[We were talking about Pankaj da i.e Pankaj Mondal, a devotee of Banagram Ashram from Karimpur.]
Anyway, Pankajbabu met then Guru Maharaj and became impressed at his first meeting. After then he began to come Ashram off and on. Later, he took initiation and became a disciple of Swami Paramananda.
When I was first introduced to him, I noticed that he often said, “I am only two years old now !” i.e Pankaj da thought the time-period from the day he was initiated to the then very conversation time to be his new life. Pankaja da was definitely a devotee without a doubt ! He could speak so eloquently about Guru Maharaj, about N’Kaka, about other maharajs, or the glory of these noble men that he had the power to keep 20/30 people silent by his skill. I had heard from Trishan Maharaj that “Pankaj da is like an opener batsman, he is good at hitting fours and sixes in the beginning but there is no guarantee whether he will last long in the crease !”
This was true overall, because we had seen that the beginning and early development of Karimpur Ashram was happened in his own hands. The initial development of Bolpur (Adityapur) Ashram started also in his hands. Later, this devotee also set up the Ashram of Shiliguri (Bidhannagar). But he could not last long in any of these institutions permanently.
When I had a conversation with Pankaj da for 1st time, it was not that his words did not attract me! He spoke so eloquently about Guru Maharaj that I could not help but be amazed. But it was difficult to converse with him for a long time. As soon as he started to speak about Guruji, everytime he began to talk his own words and he used to tell that he himself was born as a companion of God in his every birth. He also said where his real home was in Saptarshilok (the abode of famous seven monks in the space) ! If you could tolerate to hear all these, that was well,
otherwise you were obliged to get up.
But when we went to his room (when he stayed at Banagram) we used to get tea, some kind of biscuits and even cashew nuts and raisins. But hearing the same cassette(same words) after eating those delicious food, you were surely bored. But as you were a gentleman you were obliged to hear all those !!!!!
At my early days at Banagram I saw that Pankaj da was very much respected in Banagram Ashram. Because Pankaj da was the only supplier of the useful goods of the maharajs and brahmacharis from any outsider then.
Someone needed towel, someone needed bed sheet, someone needed genji – he made a list of all these items and used to bring them as soon as he got salary at the first week of every month. Once Pankaj da bought shoes made by cutting tyres and gave most of the maharajs in the Ashram as he got all these in cheap price.
Besides this, I saw that as soon as Pankaj da got salary of every month he came to the Ashram and that day menu in the ashram was ‘alu- posto’ (alu i.e potato and posto i.e poppy – it is one of the favourite bengali dishes). Pankajda used to bring ‘posto’ (poppy).
And the day of his bringing poppy was the ‘day of joy’ for the inhabitants of the Ashram because maximum time they ate only one curry, dal(pulse) and rice ___ and curry meant “mixture of cooked pumpkin and potatoes” !!
I first heard from Pankaj da that “Guru Maharaj is Thakur Sri Ramkrishna himself”. He also said that who among the monks and celibates __were the companions of Lord Krishna, Sri Chaitanya or Sri Ramkrishna and he also narrated what roles they were doing this time!
Guruji, however, always opposed to these all. He used to say _ “Respect the past, learn from it. But don’t ignore the present, give priority to the present and admire it. ”
[Translated by Rajarsi Basak, a student of class Ten and corrected by Ramprasad, a former student of Banagram Ashram.]
Anyway, Pankajbabu met then Guru Maharaj and became impressed at his first meeting. After then he began to come Ashram off and on. Later, he took initiation and became a disciple of Swami Paramananda.
When I was first introduced to him, I noticed that he often said, “I am only two years old now !” i.e Pankaj da thought the time-period from the day he was initiated to the then very conversation time to be his new life. Pankaja da was definitely a devotee without a doubt ! He could speak so eloquently about Guru Maharaj, about N’Kaka, about other maharajs, or the glory of these noble men that he had the power to keep 20/30 people silent by his skill. I had heard from Trishan Maharaj that “Pankaj da is like an opener batsman, he is good at hitting fours and sixes in the beginning but there is no guarantee whether he will last long in the crease !”
This was true overall, because we had seen that the beginning and early development of Karimpur Ashram was happened in his own hands. The initial development of Bolpur (Adityapur) Ashram started also in his hands. Later, this devotee also set up the Ashram of Shiliguri (Bidhannagar). But he could not last long in any of these institutions permanently.
When I had a conversation with Pankaj da for 1st time, it was not that his words did not attract me! He spoke so eloquently about Guru Maharaj that I could not help but be amazed. But it was difficult to converse with him for a long time. As soon as he started to speak about Guruji, everytime he began to talk his own words and he used to tell that he himself was born as a companion of God in his every birth. He also said where his real home was in Saptarshilok (the abode of famous seven monks in the space) ! If you could tolerate to hear all these, that was well,
otherwise you were obliged to get up.
But when we went to his room (when he stayed at Banagram) we used to get tea, some kind of biscuits and even cashew nuts and raisins. But hearing the same cassette(same words) after eating those delicious food, you were surely bored. But as you were a gentleman you were obliged to hear all those !!!!!
At my early days at Banagram I saw that Pankaj da was very much respected in Banagram Ashram. Because Pankaj da was the only supplier of the useful goods of the maharajs and brahmacharis from any outsider then.
Someone needed towel, someone needed bed sheet, someone needed genji – he made a list of all these items and used to bring them as soon as he got salary at the first week of every month. Once Pankaj da bought shoes made by cutting tyres and gave most of the maharajs in the Ashram as he got all these in cheap price.
Besides this, I saw that as soon as Pankaj da got salary of every month he came to the Ashram and that day menu in the ashram was ‘alu- posto’ (alu i.e potato and posto i.e poppy – it is one of the favourite bengali dishes). Pankajda used to bring ‘posto’ (poppy).
And the day of his bringing poppy was the ‘day of joy’ for the inhabitants of the Ashram because maximum time they ate only one curry, dal(pulse) and rice ___ and curry meant “mixture of cooked pumpkin and potatoes” !!
I first heard from Pankaj da that “Guru Maharaj is Thakur Sri Ramkrishna himself”. He also said that who among the monks and celibates __were the companions of Lord Krishna, Sri Chaitanya or Sri Ramkrishna and he also narrated what roles they were doing this time!
Guruji, however, always opposed to these all. He used to say _ “Respect the past, learn from it. But don’t ignore the present, give priority to the present and admire it. ”
[Translated by Rajarsi Basak, a student of class Ten and corrected by Ramprasad, a former student of Banagram Ashram.]