Evolution of love

THE FRAGRANCE SPREADS

Thus passed the days at Shahbag.
She would start a job, say, the offering of the cooked food to the deity and would stop midway becoming as still as a stone. This might happen during the household work or cooking, regardless of the heat from the blazing oven scorching her body. She would lie prostrate for hours unmindful of the rows of ants biting into her flesh. She would walk around at night through bushes and boughs unafraid of snakes or reptiles. Yet, her face would glow with a smile, her body with radi­ance. She would look deep into the minds and hearts of people - serious, calm yet benevolent in her seeing. People would be attracted to her, charmed by her words and manners. Her presence filled the atmo­sphere with joy and happiness. How did it happen? One may find the answer in MA’s later sayings:
“Though the earthly being is ignorant of its true iden­tity, when it accepts another being as totally free from all earthly bondages, it gets a sensation of that supe­rior state, however, transient it may be.”
People flocked to see her in search of this bliss. They come to know of her during her occasional visits to Ramna and Siddheshwari. She answered their que­ries through signals. However, the growing number of visi­tors was not approved of by some of the authorities in charge of the garden. One day Bholanath was cau­tioned about this by Bhudev and, frightened, he re­ported the developments to MA. It stunned her as she was coming out of the kitchen with a lamp in hand. She seemed petrified, eyes not blinking and no signs of breathing. A repentant and terrified Bholanath pleaded with MA to become normal assuring her that he would never mention the complaint in future.
Next day a carriage was sent by Rai Bahadur Jogesh Ghosh (Father-in-law of Bhudeb and who helped Bholanath to get the job) to take MA and Bholanath to his house. MA is being talked about so he wants to talk to her himself. The moment he saw her, he developed genuine respect. He entreated them to continue to stay at Shahbag and said he would consider it his good fortune. The devotees were free to come and see her; there would be no restriction.
It was a great relief to know that the authorities were happy. The devotees thronged the place in in­creasing numbers. A Kirtan was arranged at Shahbag to mark the solar eclipse on 30th Paus, 1332 (Janu­ary, 1926). As the singing progressed, there was a perceptible change in MA. Slowly her eyes closed and her body swayed to the music and rhythm of Kirtan. She stood up slowly, her body vibrating. All her movements were spontaneous; she was indiffer­ent to the setting, her expression devoid of any emo­tion. She was normally very particular about her dress which gracefully covered her whole body leaving only the face, hands and feet bare. That day she was unmindful even about her dress. Sister Gurupriya and a few close associates saw her condition and rushed to take care. Gurupriya wrote: “Suddenly her body started swaying and the head cover came off. The eyes were closed but the body responded to the rhythm and mood of the singing. She stood up as if possessed by an unknown power, the limb movements not willed by her but commanded by some other force. She appeared to be riding on air, now falling, now regaining balance, moving all around the room, steeped in an ecstasy. Her unblinking eyes were fixed up­wards, a strange illumination radiating from her face, a red glow on her body, she fell to the ground like a log but did not seem to hurt herself. The body turned and turned in rapid horizontal movements like a paper or a twig before a tornado. We tried to control her but it was impossible to cope with the turmoil and rapidity of her movement.”
This was the first time that her state of spiritual ecstasy came into public view. Those who saw her during that period, said myriad were her moods. The wise and the expert found the symbolic manifestations of the ecstatic moods agreeing with their descriptions in the scriptures. Many felt that barring such luminar­ies as Sri Gouranga or Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, no one else had displayed such manifestations of di­vine moods.
Streams of visitors started flowing in to have a glimpse of MA. Days passed with worshipping, cer­emonial offerings to God, Kirtan singing and chanting of God’s name in intimate groups. MA would usually be under a spell during the Kirtan and would utter hymns to God.
Gurupriya Devi was a relatively new devotee of MA having come to her only in the month of Paus 1332. She came to see MA with her father, Dr. Sashanka Mohan Mukhopadhyay, a retired Civil Sur­geon, and immediately became an ardent follower. She wanted MA to attend a Kirtan at her place to mark the death anniversary of her mother when she would also arrange a feast for the poor. A few days earlier, students of Dacca Medical School wanted to take MA to the School to have a similar function but the idea was dropped when opposed by Dr. Sashanka Mohan. Nevertheless, it so happened that the functions organised by Gurupriya had to be held at the same Medical School and in the presence of MA, much to the delight of the students, and to the satisfaction of MA and Gurupriya.

Some time later, MA’s younger brother Makhan and Bholanath’s nephew, Ashu, joined him at Shahbag and were admitted to school. MA would attend to everybody’s needs after completing all the household work. She would also arrange for the offerings to the deity but would remain absorbed in herself. She would usually keep her head covered with part of her dress.
Frequently, in the evening she would visit the Kali temple at Ramna and at times would remain there till late in the evening, either sitting or lying prostrate. Once the temple authorities decided that the gate would be closed at 10 every night. A whimsical MA one day decided to visit the temple in the company of some others well beyond 10.00 P.M.—through a strange co­incidence, the temple gate was still open that night.
About this time, MA paid a visit to Siddheshwari for the first time in the month of Shravana 1331. It is worth mentioning that while MA was in Bajitpur, She had a vision of a tree and some inner voice identified it as the Siddheshwari tree. Once Baulchandra Basak took MA to Siddheshwari, where she touched and felt a special Ashwaththa tree and recognised that to be the one seen in her vision. Earlier, there used to be three trees in that spot earning the name ‘Tintiree’, only one of which had survived. Legend had it that once a flash of light emanated from this tree and merged into the image of Goddess Kali in the nearby temple. MA and her party made a round carrying lamps circling the temple and returned that day. She paid another visit to the temple along with Baulchandra when they found the temple door locked. MA pulled the lock and it opened. That night they stayed at the temple, as they could not leave it unprotected. After a few days, MA requested Bholanath to arrange for a formal offer­ing to the temple at Siddheshwari. After the formal worshipping, she announced that she would hence­forth stay at the temple. It was decided that father Bipin Behari would keep her company during the day and Bholanath during the night. MA moved into a small room adjacent to the temple and kept herself confined there for the greater part of the day. In the evening, Baulchandra would come singing and carrying some fruits, which she would take after offering to the deity.
At Siddheshwari, the rituals of daily worship gradu­ally seemed unnatural to her. One day, she asked Bholanath to take over and he agreed. Bholanath stayed in one corner of the temple while MA spent the night inside the temple and moved into the small room in the morning after ablution.
Seven days passed by. It started raining heavily on the eighth morning when MA asked Bholanath to follow her. Going northwards, she reached a place, which she circled thrice before sitting down, all the time chanting hymns. She pressed her hand on the spot, which opened up layer by layer. When almost the whole arm had gone in, Bholanath rushed to pull it out to see a trickle of hot reddish water coming out of the hole. MA had something in her hand, which Bholanath threw into the pond nearby. MA then asked Bholanath to put his hand into the hole, which he did with great reluctance and found an open warm space. As he withdrew his hand, hot reddish water trickled out. They covered the place with loose earth and returned to the temple.
They came to Shahbag to arrange for worship and food offering only to return to the temple in the evening. The food was cooked by MA herself. Grandma (Mokhsadasundari) and Baulchandra’s wife were also present during the ceremony. The worship was repeated for a few days.
They had all returned to Shahbag when one day MA called for Bhaiji at noon from his office. When he arrived, MA said, “Let us go to Siddheshwari”. MA sat inside the small hollow ground and her face was beam­ing with smile, breathing radiant joy. Bhaiji exclaimed to Pitaji (Bholanath): “From today we shall call MA by the name of Anandamayee”. He at once said: “Yes, be it so!” MA glanced at Bhaiji with a fixed gaze without saying a word. Since then MA came to be known to her devotees and the world as “Shree Shree Anandamayee MA” - the Bliss Permeated Universal Mother.
On another day, MA asked Baulchandra to col­lect certain things and cover up the hole. A few flower trees and a Tulsi sapling were planted there. Prangopat gave ten rupees to Baul to protect the place with fencing and to construct a flat brick platform inside the area. MA at times would go there when Kirtan singing would be arranged.
An old desire of Bholanath was also fulfilled. While at Bajitpur, he once expressed a desire to have a house of his own with a pond and to perform Basanti Puja. MA had told him “Well, you have a house, the one belonging to Gokul Thakur at Dacca belongs to you.” It was discovered later that the place chosen by MA at Ramna actually belonged to Gokul Thakur. The Basanti Puja was also performed at Siddheshwari. MA said later that Bholanath had performed his Sadhana at Siddheshwari, ages ago. Her visit to Ramna and Siddheshwari was actually to recall that phase.
Gradually, MA’s name spread far and wide swelling the rank of devotees. To fulfil their desire, MA performed the worship of Kali on the auspicious day in the month of Kartik the 1332. A sacrificial goat was brought. MA herself was the main worshipper. She took the goat in her arms and cried for a long time before offering it as sacrifice. The poor animal was in a daze and moved by itself towards the altar. MA went prostrate, held the chopping blade on her own neck and produced agonised bleating sounds thrice which struck the crowd with fear. The behead­ing of the animal was carried out eventually but there was no gushing out of blood needed for the comple­tion of the worship. With difficulty, a drop was col­lected by Bholanath to complete the ritual.