The Saint I met briefly, once only, at Bombay in 1981, when I was posted there as the Chief Executive of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. The " Specially Blessed" person, I met at remote Kohima in 1971, when I was working as the Finance Secretary, on deputation to the Government of Nagaland, and where Binod Kumar had just joined as an IAS probationer. Young, handsome, and a bridge addict, Binod became a favorite of the Ganguly family which at that time (and place) consisted of self ( Ram Krishna), wife (Rekha) and the younger daughter (Ranjana) the son (Ananda) and the elder daughter (Ratna) being away in Delhi studying for their B.A. degree. Ranjana was then only a kid, going to the Little Flower School in Kohima run by Christian Missionaries. But, Ranjana had already picked up the rudiments of the game (of bridge) and was willing, and able, to be a fourth when we had but three regulars at the table. In a manner of speaking, Binod was my disciple as, I believe, I did teach him some of the finer points of the game. That he later became an expert and played in the Nationals, does not mean that he had nothing to learn when the young Binod came to Kohima to become our adopted son. A bachelor, he was born a Bihari but studied in Calcutta and could read, write and speak better Bengali than my born-Bengali children! A strict vegetarian, he also preferred our simple Bengali style meals to what was available at the Naga Government guest house he lived in. So, he was a frequent - and welcome- guest at our dining table, too.
We parted from Kohima (and Binod) in 1974 at the end of my period of deputation to the State Government. Thereafter we lived at Lucknow, Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Dehra Dun, Delhi and Hyderabad, in that order. And at each place Binod had visited us, at times making a detour to do so. During this long association of over twenty five years Binod has given us many gifts and favours, but the most precious one was a letter of introduction to the Saint of the Century, Ma Anandamoyee. Ma had come to Bombay in January 1981. Binod informed us of the fact, gave us the address where Ma would be staying and also a letter to Hansa Didi, introducing us as 'his people'. This Didi, like the better known Gurupriya Didi, had the great privilege of rendering personal service to Ma. Rekha and I hoped to make a quick trip to the address in the morning before my office (in the KVIC) opened at 10. Arriving at the place we found it to be a very affluent person's bungalow with garden, lawn etc.; A long line of cars was already parked outside. There was also a 'queue' of devotees spilling out of the garden on to the road. If we took our turn at the 'queue' , we would never make it to Ma's presence. in the hour's time that I had before my office opened. I would have to give up either Ma or the office! Rekha said: " Why not look for Hansa Didi? and ask for help?" So, abandoning my place at the queue, I went in search of Binod's Didi and ran her to earth just outside the room where Ma was giving darshan to the devotees. I handed over Binod's letter and after a glance at it Didi went into the room where Ma was. I could nit hear what Didi said to Ma, but Ma's voice was loud and clear: "Binod has sent them! Binod! send them in".
Thus we jumped the queue and had immediate darshan of Ma. Ma was all kindness and we got, in addition to prasad, a set of books each, wrapped in a 'gerua' coloured handkerchief. For Rekha, who was fully at ease, the darshan was satisfactory. But I heard Ma's voice and saw her feet, but just could not lift my eyes to see her face. I never got another chance to do so for Ma gave up her body soon after , in 1982, at Dehra Dun, which place we reached only in 1987 to see Ma's Ashram there and other places linked to her memory but not Ma herself.
It would not be correct to infer from what I have said above that it was Binod who introduced me to Ma. Peripherally, I had been in touch with Ma from the time I was about 8 years old. In those days - 1933- recording of voices was rather primitive and gramophones needed frequent manual cranking. On one such primitive device I had heard a sweetly entrancing voice singing a Shiva stotrum and a Guru Bandana along with a few other songs which I do not now recollect. The young lead voice was of Ma Anandamoyee. Though Shri Ramakrishna's name was known to me, I did not at that time know that the guru bandana was addressed to the Paramhansa by a devotee of his named Devendranath Mazumdar. In a sense, therefore, it was Ma Anandamoyee who intrduced me to Shri Ramakrishna as well as to herself!
I have also heard that before my birth (1925) my father had mysteriously met Ma when he, a civil servant, was traveling by boat on Government duty in rural East Bengal. It was after dusk when he realised that he would not be able to reach in time the town where he had planned to put up for the night at a Dak Bunglow. He therefore asked the boatmen to moor the boat at the next village on the river bank. Both the boatmen were Muslims and there was no question of his sharing the frugal meal that they were cooking for themselves. He had just had his bed spread on the boat deck and was preparing to lie down for the night, when a couple of men carrying lanterns in their hands approached the ghat were the boat was moored and enquired whether there was in the boat a Brahmin person who had not had any food that night. My father pleaded guilty to being a brahmin and confessed that he would have to fast for the night. On learning this, the two villagers invited father to accompany them to a house in the village where the housewife had already cooked a meal for the fasting brahmin whose arrival was anticipated Yes, Ma Anandamoyee was the housewife!
Biswanath Ganguly, a first cousin, provides the next link with Ma. Biswa, a few months younger to me, was my uncle's only son and my aunt, Biswa's mother, was the daughter of Kunja Mohan Mukherjee at whose Benares residence Ma stayed a number of times. Before her first visit in 1927 Kunja Babu had seen her in a dream and right from the beginning he was convinced of Ma's divinity. It was also in Kunja Babu's house that Gopinath Kaviraj had Ma's first darshan. Incidentally, Gurupriya Didi whose diary provides bulk of the information about Ma's early life was Kunja Babu's brother's daughter and therefore Bishwanath's aunty.
Biswanath never married and therefore had enough time to remain in touch with all his cousin's, including me. I learned many things from him and I am fully convinced that after losing his Dehatma Buddhi he had voluntarily given up his body at Mother Ganga in Haridwar.
I have also been closely associated with several devotees and disciples of Ma of whom I would mention the two who have given me some insight into Ma's famous ' Kheyal' . The first is one B.G. Ghosal who has worked with me in two different offices in Calcutta. His first hand experience narrated to me was of a not-so-affluent lady who had come to meet Ma at the Benares Ashrama with only a humble guava as an offering Understandably, some of those who surrounded Ma had value judgements which did not match Ma's. The guava was unceremoniously cast aside. When the time came for Ma's lunch, she was fed the few usual morsels of food and the plate was kept aside. Unexpectedly, Ma said she had not finished and asked, yes, for the guava which her devotee had brought! Only a thorough search produced the offered guava. Ma had a bite and declared that now her meal was complete. In Ma's eyes, it is the devotion and not the price of the offering that counted.
The other devotee, Dr. Niranjan Chakravorty of Delhi University's Bengali Faculty, is one of the few disciples who had been given deeksha by Ma herself. He has narrated to me several incidents which had made it clear to him that Ma always knew the inner workings of the devotees mind and her 'Kheyal" was 'Aghathana ghathana Patiyast '.
I shall now give free rein to my fancy and speculate who, Buddha-like, reincarnated as Ma in village Kheora in Tripura in 1896.
In the recent past, say the last 150 years, only about half a dozen men (or women) of God have made their presence felt on the other side of the Padma, the river that divides East from West Bengal. Of these four names are generally known. These in the order of seniority in age are:-
1. Lokenath Brahmachari, also known as the Brahmachari of Barodi
2. Ram Chandra Chakrabroty ( better known as Ram Thakur)
3. Bejoy Krishna Goswami
and 4. Nirmala Sundari Bhattacharya ( known to the world as Ma Anandamoyee)
Lokenath Brahmachari was born in Shanthipur in West Bengal in 1731 and spent the last years of his life in Barodi village near Dhaka. He died in 1891 at the age of 160!
Ram Chandra Chakraborty was born in Faridpur District, adjacent to Dhaka, in 1859 and died in Noakhali, East Bengal, in1949.
Bejoy Krishna Goswami was born in Shantipur, in West Bengal, in 1842, but he lived the fulfilling years of his life in Dhaka and died in 1900 (at Puri).
Nirmala Sundari was born in Tippera, in 1896 and spent the formative years of her life in East Bengal (including several years in Dhaka) She died in Dehra Dun in 1982.
Some tidbits:
1. Ram Chandra and Nirmala had met at least twice. On both occasions there was no conversation. The two just sat together for a while and parted. On one occasion Ram did shastanga pranam as if she were the senior.
2. Lokenath was Bejoy Krishna's great grandfather's brother. He was residing in Baradi, incognito, as an ordinary person for many years before Bejoy Krishna met him and announced both his great age and yogic greatness. After this Lokenath got public acclaim. Lokenath and Bejoy Krishna trace their ancestry to Advaita Prabhu a Parsada of Lord Chaitanya.
3. Ram Chandra and Nirmala were greatly admired by the scholar Gopinath Kaviraj who wrote about them both. Gopinath Kaviraj participated in many of the activities organised under Nirmala's direction and considered Ma as a divine being. He was, however, not a disciple, his guru being Swami Bisuddhananda who has mentioned in the famous Autobiography of Paramahnsa Yogananda.
4. Lokenath was the preceptor of Jyothi Basu's father who hailed from Baradi village.
5.Bejoy Krishna was a contemporary of Shri Ramakrishna and figures very prominently in the Kathamrita. The diary kept by Bejoy Krishna's disciple Kuladananda Brahmachari recording many acts and instructions of the guru published in Book form is an unique record of the day to day life of a Saint.
I now conclude this section with a free translation of a portion of the conversation between brjoy Krishna and Kuladananda which took place after the news of the death of Lokenath reached the Gendria Ashrama of Bejoy krishna ( in Asadha 1293 B.S);
Question:( By Kuladananda): Will the Brahmachari take birth again?
Answer (By Bejoy Krishna): Yes, he has work to complete. He will very soon take birth retaining full awareness comparable to that of Buddha.
Bejoy Krishna said this in 1891. Who were the great souls born in that decade?
Ma Anandamoyee is one, born in 1896. Paramhansa Yogananda is the other born in 1893.
Ma was born in East Bengal, but Yogananda in Calcutta in West Bengal.
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