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| Anandamayee Ma |
(from "Living with My Himalayan Master: Sri Sri Bhajan Brahmachari")
Very close to the Cornfield Road house [where Bhajan Brahmachari lived immediately after returning from Himalayas] was a small ashram of his mother's Guru, Ma Anandamayee. In the late 1950s, Thakur frequently visited that ashram. From time to time, Ma Anandamayee came there. Large numbers of devotees and followers would come to have darshan of Ma and also to participate in satsangs and kirtans. Ma herself used to sing kirtans and Thakur would join in the singing. Thakur's mother, Ma Priyabala, was an ardent devotee of Ma Anandamayee. She was always overcomed with the sense of fulfillment when Ma would praise her son Bhajan.
On one such occasion in 1959, Ma Anandamayee called Thakur and said, "Could you go to our Ashram at Ranchi? It needs someone like you to build it and spread the glory of Lord." Thakur was looking for an opportunity to stay away from home and this call to go to Ranchi was just what he needed. So, he left Calcutta for the Ranchi Ashram of Ma Anandamayee and took charge there.
The ashram residents saw him as a devotee like themselves, never guessing that he was an enlightened Master. He safely hid his infinite spiritual powers and worked as a brahmachari sadhu most of the day. He wanted to repay his rich debt of gratitude to Ma Anadamayee, who had showered so much grace on him throughout his life and gifted him his Guru, Sri Sri Devgiri Maharaj. Accepting Ma Anandamayee's wish to go to Ranchi was Thakur's gurudakshina, an offering to his Guru, since it was at the Anandamayee Ashram in Varanasi that Thakur met his belowed Master and was initiated in the divine presence of Shakti-personified, Ma Anadamayee. Thakur stayed in the Ranchi ashram of Ma Anadamayee for almost four years. During this time, his mission was to rebuild the whole ashram, to expand and popularize it among the people of Ranchi.
Throughout the day, he worked in the ashram and in the evening he conducted Naam Gaan, (musical rendering of congregational chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord). That was his simple way of inspiring people to connect with the divine. Gradually, these evening Satsangs, with his kirtans and talks, began drawing many devotees, not only from around the ashram, but from distant places in and around the city of Ranchi. As the number of devotees grew, so did his popularity as the loving sadhu whose divine voice enchanted whoever heard it.
Thakur stayed in the Ranchi Ashram of Ma Anandamayee between December 1958 and February 1963. Ma Anandamayee gave him the responsibility of establishing the Kali Temple, installation of Mother Kali murthy and also to reorganize and popularize the ashram to inspire people to a life of a true spiritual journey.
The most important thing to note about enlightened masters is that they live life as it comes. Thakur could have remained happy only to conduct chants and bhajans and to teach people the path of devotion and mantra yoga. From early dawn, he would do every job at the ashram, cleaning and mopping the floors, at times doing the dishes, cooking for large numbers of ashram residents, and visiting devotees of Ma Anandamayee.
In my own initial days at Gurudev's ashram as a monk, he would teach me and other monks the essence of karma yoga. The key is to consider every task as an opportunity to serve God rather than thinking of any work as small or big, significant or unimportant and menial. Work is Seva, an offering of selfless service to the divine. As a tool, an instrument, work cleanses the dross of the mind, which is the primary function and goal of all spiritual practice.
Thakur gave us the example of his own life. Although he was a mukta-purusha, a liberated sage, at the ashram of Ranchi he moved about just like any other practicing monk. He never even hinted to anyone there that he was great Himalayan Master, or that any odd job was beneath him in any way.
He often said to us, "apani chari dharma opore shikhai," "first I practice and then alone I teach you all about the path of true dharma." That is the essence of teaching by a Master. His life and living itself are the teaching, from moment to moment. Those who live with him see what happens when one realizes God. Does he become something different from others? Thakur proved the only difference is while others worked from the plane of unconscious mind, the enlightened one does the same things, living like others, but his actions are all in a state of heightened awareness. His presence is alive, exuding pure love all the time, in whatever he says or does. The play of ego that is common to everyday individuals cannot be seen in a man or woman of wisdom. Thakur did every menial job that others would shun and did it with delight because, to him, no work was big or small. It was all manifesting the divine wish in material form. It was translating his mission on earth.
This is a lesson to all seekers of Truth. There is a mad rush in today's world to become a guru, a master, to immediately create a package, to trademark a technique, sell it and become an overnight hit. The race is on to develop a marketable product, a brand. This is sadly conspicuous in multi-billion-dollar spiritual industry of East and West, and in New Age spirituality.
One of the sayings of saints in India is, 'guru mile lakh lakh chela na mile ek': you get millions of gurus, but you can hardly find one disciple!
Someone once asked me why there are so many false gurus and teachers and priests in all religions? I humbly replied, "When there is a demand for anything, supply comes automatically to cater to the need. That is the way nature works. A long as there are superficial seekers looking for an instant spiritual utopia, for shortcuts and flash programs for kundalini (Awakening), false gurus will flood the marketplace!"
When there is such a huge demand from seekers of superficial happiness, how can nature keep quit? You are only hearing about the gurus and babas who are on the supply side of the equation.
Thakur embodies the Truth. He is not teaching from books or scriptures. He is living Truth and sharing it. He is not a preacher who has gone through a course on theology, like a college professor teaching a class that requires no inner transformation. Book knowledge is enough for that. Most spiritual teachers in the marketplace have bookish, limited knowledge which is sufficient for those who are content with the periphery.
The question arises about those sincere teachers of spirituality from cultures around the world that are contributing towards an awakening of consciousness. They may not be Enlightened Masters, but as long as they are sincere sadhakas (practitioners) and teachers who make every effort to be keenly aware of the play of their own ego, they do have a role in the world of spiritual transformation. When the seeker and the teacher are both committed to Truth and God, the are the torchbearers of the holy Tradition of inner transformation leading to peace at both individual and planetary level.
Those who are Enlightened Masters, however, have undergone the rigorous practice required to complete the process of transformation. They have been guided and are made to function as Gurus by the great grand Masters who have ascended.
Those who seek genuine truth are few. They always find the right teacher: one who lives the teachings, who has become walking divinity because he or she has gone through every step of inner transformation to divinize the ego.
I was incomprehensibly blessed that one such living divinity reached out to me and lifted me out of the dust. Breathing the life of Truth and God love, he made it possible from me to leave my job and the world behind, and finally to enter his ashram as a monk.
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