CHAPTER:4
VISIT TO DAKSHINESWAR [PART-II]
An auspicious day was then selected, and the
party soon started on their long journey towards the end of March,2 1872. They
had to travel a distance of about sixty miles on foot; for in those days there
was no railway or steamer service to Calcutta, and the only other alternative
means of travel, namely, the palanquin, was beyond the financial capacity of
people like them. The first two days of the journey were very pleasant.
Corn-fields and lotus ponds greeted their eyes everywhere, while the shade of antique-looking
banyan trees offered them protection from the heat of the noonday sun. They
were not, however, destined to complete their journey in the same joyous
fashion. For on the third day the Holy Mother, who was not accustomed to such
long walks, fell ill of high fever, probably owing to the fatigue of the
journey. Ramachandra was constrained to break the journey and take shelter in a
wayside rest house until his daughter was again fit to travel.
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| Mother Kali, Dakshineswar |
The Holy Mother felt very anxious over this
unexpected trouble on the way. She was, however, much relieved in body and mind
by a wonderful vision she had at night. Of this she spoke to her devotees in
later days to the following effect: 'I was lying unconscious owing to fever,
without any sense of decorum even. Just then I saw a woman, pitch dark in
complexion, sitting by my side. Though she was dark, I have never seen another
so beautiful as she. She stroked my aching head with her soft cool hands, and I
felt the heat in my body subsiding. 'Where are you from?' I asked her. And she
replied, 'From Dakshineswar.' At this I was speechless with wonder and
exclaimed, 'From Dakshineswar! I too am going to Dakshineswar to see my
husband. But this fever has unfortunately detained me on the way.' To this she
replied, 'Don't worry. You will soon be all right and see your husband at
Dakshineswar. It is for your sake that I have kept him there.' I said to her,
'Indeed! Is it so? But who are you to me?' 'I am your sister,' she replied. I
was much astonished to hear this. After this conversation I fell asleep.
[Notes: This is the first authenticated mystical phenomenon that we come across
in her life. There are, however, traditions regarding certain occult facts
about the period of her life already covered. The following is a brief
statement of these traditions. (a) The first is regarding her birth. Her mother
Syamasundari Devi had once gone to Sihor to attend a religious festival. There,
while she sat under a tree near the temple, she experienced as if a quantity of
air entered into her body and made her feel heavy. Just then a beautiful girl
of five or six, dressed in a red silk sari, descended from the tree, and
throwing her tender arms round her neck, said, 'Mother, I am coming to your
house.' That girl seemed to enter into the body of Syamasundari Devi who fell
into a trance. (b) The Holy Mother is reported to have told a disciple; 'You
see, my child, I used to notice during my childhood that a girl, just like me,
would always roam about with me and help me in all my work. She would also
laugh and play with me. That continued until my tenth or eleventh year.' (c)
While she was thirteen, she once went to Kamarpukur. Being very young and new
to the house, she used to feel afraid to go to the outer tank for her bath. One
day, coming out of the backdoor of the house, she was thinking of her
difficulty, when she found all of a sudden eight women near her. As she
proceeded to the street leading to the tank, they escorted her, four of them
walking in front and the other four behind. They bathed with her in the tank of
the Haldars, and came back with her to the house. This happened for several
days. She could not make out who these women were.]
Next morning Ramachandra found that his
daughter was free from fever. He, therefore, thought it better to proceed than
stay indefinitely in that inconvenient rest house on the wayside. Fortunately,
as they proceeded, they came across a palanquin, which they engaged. That night, too, the Holy
Mother had a relapse of the fever. It was, however, a mild attack, and she did
not mention it to anybody. So they proceeded, and covered the distance little
by little, reaching Dakshineswar at 9 0' clock in the night.
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| SRI RAMAKRISHNA'S ROOM, DAKSHINESWAR |
And what was the type of welcome that
awaited her at Dakshineswar? Let her speak in her own simple way. 'I went
straight to the Master's room,' she said, 'while the others went to the Nahabat
(ie orchestra block or concert house) where my mother-in-law was living. The
Master said to me, "Ah! You are
here! All right." And he asked someone to spread a mat on the floor. Then
he added, "Alas! Would that my Mathur4 were alive now! By his death my
right hand, as it were.
[Notes: Son-in-law of Rani
Rasmani, the foundress of the Dakshineswar temple, who became the proprietor of
it after her time. He was both the patron and devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, and
used to spend money unstintedly for his service. is broken." Mathur had died a few months
before. Akshay (the son of the Master's elder brother) also was dead. Should I
have had to live in that inconvenient place (ie the Nahabat) had Mathur been
alive? He would have built a mansion for me. Anyway, after seeing the Master I
wanted to go to the Nahabat. But the Master said, "No, no. Stay here. It
would be rather difficult for the doctor to see you in the Nahabat." I
spent the night in the room. A woman companion slept with me. Hriday gave us
two or three baskets of puffed rice; for all had finished their supper when we
arrived. Next day a doctor visited me. Within a few days I felt all right, and
went to live in the room in the Nahabat. My mother-in-law was then staying in
the Nahabat. Before that she had been living in a room in the building used by
the owners of the temple garden. Akshay had died in that house: Therefore she
left it. She said, "I shall not live there any longer. I shall live in the
Nahabat and turn my face towards the Ganges. I do not need the building any
more." ']
The Holy Mother was cured of her fever, but
the physical relief she felt was nothing compared with her mental appeasement
on account of her first experiences at Dakshineswar. The worst fears she had in
mind were now laid at rest. Experience proved those disquieting rumours to be
nothing but the idle gossip of worldlings whose hearts and heads were blind to
the spiritual glory of Sri Ramakrishna. He had not forgotten her, nor was there
any indication of his sanity being in peril. The care and solicitude he showed
at the time of her illness, and the personal attention he bestowed on her
treatment and nursing, went to strengthen the previous impressions. She had now
no more doubts regarding her duty for the rest of her life. She decided to stay
at Dakshineswar and be of service to the Master and his revered mother.
Ramachandra, too, rejoiced to see his
daughter so cordially received by her husband and to find her happy in his
company. So, after a few days' stay at Dakshineswar, he returned home alone,
free from the anxious thoughts about his daughter's future, which must have
been tormenting his mind till then.
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SOURCE: SRI SARADA DEVI, THE HOLY MOTHER,
Srimat Swami Tapasyanandaji
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