottle and a generous host. Though named Iyer, SM, he was a true born Naga,of the Ao tribe and no relation of Iyer, Ramaswami the numero uno of the '53 batch. This Iyer (Sashi Meren) did not fail me and produced a fresh., large bottle of Scotch of excellent vintage when Kate and I stepped into his house. Patiala Pegs were poured out for Sashi and VinayakaNagas! Reading correctly the look in Kate's eyes, Sashi Meren actually offered him the precious bottle! My pride in the Service  (IAAS) and the batch (1953) made me veto the idea. I was glad that Kate was to leave Kohima in the early hours of the morning, as it would be a black mark for the Service (and the Batch) if Kate were to attempt another swig at the bottle. I had however, reckoned without the well advertised attraction of the moth for the star; shortly after I had braved the early morning chill to see Kate off, I got a call from Iyer, not Ramaswami but Sashi - Kate had called on him and collected (should I say collared?) the bottle!!

    Now the story of my shift from remote Shillong to New Delhi's Central Secretariat. I have earlier said that I joined the service at Rewa, the then Capital of Vindhya Pradesh It was a new office and a difficult one where to be effective one had to master more than 20 sets of Service and Pension Rules! And, I had charge of both GAD and Pension, being a sort of one-eyed man in the country of the blind. So I thought it would be a change for the better when I received orders to proceed to Shillong in June 1956. Going there I found that though an old office it was an even more difficult one. There were added areas like Tripura and Manipur (former Princely States) excluded areas like Nagaland, Mizoram and NEFA, Hill , Plain and Tribal areas like the Khasi Hills and Bodo pockets. Most of these areas have since become separate States and there are independent AG's offices for Account keeping and Auditing. In 1956 there were separate Sections only!  Clever man that he was Dilip had opted for field audit and had the opportunity to visit the picturesque area of the North-Eastern Region well before they became famous after the invasion of 1962. One V.N. Singh was the A.G. and being one of the Princely State Officers absorbed into the cadre, he did have a soft spot for me as I had served in the Vindhya Pradesh office which looked after a State created by the amalgamation of many integrating States. This became clear when I stopped the pension of Rani Guidilieu (in the absence of timely renewal orders from Government). There was a rocket from Delhi as the Rani had direct access to Nehru. At that time I had not even heard of the stories regarding Pamela and Padmaja and was blissfully unaware of the importance of the Naga Rani. More that 15 years later when I had darshan of the Rani at Kohima, I realised that in her younger days the Rani could well have been the modern-day Arjun's Nag-Kanya Ulupi. In 1956 it was V.N. Singh's support that saved me. But V.N.Singh moved out soon after and we had to face P.D.Seth who came with the reputation of being a very hard task master and technically sound with the accounts jargon. It was sheer luck that put me in his good books.

   My office in Shillong was initially located in an abandoned goods shed quite far from the 'main' office where  the A.G. sat and ruled. The shed was also a good half hours walk from my residence; in Shillong if you did not have your own car you jolly well walked even though it rained non-stop from June to September (the first things you bought in Shillong were raincoats, umbrella's and extra pairs of shoes!). Seth had just arrived and we had only been introduced to him when one fine (sorry, rainy) morning I found that both the wristwatches and the solitary timepiece had stopped. In order not to be late for the office I got out of the house as soon as I was ready and, my face covered with the ubiquitous umbrella, I ran into Mr. Seth who was out on his morning walk. After the good mornings Seth ashed me where I was going. "Office" I said. "Office?" he asked, looked at his watch, smiled and said 'good" before resuming his walk.This gave Seth the idea that unlike Charles Lamb, who used to go to office always late, I went there pretty early. The next morning Seth told me that I was being wasted in the Cowshed and would I move to the Main Office and take over HAD, Treasury and Pension Sections? All these were believed to be in a mess!

    That was why I was glancing through the incoming dak in the Pension section one morning when I noticed a letter from one B.M. Sen, The name rand a bell: he was the Principal of the College in Barisal - now in Bangladesh - where I had done my Intermediate. Sen had asked for the transfer of his pension from Shillong to Calcutta, and referring to that request and several subsequent reminders, he requested that the A.G. consider the hardship caused by non- drawl of pension for six months.

   Instead of the usual "Early Please" direction, for this case I called the Superintendent, Ratish Dhar, and asked him to ensure that the authority to A.G. Bengal was issued that very day. Dhar demurred at first saying that the Special Seal Authority would have to be issued from Control Section. When I explained my own interest in the matter, Dhar personally carried the file at all stages and ensured that the SSA was actually dispatched the same day.


   Next morning shortly after I reached the office, the phone rang and it was the A.G.  asking me to see him. I walked up the steps and entered the big room. A stern faced Seth did not even ask me to sit down but  picked up a letter from the dak-pad in front of him and flicked it over to me.

"Do you know anything about this?"


It was a D.O. from the Deputy CAG K.C. Chowdhury , asking for an immediate report on the delay in transferring a pension from Shillong to Calcutta. Yes, it was about B.M. Sen!
So I said "Yes, Sir"
AG: "What do you have to say?"
Self: "Sir, there was some delay initially, but the matter has been attended to."
AG: " Action completed?"
Self: "Yes, Sir"
AG: "Can you show me the papers"

   I trotted down to my room, picked up the papers, which were fortunately still on my desk and trotted back in record time and  handed the papers over. He looked at the last reminder, noted the date of receipt and the date of issue of the Authority letter and smiled and said - "Sit down".

The PA was summoned and a letter to the Dy. CAG dictated, expressing regret for the initial delay but confirming that the matter was disposed of promptly on receipt of the last reminder. Seth attributed the improvement in office efficiency to the " posting of some bright young officers to the office in the recent past".

I confess that I made no attempt to correct Seth's impression that all reminder were now receiving prompt attention! No suppressio veri, but suggestio falsi surely!

Shortly after the above-mentioned incident there was a visit to Shillong by the CAG, Ashoke Chande. I have no doubt P.D.Seth put in a word to him about his "bright young officers". Result: Dilip and in addition AJA Tauro and Arkayjee moved to Delhi, giving Arkayjee an opportunity to meet most of his batch mates.

Lesson: respect your teachers and be kind to all Pensioners.

* to the illustrious batch of 1953 generally and Vinayaka Ramachandra Kate in particular
+Do hope the brochure includes a photo of hers and I get a copy.

A daughter's note: He never got the brochure. If there is such a booklet and anyone reading this knows about it, would be grateful if a copy is sent, to be kept amongst his papers. Thanks

The Question: A Short Story

It was not long after we, Rekha and I, moved from Calcutta to Dehra Dun that we were put to the test.

We had made the post-retirement shift in search of peace and quiet in this city in Uttarakhand, blessed by Sadhakas and Saints through the ages, including Swami Vivekananda and Ma Anandmoyee. It pleased us much to find that the Ashram of the Ramakrishna Mission was only next door to Anandamoyee Ma's on Rajpur Road, the highway from Dehra Dun to Mussorie and that it would cost but four Rupees for a visit to the Ashrams.

If I remember aright, it was the Ram Navami day. I was pottering around in the garden in the morning when I felt it would be nice if, on this holy day, a Sadhu would come and collect alms. This vague feeling took me to the gate and I was surprised pleasantly to find a sadhu walking towards me. I do not recollect whether it was I who hailed to sadhu or he appealed to me for something to eat; but I trooped back to the house and Rekha put some raw rice, dal, vegetables and a fruit or two in plastic bags; I added a two Rupee note and walked back to the gate to had over the "Sidha" to the sadhu.Apparently encouraged by the soft touch the sadhu said " could I get a cup of tea also?" and without waiting for an invitation he entered the gate and we walked to the house and into the drawing room. The sadhu sat on a sofa and I pulled up a "murra" near him and shouted to Rekha to make some tea for Babaji.

The gerua clad Babaji looked timelessly old with his thick matted hair; later on I placed him at 70 but Rekha was firm he was around 50. As we waited for the tea Babaji suddenly asked me what I lacked or wanted. As I prided myself as one "trying to go beyond the clutches of maya" I told him so at some length and also that I had retired from service and at this advanced age I had no particular need for more"things' of the world, etc.Babaji was not convinced and pressed me again that I should ask for something. Half in jest, I told him that I was indeed keen on having 'darshan' of 'Eshwar', if it was in his power to arrange it. Without batting an eyelid, the Babaji said, " Call the mother also". And Rekha came in with tea and perhaps, a plate of biscuits.Babaji asked Rekha to fetch him five grains of rice or wheat and me to bring a five paise coin. When both arrived, he asked for a hundred Rupees! Rekha went in and brought a twenty; So I went in to bring a hundred. Babaji took the One Twenty and asked if he could tear them up. I said " if you wish to" He said " No, I do not; I shall keep them". I thought: " Okay; not too high a price for a vision of God".

Babaji put the grains of rice on his palm closed and opened it a few times and handed back to Rekha five grains of wheat. " A nice sleight of hand", I thought. Babaji then put the five paise coin in his hand rubbed it between his thumb and index finger, which produced some ash on the coin and in the fingers; he placed the coin on my palm and asked whether I had any feeling of heat or cold. I said, "no". Babaji said, "wait". In a minute or so, I felt that the coin was a bit warm and in a couple of minutes more it became hot and it appeared to me as if it was smoking. I told the Babaji that the coin was now hot. He put his hand behind his head grabbed and pulled forward one strand of the Jata ( matted lock of hair) and squeezed it over my palm producing a splash of water which cooled the coin. I suspected that somehow a fast one was being pulled on me, but could not fathom how. Before I had fully recovered my balance, Babaji asked if I could bring out a blanket - it was mid summer at that time - but I located and brought out one, an old khadi rug with a few holes in it. Babaji asked if he had my permission to tear it up. Thinking he would do a trick of repairing a tear by magic I said, Go ahead. But he said, " If it all the same to you, I shall keep it" and put it on hid shoulder, stood up, opened the door and walked out. Then I remembered that I had not had the promised vision and said so. His reply was, "Who knows when - and in what form He gives darshan" and he accelerated his pace and walked out of the garden and my life! later on I discovered that he had left the gate open.

Rekha promptly went and reported the incident, in lurid detail, to her sister who lives next door in her own house alone and is therefore excessively security conscious. She naturally jumped to the conclusion that the sadhu was not only a fake, but also a scout for a gang of burglars and we could expect an attempt on us soon. Rekha, while not going that far, was thoroughly peeved about my foolishness, particularly the mad acts of bringing in the hundred Rupee note and the blanket. She thought that the blanket was in very good condition and being a khadi product would have been very useful in Dehra Dun winter. She also berated me for bringing the sadhu inside the house. Luckily, she had quickly noticed that the fellow was eyeing the things and realising that we were bring sent on errands so that he could get the room to himself, she had never left him alone in the room or else ...."why fret," I said, "when nothing has actually been lost". She shot back " What about the 100?" "What about the 20", I asked before moving to a safer distance. Nevertheless less, I am convinced that the sadhu was no thief or thug and what the Babaji was after really the cash and the blanket. Even a plain, honest sadhu has to eat and in this terrible cold (I am writing this in January) of Dehra Dun, he is welcome to my old and torn blanket. The magic he showed me was cheap at the price.

 It was a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks as claimed by Rekha, after the incident of the "sadhu" that the episode of the Bihari couple took place. We were expecting some guests to visit us from Delhi and in the morning I was waiting patiently near the post office to collect them - incidentally, they did not turn up at all - when a most unlikely-looking young man asked me the way to the Bank. He was not the type to have any legitimate business at the Bank and therefore while explaining to him that there was no branch of the State Bank nearby and that one would have to go to the city for it, I also asked him what he wanted to do in the bank. " to change some money" he said. Thinking that he had some damaged or soiled notes, I told him it might be easier for him to go to a money changer and get the notes changed at a small discount. 'But should I not get something more?" asked he, and produced for my inspection a few silver coins of the Queen Victoria or Edward VII. I was surprised, but had to confirm that he should get much more than the face value but probably not at the Bank where, even if they accepted coins which were no longer legal tender, would do so only at the face value i.e Rupee for Rupee. I told him it would be better to contact a silversmith who would buy these for the weight of the silver. I asked him how many of these he had and to my surprise he said he still had about 400 of them. I wished him luck, but if did not get a better buyer I could take some of them at the current price of silver which I guessed would about Rs. 20 a tola. which was the weight of each coin. I explained to him that I could not leave the place just then, but if he desired he could come to my house which was nearby, next day. He departed rather reluctantly, not in the direction of the bank but towards the cantonment.

After a fruitless wait for over an hour, I came home in a peevish mood and snapped at Rekha at the slightest provocation, as if it was her fault that the guests had not arrived. A little later I held out the olive branch by asking if she would like to add a Queen Victoria silver or two for her coin collection. The story then came out and she almost accused me of sharp practices for offering Rs. 20 a coin against the real market price of Rs. 40! She also pointed out that it would cost us a fortune to buy 400 of them There the matter ended, or so I thought!

Next morning, the small boy, Munna, who lives in sister-in-law's out house came in to tell me that two persons had come to meet us. In our seclusion visitor's were few and far between and morning visitor's were just not there, excluding of course, the maid, the milkman and the woman who did the sweeping. Coming out I found my coin-toting friend, accompanied by a ghaghra clad woman. I was again struck by the extreme youth and handsome features of the man, though somewhat marred by a white patch of skin creeping out of the shirt collar. The woman was not half as pretty, and looked distinctly older than the boy who introduced her as his wife, Laadlee. He was himself a Yadav. No, they had not come about the silver but to test out something entirely different. After they came into the drawing room, Laadee sat down on the carpet and from a cloth bag, rather dirty and quite ancient, took out a mass of chains. When pulled up it looked like an ornament golden-yellow in color with seven (or more) strands hanging from a circular base of solid metal. It was large and too heavy to be made of gold and because of the size could be an ornament only for an elephant! Yadav said he wanted our help to ascertain whether the ornament was made of gold as some people had told him. on being questioned he narrated this story;

They hailed from a village in Bihar and a farming family which also tended cattle. But over the years all the ;land had been pledged to the Mahajan and in due course they had been dispossessed of the land and forced to abandon the village home. They had adopted the profession of peripatetic workmen skilled in the demolition of old or damaged structures - a risky but well paid operation. The family moved and worked as a single unit and it was while they were working at Kurukshetra that they had found a kalash (large earthen jar) embedded in a mud wall of a very old structure. Inside that jar they had found the ornament and the coins. After the work there had ended they moved to Dehra Dun side in search of similar work, but had not been able to profitably dispose off the coins or to ascertain the real value of the ornament. About the silver they had made one attempt but the silversmith cheated them by claiming that the 200 coins smelted by him had given very little silver and he had given them only Rs. 30. So, would we check up if the ornament was really made of gold and if so would we take over both the coins and the gold. They would be satisfied with 15 or 20 thousand rupees which would enable the Yadav to marry his sister off and also to reclaim ancestral land to resume their original profession of farmers and husbandmen.

A story rather difficult to believe and I said I could not possibly cart around an ornament of that size for consulting any goldsmith, nor would I be able to offer any acceptable explanation for my possession of it either to the smith or to a Law Enforcement Agency. In any case we lived in fear of burglars and would not jeopardize ourselves further by keeping in the house things of unknown value. The Yadav then, as if in anger, pulled and broke a portion out of one of the seven ( nine or eleven) strands and gave it to me saying " Perhaps you can get this tested". I was amazed by the strength in those fingers which broke up that thick strand by just one pull, but kept the broken portion. Later that day I requested Munna's father, who stayed in sister-law's outhouse, to get the piece of metal tested by a goldsmith known to him. He returned in the evening and reported that the metal was GOLD!

My mind was in a whirl. The value of the silver coins alone would be well over Rs. 15000. The ornament weighing at least 4 kilos would be worth several lakhs. And I could have these for only Rs. 20000. I also did have in the bank liquid cash of Rs. 20000. Even if the ornament proved to be a fake, I would not be out to much loss as the coins were definitely Queen Victoria or Edward VII. I examined the thing from various angles and found nothing against the exchange except the difficulty of disposing off the gold. But why dispose it off? why not keep it for the children, for the grandchildren? Then suddenly I regained sanity and rushed to the shrine room and cried before Sri Ramakrishna and blamed him for putting me such a test and told him that he himself would be at fault if he would tempt me to my doom. Early next morning when I woke up at the usual hour of 4, Rekha said, " I hope you have given up the foolish idea of getting involved in this business?" and I said, "yes". So, when the handsome Yadav came again in the morning, alone without his Laadlee, I could tell him that it was gold alright but I was sorry I could not help him any further. He just walked away and did not return.

I resumed my researches into the many miraculous acts performed by Sri Ramakrishna, his Shakti, Sri Sri Sarada Ma, and his alter ego, Swami Vivekananda. I was again at peace.

It was a couple of days after the Bhandara for our Gurudev at Kishenpur Ashram that I completed writing the first part of my paper on the miracles of Sri Ramakrishna. I was feeling happy and relaxed. That day the Colonel dropped in unexpectedly just after we had finished lunch. We knew that the Colonel's Lady was out of town and asked him whether he would have a bite at our place.
He said  yes and Rekha quickly boiled some rice and with the left over dal and sabji. The Colonel had some species of lunch, ending with some ' kheur gurer payesh that had been offered to Sri Ramakrishna in the morning and left  intact. After the lunch we huddled before the heater for a good gossip and the sister-in-law joined us.

Apropos of nothing, the Colonel started reminiscing about his early days in Dehra Dun. Before he had purchased the house on Rajpur Road near the Mission and before he had opted  for service to the poor in the Mission Dispensary instead of the private practice. To his small Chamber in Karanpur area came all types of patients, mostly Bengali speaking. " One patient who spoke dehati hindi" , he said, " gave me quite a surprise one day, as he brought out of a dirty old cloth bag some pure silver coins of Victorian vintage as my fees. The bag was full of the coins. I was negotiating then for purchase of the house and needed all the cash that I had otherwise I would have bought out the whole lot". After a pause he continued..." would you believe it, the next day the chappie again came with a 'saat naari haar' - a seven stranded necklace of gold - and offered to sell it to me at a ridiculously low price! when I threatened him with the Law he said he had got it (and the coins) in a Kalshi ( earthenware jar) while demolishing an old structure at Kurukshetra. That was long ago at least 10 years back. I would be a rich man now if I had taken the necklace".

It was only when sister-in law enquired whether the Colonel's patient had been suffering from Leucoderma that it struck me that the two incidents were too similar to be a simple coincidence. I am still wondering as to who this Yadav and his Laadlee were who tested us in 1988 and how they are related to the Colonel's patient in 1978! Do you also think that the sadhu might not have been a fraud after all? But, the Legends say it was Krishna's son and the Lord himself who had the ailment.

RK Ganguly