~~OM~~

Bara Maa: When Shree Maa was sitting for the class ten examinations, she would always fall into meditation. She would close the books and sit with her eyes closed for hours together. My brothers would scold me: "It's all your fault! You used to take her to sing kirtan and visit saints and have sat sangh. That is why she isn't paying attention to her studies now!"

I would reply: Who can say what God has planned for each of us? I don't know if it is best for her to keep her eyes open in the book or to keep her eyes shut with God inside.

Now that I am here in America to see what she has done with her life, I think she made the right decision.

~~OM~~

• Emaal e ma (What do we do)
• Aashnaee ba Swamiji (Meet Swamiji)

~~OM~~

******

With the blessings of our Gurus, we continued to make japa of the Sharanagata Mantra in 2008 and have offered more than 350,000 mantras. Thank You! The Japa totals as of March 31st 2008 are as follows:

~~OM~~

We asked Sushil dada to share with us more stories of his time with our beloved Swamiji. “You will not believe this”, Sushil dada said. “I don’t believe it myself. But I was there.”
“Yes, yes, what? What?” We ask breathlessly.
“Is Kolkata hot? The roads?” Sushil dada asked us.
“Yes, of course, most of the time.” We answered quickly.
“Swamiji used to walk there barefoot. All the time. How did He do this? I saw it. But I still can’t believe it.” Sushil dada said.
We asked: “What about you?”
Sushil dada said, “Oh, I had shoes. How could I walk in that heat without them? But not Swamiji. He was walking and walking. So many places, He always went walking. Without shoes.” He looked at Swamiji and said, “Is that not so?”
Swamiji was smiling and we asked Him, “Why did you do that, Swamiji?”
Swamiji answered; “Oh! It was a bother! Either the shoes got stolen or they broke. It was better without them. I didn’t have to worry about them.”
“Unbelievable!” Sushil dada voiced all our thoughts!

~~OM~~

We were sitting with Swamiji and Sushil dada. Sushil dada (Sushil Chowdhury) is the author of Sahib Sadhu and he spent most of his teenage years with Swamiji, in his own village Bakreswar where Swamiji did intense tapasya and travelling with Swamiji.

Sushil dada is an expert in Sanskrit and speaks English with the cutest Bengali accent and was joyfully telling us stories about Swamiji. He said that Swamiji would be locked in a little temple in Bakreswar and be chanting and doing puja continuously from dawn to dusk. Nobody could enter the temple as the door was locked from outside and Swamiji had the key inside. When Swamiji finished His practices he used to throw the key outside and they would open the door. Swamiji would have his only meal for the day – a humble fare of daal and rotis. In the evenings, Swamiji would share His knowledge with all those present.
Rolling his eyes in a sweet manner, Sushil dada asked us, “Do you know who was present then?”
“No Dada, please tell us.” Eagerly we asked.
“Farmers, Pachu and me.”
Swamiji laughed, “That was the satsang, a young Brahmin boy, Sushil, Pachu who worked in cremation grounds and some farmers and me.”
“Swamiji was a farmer with the farmers.” Sushil dada exclaimed. “They wore dhothis till their knees and Swamiji too. He spoke to them in a village dialect so they would understand. With them He was like them. They love Him.”

Today, we see Swamiji working with routers and computers and His classes are webcast to over 70 countries. Viewers across the United States watch His classes on community TV. He is as much at home with us in the western world as He is with the farmers in rural Bengal. He is able to talk to us in a way we understand. We love Him for all He is doing for our universe.

~~OM~~

One couple told Shree Maa that even though they loved each other very dearly, they sometimes had arguments and fights. Shree Maa looked at the husband and said, “You are so simple. Why do you let duality enter and cause trouble? Don’t give room for duality. Always think, “I belong to God, God belongs to me.” When any other thought comes, remember this.”

~~OM~~

A young devotee was sitting at Shree Maa’s feet and confessed to Mother, “Mother, I get angry with my wife. What to do? When I am coming home from work, I think, “Oh, how sweet and patient is my wife. I should not get angry with her.” But somehow, when I get home I just lose it.” What to do Maa?” Maa smiled and said, “Don’t get angry. Talk to me. Think of me. I am ever with you. Just talk to me and don’t let anger manifest.” The young man smiled and we all felt blessed that our Mother is ever with us!

~~OM~~

Many of Maa’s devotees came to have Her darshan even if for just a few hours from different places in India. One such devotee is Mr. Mitra, an extremely successful lawyer in the Kolkata High court. Mr. Mitra recounted how he met Maa many decades ago when he was a young man. He said he was not at all interested in meeting any saint and even today he said, “I don’t know about God. I know Maa. She is my everything.”

As a young man in college, he went to escort a family member who wanted to have Shree Maa’s darshan but when he saw Maa he was spell bound. In his own words, he said “I became crazy. Wherever Maa went, I tried to go there – by hook or crook. I waited outside the house, in a park, anywhere and anyhow I tried to have Maa’s darshan.”

At that time, he was studying for his M Com (Master of Commerce) exams. He went to see Shree Maa and took with him a packet of incense sticks and other offerings as is customary in India. In the house where Maa was staying, were many devotees waiting for Maa to open Her eyes from deep meditation to do arati. There was a big pile of incense boxes before Maa which had been brought by the many devotees. Maa opened Her eyes and got up to do arati. From the big pile, She picked the “Vaishak” brand that Mr. Mitra had offered and took out one incense stick. She used that for arati. She handed the rest of the packet to Mr. Mitra.
There was a month left for his M Com exam and each day Mr. Mitra took out one incense stick and broke it into a little piece and lit it to guide his studies. Needless to say, Mr. Mitra did very well in his exams and later following Shree Maa’s advice he went to law school and has since been practicing law with “truth”. As Mr. Mitra recounted this story, he smiled and handed a packet of the Vaishak incense and said, “Please light one tonight at arati time.”

~~OM~~

One of Shree Maa’s young cousins was reminiscing about her childhood days with Shree Maa. She said that she loved Shree Maa very much as a child but she was very young when Maa left their family house. “She was a mystery to all of us!” Maa’s cousin exclaimed.
In response, I heard myself saying, “We stay with Her everyday now and see Her night and day and yet She is a mystery to us also.”

Next day, all of Maa’s relatives had left and the house we were staying in was quiet. As usual, Shree Maa awoke before dawn and conducted Her Nitya Karma (everyday worship). After worship, She blessed us with tilaks. Everybody was remembering the beautiful days we had spent with Shree Maa’s family and other guests. We recounted this conversation with the young cousin. Shree Maa smiled endearingly and said, “God is a mystery.”

~~OM~~

Trilochan was six years old when I was leaving India. I was carrying a small Casio keyboard around with me, in order to accompany Shree Maa in small events and sat sangh. I turned to him before I left and said, "You take this and learn how to play."

His Dad, Sheojee Tiwari, asked, "What will he do with this? He is too young and won't know how to play."

Shree Maa blessed him, "He will learn. If Swamiji gave it, let him keep it."

Trilochan has grown up now, and recording in Bhojpuri language under his family given name of Vinay Tiwari. The following is the first song from his new album published and distributed by T-Series, the number one music company in India.

Listen here

Trilochan often traveled with us on pilgrimage to visit temples. He always joined us in kirtan.

Now recording under his given name, Vinay Tiwari, T-Series, India's Number One Music Company, is distributing his music world wide.