[In the last episode, we were discussing about the letters written by Guru Maharaj to His devotees or vice versa.]
I’m moving away from the old topic again ! I came back from the Ashram for the first time on 11th ‘Poush’ ( a month in a bengali calender ) or 27th December. And I went on 9th Poush or 25th December,1983. One thing which I was very surprised about was the fact that most of the years, the 25th of December is in 9th Poush.
The day of our next visit to the Ashram was scheduled at ‘Falgun Sankranti’ (the last day of the Bengali month ‘Falgun’). ‘We’ i.e Chinu and me, used to go to Ashram_almost interval of 2.5-3 months ! In the meanwhile the commute to Chinu’s house increased and I used to hear__many things about ‘old Banagram Ashram’ from Chinu’s grandmother. “One day, Trishan’s legs got stuck in his pajamas and he fell, while crossing the drain, (Then there was a big drain to go to Guru Maharaj’s cottage from the road, later it was bridged by bamboo decks for going to Guru Maharaj’s cottage.) Guru Maharaj left the sitting and came to catch Trishan in one jump “- Grandma used to tell these stories very often. One day she said – “You know– Sridhar, Guruji told me one day – ‘Mother ! You suffer from various physical problems – you need to eat fish a little bit ! Can’t you eat a little bit of ‘Chara pona fish'( kind of small fish)’? — I was ashamed to hear that, — ‘Baba, what do you say !! I am a widow of Brahmin family, and so old too, then how can I eat fish ? I can’t do that, Baba ! I don’t care whatever happens to my body for that !’. Guruji loves us so much, cares us so much ! I, a lonely woman, live alone with two children (her grandchildren), so Baba (Guruji) cares for us. That’s why he sometimes sends Trishan to get our news. ”
But I moved from Shibpur(Howrah) to Tribeni(Hoogly) in 1985/86. As a result, communication with them became somewhat disconnected. But after then I did not see Chinu or Tukudi or Grandma coming to Banagram Ashram much ! Grandma must have died; and I got the news that Tukudi has reconciled with her husband and I met Tukudi, as she once came to Banagram Ashram from Ranchi with her husband and child.
However, after getting acquainted with the devotee family, my touch with Swami Paramananda was not lost after returning from the Ashram for the first time. And there was Swami Purnananda Maharaj, he would come to Shibpur whenever he had time, and he would also stay for two or three days. Another one used to come to elder brother (Ganga Babu) at that time – Naba Da, Swami Asimananda. (This was that very Asimananda, about which there was a lot of writing in the newspapers few years ago). I had a good match with him. I heard that he scored very good marks in M.sc at that time.
Naba da was very lnterested towards me when he heard that I was a science student. The reason of his interest towards me was that – even though I knew that Guru Maharaj was uneducated, then why I accepted everything of His teachings – why didn’t I protest ? Saying this, he would point out one or two topics told by Guruji !! Then he wanted to know what was my opinion or explanation on that. I will tell many stories of Naba da (Swami Asimananda) sometime. Once he stayed in our village house for 5/6 consecutive days – at that time I heard all the strange stories of his life. If I begin to say those, the rhythm of what is going on will be cut off. So it is better to go back to the previous context again.
[Translated by Rajarsi Basak, a student of class Ten of Dhatrigram and corrected by Ramprasad, a former student of Banagram Ashram.]
I’m moving away from the old topic again ! I came back from the Ashram for the first time on 11th ‘Poush’ ( a month in a bengali calender ) or 27th December. And I went on 9th Poush or 25th December,1983. One thing which I was very surprised about was the fact that most of the years, the 25th of December is in 9th Poush.
The day of our next visit to the Ashram was scheduled at ‘Falgun Sankranti’ (the last day of the Bengali month ‘Falgun’). ‘We’ i.e Chinu and me, used to go to Ashram_almost interval of 2.5-3 months ! In the meanwhile the commute to Chinu’s house increased and I used to hear__many things about ‘old Banagram Ashram’ from Chinu’s grandmother. “One day, Trishan’s legs got stuck in his pajamas and he fell, while crossing the drain, (Then there was a big drain to go to Guru Maharaj’s cottage from the road, later it was bridged by bamboo decks for going to Guru Maharaj’s cottage.) Guru Maharaj left the sitting and came to catch Trishan in one jump “- Grandma used to tell these stories very often. One day she said – “You know– Sridhar, Guruji told me one day – ‘Mother ! You suffer from various physical problems – you need to eat fish a little bit ! Can’t you eat a little bit of ‘Chara pona fish'( kind of small fish)’? — I was ashamed to hear that, — ‘Baba, what do you say !! I am a widow of Brahmin family, and so old too, then how can I eat fish ? I can’t do that, Baba ! I don’t care whatever happens to my body for that !’. Guruji loves us so much, cares us so much ! I, a lonely woman, live alone with two children (her grandchildren), so Baba (Guruji) cares for us. That’s why he sometimes sends Trishan to get our news. ”
But I moved from Shibpur(Howrah) to Tribeni(Hoogly) in 1985/86. As a result, communication with them became somewhat disconnected. But after then I did not see Chinu or Tukudi or Grandma coming to Banagram Ashram much ! Grandma must have died; and I got the news that Tukudi has reconciled with her husband and I met Tukudi, as she once came to Banagram Ashram from Ranchi with her husband and child.
However, after getting acquainted with the devotee family, my touch with Swami Paramananda was not lost after returning from the Ashram for the first time. And there was Swami Purnananda Maharaj, he would come to Shibpur whenever he had time, and he would also stay for two or three days. Another one used to come to elder brother (Ganga Babu) at that time – Naba Da, Swami Asimananda. (This was that very Asimananda, about which there was a lot of writing in the newspapers few years ago). I had a good match with him. I heard that he scored very good marks in M.sc at that time.
Naba da was very lnterested towards me when he heard that I was a science student. The reason of his interest towards me was that – even though I knew that Guru Maharaj was uneducated, then why I accepted everything of His teachings – why didn’t I protest ? Saying this, he would point out one or two topics told by Guruji !! Then he wanted to know what was my opinion or explanation on that. I will tell many stories of Naba da (Swami Asimananda) sometime. Once he stayed in our village house for 5/6 consecutive days – at that time I heard all the strange stories of his life. If I begin to say those, the rhythm of what is going on will be cut off. So it is better to go back to the previous context again.
[Translated by Rajarsi Basak, a student of class Ten of Dhatrigram and corrected by Ramprasad, a former student of Banagram Ashram.]