CHAPTER-8 : IN
THE SERVICE OF THE MASTER; PART-I
In all, the Holy Mother
stayed at Dakshineswar for over thirteen years, with occasional intervals of
short visits to her parental home in Jayrambati. This was a period of great
inner development in her life, a few glimpses of which have been given in the
previous chapter. It now remains to give an account of what may be described as
the external part of her spiritual practice, namely, her service of the Master,
as also the other interesting incidents that took place during her association
with him.
 |
| Nahabat |
For the greater part of
this long period, she stayed in the Nahabat (see Picture), an exceedingly inconvenient place
for one to stay in. It was a very small two-storeyed block, in the upper room
of which lived Sri Ramakrishna's mother during the last few years of her life.
The small room on the ground floor was given to the Holy Mother to live in. To
make it a fit residence for a Purdah lady, the Verandah about it was covered
with screens of plaited bamboo slips reaching above the head. As a consequence
sunlight scarcely entered into it. Moreover, since she used to cook for the
Master and his aged mother, she was obliged to use this room as a provision
store and kitchen also. Thus she sat and slept with vegetable baskets and sacks
of rice and pulses about her, while above her head hung in slings the pots
containing special articles of food to suit the Master's delicate stomach. 'The
room,' the Holy Mother used to say in later days, 'was so low that at first I
would knock my head against the upper frame of the door. One day, I got a cut
on the head. Then I became accustomed to it. The head bent of itself as soon as
I approached the door. Many stout aristocratic women of Calcutta frequently
came there. They never entered the room. They would stand at the door and lean
forward holding the jambs. And peeping in they would remark, addressing me,
"Ah, what a tiny room for our good girl! She is, as it were, in exile,
like Sita." '(While recounting
these, the Holy Mother would turn to her nieces and say, 'You won't be able to
stay in such a room even for a day' 'True, aunt!' they would ejaculate,
'everything is so different with you.' Today when we think of those days of the
Holy Mother's life with a devotional halo superimposed on it, we are not likely
to take a realistic view of the situation as it existed then, and therefore
fail to make a proper estimate of the privation that the Mother had to suffer
and the glorious ideal of devotion she has set thereby. No other devotee of the
Master had to stand anything like that, except it be some of the young devotees
of the Master like Swami Ramakrishnananda who waited on him day and night at
his sick bed in his last days. This aspect of the Mother's life is an example
of the highest ideal of Bhakti as Seva (service) wherein the difference between
personal enjoyment and suffering gets lost in the sense of elation brought
about by the knowledge that it is all undergone for the welfare or pleasure of
the object of reverential love).
The Master was not
blind to the difficulties of her life at the Nahabat. But he was helpless in
the matter of remedying them. For death had already removed from him his ardent
devotee Mathuranath, the son-in-law of Rani Rasmani and the proprietor of the
temple, who used to look after all his personal needs with scrupulous attention
and unstinting liberality. Mathur would have made every arrangement for the
Holy Mother's comfortable stay at Dakshineswar, had she gone there in his
lifetime. But the new proprietor who succeeded him was not so close to the
Master.
Besides, there was no
other place in the temple suitable for her residence. For she was very shy by
temperament and could never stand the public gaze. Even before the Master, she
appeared only veiled in her early days. Her day generally began between 3 and 4
a.m. before any human being was up. At that early hour she would finish her
bath in the Gangess (It is said that
once, on going to the Ganga at that early hour without any light, she was about
to tread on a crocodile lying on the shore. The Master, on hearing of it,
advised her never to go without a lantern.) and get back to her room
unnoticed by anyone. After that she would seldom come out of the room. Even for
drying her luxuriant hair, she would wait till 1 p.m. when there would be no
one in the neighbourhood of the Nahabat. She would then come out, and sitting
on the steps of the Nahabat, bask in the sun and dry her hair. In fact she
lived so quietly and unobserved by anybody that to quote her own words, 'The
manager of the temple said, "We have heard that she lives here, but we
have never seen her." '
This natural modesty
and reserve of hers was, no doubt, very much appreciated by the Master. About
this the Holy Mother once said: 'The Master used to say, "Dear Hridu (ie
his nephew Hriday), I was extremely concerned about her when she first came
here. She came from the country and did not know about the ways of city life. (She herself narrated a funny story relating
to her experiences of city life, illustrating how strange the environment
appeared to her. She said: 'I had never seen water taps before. I came to
Calcutta one day and entered a room where there was a tap. I opened the tap.
Before the water rushed out, there came a hissing sound, like that of a snake,
out of the tap. I was terror-stricken and ran from the room. I at once came to
the other ladies of the house and cried, "There is a snake in that water
pipe. It is hissing." They laughed and said, "There is no snake
there. Do not be afraid. The hissing sound comes from the pipe before the water
rushes out." Then we laughed and laughed till our sides began to ache.')
I thought people would criticize her movements and we should all be hurt. But
she is so wonderful that she has hidden herself completely from view. (This does not
at all mean that the Master wanted all women to be behind the Purdah and never take
part in any activity outside. In fact several of his women disciples -
Lakshmi-Didi, Golap-Ma and Gauri-Ma, for instance - were somewhat masculine in
their temperament, without any exaggerated sense of feminine shyness. At least
one of them, Gauri-Ma, started a public educational institution for women. The
Master never asked these women to remain behind the Purdah. His idea was that
the bashful and the forward were different types and they must be allowed to
grow in their own way. It is significant in this connection to note the
following words of the Holy Mother on Lakshmi-Didi; 'Lakshmi (the niece and
disciple of the Master) used to sing and dance before the Master imitating the
professional musicians. The Master said to me, "That is her attitude; but
you must not imitate her and lose your modesty." ') I never saw her go
outside for a wash or the like." When I heard about his remark, I became
anxious about myself. I knew that whatever idea flashed in his mind, came to
happen. With great earnestness I use to pray to the Mother of the Universe,
"O Mother Divine, please be gracious enough to protect my modesty." '
None-the-less the Master was very careful
that, continuous stay in that dark narrow room should not imperil her health.
In fact, after staying there for some time, she got a rheumatic pain in the
legs. To quote her own words about its origin: 'I used to stand behind the
screen round the verandah of the Nahabat, and hear the Master sing and see him
dance in ecstasy through the holes in the screen. It was standing there so long
that brought on rheumatism in my legs.' As the Master knew all this, he took
particular care to see that she did not injure her health. Of this the Holy
Mother used to say: 'He would tell me, "A wild bird, if kept within a cage
day and night, gets rheumatic. So you should have a walk at times in the neighbourhood."
' At noon when people generally retired after the midday meal, the Master would
go to the Panchavati and see whether there was anybody in the neighbourhood. If
there was none, he would tell me, "Just go out. There is no one." He
would stand outside his room for a while, and I would go out of the place by
the back gate and visit the ladies of the locality near Ramlal' s house. After
spending the rest of the day in conversation with them, I would come back at
dusk when all people generally went to the temple to attend the evening
service.'
SOURCE: saradadevi.info/SHM_book
No comments:
Post a Comment