HER BURDEN-BEARERS

The period of the Mother’s stay at 10/2 Bosepara Lane is important in more than one sense. From the second quarter of the year she had been living there. And Swami Yogananda was also there as her attendant. Swami Trigunatitananda went there whenever he could spare time from his duties in connection with the Bengali periodical Udbodhan. Some others, also, lived in the house now and then.

In the previous year Swami Vivekananda had returned from America to Calcutta (27th February, 1897). And after a contract had been entered into on the 3rd February, 1898, for the purchase of a plot of land on the Ganges at Belur for the permanent location of the Ramakrishna Math, the monastery had been shifted temporarily from Alambazar to Nilambar Babu’s garden for carrying on the building work on the new land. When the actual construction began in April under the able supervision of Swami Vijnanananda, the Holy Mother was one day brought in a boat to the monastery. She was accompanied by Swami Yogananda,

Brahmachari Krishnalal (Swami Dhirananda), and Golap-Ma. As soon as the boat touched the landing stairs, a conch was blown to announce the auspicious event; and when the Mother alighted, the monks washed her feet and with extreme veneration led her to the verandah of the shrine, where she sat, while the monks fanned her to give her relief from the heat of the day. After all had bowed down to her, she entered the shrine to worship the Master; this over, she offered him food and laid him to rest. She herself took some rest after lunch and at four in the afternoon started for the boat with her companions. Just then Brahmachari Krishnalal carried the earnest request of Swami Brahmananda, ‘May the Mother condescend to tread on the new land of the Math before she departs.’ Accordingly, the Mother went to the land by the boat, while Swami Yogananda walked to it. Sister Nivedita, Mrs. Ole Bull, and Miss MacLeod, who were then staying in a house there, came out to greet the Mother and show her round. How delighted was the Mother to see her dream of having a permanent monastery on its way to fulfilment! After she had seen all, she said with joy, ‘At long last the boys have a place to lay their heads in — the Master has cast his benign look (on them) after such a long time!’ At the end, she got into the boat and started for Calcutta.

Swami Vivekananda came back to the Math in October, 1898, after his visit to Amarnath and Kshirbhavani in Kashmir. He was in bad health then. On the second day of the Durga worship he, along with Swamis Brahmananda, Prakashananda and Vimalananda, went to Baghbazar to make his obeisance at the feet of the Mother. There he fell prostrate before her. The Mother stood at a corner, covering her entire body with a wrapper. Her talks with the Swami were in a very low tone, so that they had to be repeated more distinctly by Brahmachari Krishnalal. When the Swami prostrated himself, the Mother blessed him by touching his head with her right hand. Then this loving and world-famous son of the Mother complained with an air of petulance, ‘Such indeed is your Master, Mother! Just because a Fakir’s disciple in Kashmir used to visit me, the Fakir cursed me saying, “He shall have to leave this place in three days with stomach trouble.” And sure enough, it happened just as he had said — I had to flee away helter-skelter! Your Master could do nothing whatsoever.’ The Mother had her answer communicated, ‘It’s an occult science. One can’t but bow down before it, my boy! They didn’t, in fact, come to destroy. Our Master heeded even such things as the cry of a

lizard or a sneeze.1 And we hear that Sankaracharya too, allowed his body to be afflicted with a disease.1 It is known to you that as the result of a curse from his cousin Haladhari, the Master had haemorrhage from his mouth. Your suffering from disease is the same as the Master suffering from it.’ The Swami, still in a mood of irascibility, protested that he was not ready to accept all this despite the Mother’s argument, and in fact the Master was nothing. Then the Mother answered with some amusement, ‘Is there any other way out, my son? For, sure enough, you are tied to his hemstring.’ The Swami knew the truth of this too well, and so he silently bowed down and took leave with tearful eyes.

Sister Nivedita, after returning from Kashmir, took up her residence with the Mother who was very kind to her and treated her like a daughter. But she soon realized that the stay of a foreigner in a brahmin family could complicate matters for the Mother’s relations who had to move amidst orthodox people; and hence, though the Mother said nothing, she, of her own accord, shifted to another house on the same lane.

Soon came the day (12th November, 1898) of the annual Kali worship, and the monks at the Belur Math made preparations for the purpose. The Mother went there in the morning with the picture of the Master which she worshipped daily. After alighting from the boat at the monastery at Nilambar Babu’s garden house, she proceeded on foot to the newly bought land and after cleaning a spot with her own hands, worshipped the Master there. At noon she returned to the monastery where she took some prasada. In the afternoon, Sister Nivedita took her along with Swamis Vivekananda, Brahmananda, and Saradananda to 16 Bosepara Lane, where the Sister’s Girls’ School was formally declared open by the Mother.

Either during this or some other visit of the Mother to the Math land, Swami Vivekananda went round with her and said, ‘This is your own place, Mother; and here you move about at ease.’ The Mother said afterwards about this land, ‘Of a truth, I always saw as though the Master lived on the land on the other side of the Ganges — in a cottage just where the present monastery and plantain trees are.’ This vision referred to a time when the land had not been purchased.

On the completion of the new buildings, Swami Vivekananda, on the 9th December, 1898, carried on his own shoulders the vessel containing the Master’s ashes, placed it on a big altar on the newly bought land and performed worship and homa duly. Some monks began to reside there from that very day, while the whole monastery shifted to the new buildings on the 2nd January of the following year. The Mother had prayed for a lasting habitation for her sons; and here it was.

This happiness was, however, unfortunately marred by a very sad event in a few months. Even while the Sister Nivedita School and the Belur Math were becoming accomplished facts and the devotees of the Master had reason to be proud, Swami Yogananda lay seriously ill at the Mother’s rented house in Calcutta. Two physicians of repute, Dr. Bepinbehari Ghosh and Dr. Shashibhushan Ghosh, both devotees of the Master, were in attendance, and both were unanimous that the intestines were dangerously out of order. As the allopathic treatment produced no result, Kavirajas were called in to try the indigenous system. The monks from the Belur Math were constantly in attendance. In fact, every possible step was taken for his recovery; but the patient’s condition deteriorated. The Mother was so very anxious for him that any apparent alleviation of the sufferings of Yogananda produced a corresponding elation in her, and she too felt healthier; but as he lost more and more weight she too became correspondingly emaciated. For the proper nursing of the patient the Mother suggested at this time that his wife should be brought there; but Swami Yogananda objected vehemently. The Mother still brought her to him and said, ‘Give her some instruction.’ The monk Yogananda, however, who was free from all worldly shackles and whose vision was more than ever bent towards Infinity, said with extreme unconcern, ‘As to that, you know best.’ As the last day approached, one of the Mother’s attendants went upstairs to give her flowers for worship, when he saw her sitting with her face to the west and legs outstretched, while tears rolled down her cheeks. He tried to console her as best as he could but the Mother asked in desperation, ‘My boy, what will happen to my son Yogen?’ The attendant tried to impress on her that there was really no cause for anxiety, for Swami Yogananda would recover. Still she said, ‘But, my boy, I have seen it…At dawn I saw that the Master had come to take him.’ And she burst into tears. Then regaining a little composure she added, ‘Don’t you tell anybody. Such things are not to be talked about.’

At noon of the 28th March, the condition of the patient became worse and at three in the afternoon his face shone with a celestial light. Brahmachari Krishnalal, who sat at his head, now began weeping; and the Mother, who was upstairs and whose ears were alert, caught the sound; and she too burst forth into a wail. An attendant, surprised at this piteous wailing of the Mother, who was otherwise so calm and collected, ran immediately upstairs to compose her with entreaties by taking hold of her feet; but she brushed him aside saying, ‘Off with you! My Yogen has left me — who will now look after me?’ Everything was over soon. The Mother next day heaved a long sigh and said, ‘A brick has slipped off the structure; now the whole thing will come down. ’

From the subsequent talks and action of the Mother we can have an idea of the depth of her affection for this son of hers, and the extent of her dependence on him In her reminiscent moods she said at different times, ‘Nobody loves me as Yogen did. If anybody gave him so much as eight annas, he kept it by saying, “Mother will go out on pilgrimages, etc., and then she will need it.” He was always by my side. Because he lived in the midst of women, the boys taunted him Yogen told me, “Mother you will call me ‘Yoga Yogen passed away saying, “Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and the Master came to take me, Mother. ”…The Master used to speak of him as Arjuna… Sarat (Swami Saradananda) and Yogen — these two belong to my inner circle.’

It should be mentioned here that the Mother referred to Swamis Yogananda and Saradananda as her ‘burden-bearers’. She said, ‘I don’t see any one who can now carry my burden (i.e., shoulder my responsibilities). Yogen was there. And there is Krishnalal too, — calm and quiet —a disciple of Yogen.’ On another occasion she said, ‘Boy-Yogen served me very well indeed, none else can do the like of it. Only Sarat is able to render such service. Sarat has been doing so after boy-Yogen. My child, it is extremely difficult to shoulder my responsibilities. None other than Sarat will be able to carry my burden.’ Instances of Swami Saradananda’s incomparable service will be plentiful as we proceed. But now we are dealing with Swami Yogananda’s.

We have referred to the worship of Jagad-dhatri at the Mother’s paternal home. Her family was poor and there were not enough members to assist in the preparations for the worship. Consequently, the Mother had to go to Jayrambati at that time for scouring the metal vessels and such other tasks. To remove this difficulty Swami Yogananda purchased wooden vessels with some money he had collected and said to her, ‘Mother, you won’t have to go for scouring the vessels. ’

Every memory of Yogananda was dear to the Mother. The Swami had got a quilt made for her. Finding it worn out after long use, she handed it over one day to her disciple Bibhutibhushan Ghosh to have it renewed, by carding the cotton and changing the cover. But soon the thought occurred to her that if the quilt was thus renewed then the memory of her beloved son might be hurt. That was too sad to contemplate and so she corrected herself and said, ‘No, Bibhuti, you need not take the quilt. Yogen gave it to me — the very sight of it reminds me of him.’

Once on coming to the Belur Math during the Durga worship, the Mother saw an oil-painting of Swami Yogananda hung on the wall outside the Master’s shrine. She gazed at it intently for a considerable time and then entered the shrine to bow down before the Master as usual; but from there she came out so quickly that to the people present there it seemed as though her mind was engaged in so intense a search after her son in some unseen domain that it refused to be fixed to this world.

The Mother regarded Swami Yogananda as belonging to that galaxy of divine souls who are known as Ishwarakotis, or as Sri Krishna’s companion Arjuna, who came down again with Sri Ramakrishna to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. He served the Mother for more than twelve long years (autumn of 1886 to spring of 1899) with unswerving devotion.

Swami Yogananda’s successor was selected long before he left his field. Swami Saradananda once said to him, ‘Yogin, I can’t really follow all that Naren (Swami Vivekananda) says. In what a diversity of moods he talks! Whatever standpoint he takes up, he makes so much of it that the others pale into insignificance.’ Yogananda said, ‘I tell you one thing, Sarat, you cling to the Mother; whatever she says will be right.’ Not stopping there, he took him to the Mother. And in this way Saradananda gradually got the privilege of serving the Mother which he did in the ideal way and became immortal in the annals of the Ramakrishna Movement. But he did not step into Swami Yogananda’s shoes immediately after the latter’s passing away. He was then in Western India, collecting money under the instructions of Swami Vivekananda. On his return to the Math, he became busy with multifarious duties. Hence Brahmachari Krishnalal continued as her attendant for some time, while Swami Trigunatitananda, who spent the whole day outside in connection with the fortnightly periodical Udbodhan, stayed in the Mother’s house at night and had in his hands the general direction of her household. In fact, he was the Mother’s chief attendant till at the end of 1902 he left for U. S. A. Needless to say that he discharged his duties faithfully.

A little over four months after the passing of Swami Yogananda, her youngest brother Abhay succumbed to an attack of cholera. Prasanna and Varada, two other brothers of the Mother, then lived at Chorebagan in Calcutta by turns and earned their livelihood by priesthood. Abhay, too, was then with them. He was studying medicine after passing the Entrance Examination. And just as he had finished his course at Campbell Medical School and was waiting for the result of the final examination, he was attacked by that fell disease. The Mother went to see him in a palanquin, and Swamis Saradananda and Prakashananda nursed him. But destiny was inexorable and Abhay passed away. The Mother’s sorrow was so deep and abiding that in later days she used to speak of her little nephews, ‘May these live long, even though they may not be educated.’ When her sisters-in-law protested, ‘Is that really the way you should bless any one?’ she used to reply with a sad countenance, ‘Yes, dear, yes! What do you know? I brought up Abhay, and he is gone!’

After Abhay’s demise, the Mother could find little solace in Calcutta; and hence she left for her village by way of Burdwan. After crossing the river

Damodar, she got into a cart and Swami Trigunatitananda walked in front with a staff on his shoulder like a bodyguard. When it was the third watch of the night, the Swami suddenly saw that a portion of the road had been washed away by a flood, so that if the cart passed-over the depression it might overturn or get a jolt, as a consequence of which the Mother’s sleep might be disturbed or she might even be hurt. Without losing any time, he lay down on the depression and ordered the cart to be driven over his strong muscular body. Fortunately, the Mother woke up and looking ahead understood the whole situation with the help of the moonlight. She got down at once and walked over the place, reproving Trigunatitananda for his rash act.

Here is another instance of Swami Trigunatitananda’s devotion to the Mother. Yogin-Ma once asked him to obtain from the market some hot chillies for the Mother. The Swami wanted to get the best, that is, hottest, ones and therefore, walked from Baghbazar to Burrabazar, a distance of about three miles, tasting the chillies at every market till he got the best at the latter place! But by then his tongue had become swollen. Even in America, he remembered her and remitted some money every month to her.

Before we close the chapter we must add for the information of the readers that though the monks looked after the needs and comforts of the Mother all along after the Master’s passing away, the services of Yogin-Ma and Golap-Ma were not inconsiderable. They often lived with the Mother not only in Calcutta, but also at Jayrambati. Charmed with their devotion the Mother said subsequently, ‘I can’t stay in Calcutta unless Golap and Yogin are there.’

1. At these sounds one must stop doing anything, as they augur evil.

1. At Kamakhya a Tantrika was defeated in argument by Sankara; and in order to avenge this defeat the Tantrika laid a curse on him that he should get fistula, and he did get it.