Hari OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
We shall this month look at some other leading 'lights' in the Vedantic parampara.
Sri Ma was barely thirteen when she was married to Sri Ramani Mohan Chakravarty of Atpara. Their family had a tradition of Shakti-upasana. As a child-bride Sri Ma was received into the family of Ramani Mohan’s eldest brother Sri Revati Mohan and his wife Pramoda Devi. She remained with them for nearly four years while Ramani Mohan was in Atpara and in Dhaka. From a carefree childhood in her parents’ home she was catapulted into a demanding situation of considerable physical hard work in an atmosphere of restrictive discipline. She cooked, cleaned, fetched water, took care of the children and served her sister-in-law in every way possible. Hard work is the lot of village women not only in India but all over the world. What sets Sri Ma apart from all such girls placed in similar situations is the fact of her total adequacy and a little extra, as it were. She remained uniformly cheerful, good-humoured, and more than willing to shoulder other people’s burdens. Nothing was a chore to her. Her serene and equable temper was never disrupted by thoughtlessness or unfair treatment at the hands of the elders.
Actually, Sri Ma’s untroubled happy disposition caused her new family some anxiety; it could only mean a simple mind. In her childhood also she had invoked this fear in her parents’ thoughts – perhaps the little girl was just a little below par, not to be at all mischievous and naughty like other children? It took many years for Sri Ma’s close companions to realize that she was ever established in her often repeated Vani: jo ho jaye: ‘Whatever comes to pass, let it be’.
In general Sri Ma’s inimitable smile disarmed all questions regarding her identity. She once answered a devotee’s query in these words: “What a childish question to ask; People have various visions of gods and goddesses (in me) according to their own predilections. What I was before, I am now, and shall be hereafter. I am also whatever you or anybody may think I am; why don’t you look at it this way: the yearnings (of seekers after Truth) have brought about this body. All of you have wanted it and so you have found it. That is all you need to know.”
...This is an excerpt from Anandamayi Organisation. Please do click through and discover more of this wonderful female sage!
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Hari OM
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