Legacy YM

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"Little sir, please be seated. I am talking to my Divine Mother."

Silently I had entered the room in great awe. The angelic appearance of Master Mahasaya fairly dazzled
me. With silky white beard and large lustrous eyes, he seemed an incarnation of purity. His upraised
chin and folded hands apprized me that my first visit had disturbed him in the midst of his devotions.

His simple words of greeting produced the most violent effect my nature had so far experienced. The
bitter separation of my mother's death I had thought the measure of all anguish. Now an agony at
separation from my Divine Mother was an indescribable torture of the spirit. I fell moaning to the
floor.

"Little sir, quiet yourself!" The saint was sympathetically distressed.

Abandoned in some oceanic desolation, I clutched his feet as the sole raft of my rescue.

"Holy sir, thy intercession! Ask Divine Mother if I find any favor in Her sight!"

This promise is one not easily bestowed; the master was constrained to silence.

Beyond reach of doubt, I was convinced that Master Mahasaya was in intimate converse with the Universal
Mother. It was deep humiliation to realize that my eyes were blind to Her who even at this moment was
perceptible to the faultless gaze of the saint. Shamelessly gripping his feet, deaf to his gentle
remonstrances, I besought him again and again for his intervening grace.

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"I will make your plea to the Beloved." The master's capitulation came with a slow, compassionate
smile.

What power in those few words, that my being should know release from its stormy exile?

"Sir, remember your pledge! I shall return soon for Her message!" Joyful anticipation rang in my voice
that only a moment ago had been sobbing in sorrow.

Descending the long stairway, I was overwhelmed by memories. This house at 50 Amherst Street, now the
residence of Master Mahasaya, had once been my family home, scene of my mother's death. Here my human
heart had broken for the vanished mother; and here today my spirit had been as though crucified by
absence of the Divine Mother. Hallowed walls, silent witness of my grievous hurts and final healing!

My steps were eager as I returned to my Gurpar Road home. Seeking the seclusion of my small attic, I
remained in meditation until ten o'clock. The darkness of the warm Indian night was suddenly lit with a
wondrous vision.

Haloed in splendor, the Divine Mother stood before me. Her face, tenderly smiling, was beauty itself.

"Always have I loved thee! Ever shall I love thee!"

The celestial tones still ringing in the air, She disappeared.

The sun on the following morning had hardly risen to an angle of decorum when I paid my second visit to
Master Mahasaya. Climbing the staircase in the house of poignant memories, I reached his fourth-floor
room. The knob of the closed door was wrapped around with a cloth; a hint, I felt, that the saint
desired privacy. As I stood irresolutely on the landing, the door was opened by the master's welcoming
hand. I knelt at his holy feet. In a playful mood, I wore a solemn mask over my face, hiding the divine
elation.

"Sir, I have come very early, I confess!for your message. Did the Beloved Mother say anything about me?"

"Mischievous little sir!"

Not another remark would he make. Apparently my assumed gravity was unimpressive.

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"Why so mysterious, so evasive? Do saints never speak plainly?" Perhaps I was a little provoked.

"Must you test me?" His calm eyes were full of understanding. "Could I add a single word this morning
to the assurance you received last night at ten o'clock from the Beautiful Mother Herself?

Master Mahasaya possessed control over the flood-gates of my soul: again I plunged prostrate at his
feet. But this time my tears welled from a bliss, and not a pain, past bearing.

"Think you that your devotion did not touch the Infinite Mercy? The Motherhood of God, that you have
worshiped in forms both human and divine, could never fail to answer your forsaken cry."

Who was this simple saint, whose least request to the Universal Spirit met with sweet
acquiescence? His role in the world was humble, as befitted the greatest man of humility I ever knew.
In this Amherst Street house, Master Mahasaya 1 conducted a small
high school for boys. No words of chastisement passed his lips; no rule and ferule maintained his
discipline. Higher mathematics indeed were taught in these modest classrooms, and a chemistry of love
absent from the textbooks. He spread his wisdom by spiritual contagion rather than impermeable precept.
Consumed by an unsophisticated passion for the Divine Mother, the saint no more demanded the outward
forms of respect than a child.

"I am not your guru; he shall come a little later," he told me. "Through his guidance, your experiences
of the Divine in terms of love and devotion shall be translated into his terms of fathomless wisdom."

Every late afternoon, I betook myself to Amherst Street. I sought Master Mahasaya's divine cup, so full
that its drops daily overflowed on my being. Never before had I bowed in utter reverence; now I felt it
an immeasurable privilege even to tread the same ground which Master Mahasaya sanctified.

"Sir, please wear this champak garland I have fashioned especially for you." I arrived one evening,
holding my chain of flowers. But shyly he drew away, repeatedly refusing the honor. Perceiving my hurt,
he finally smiled consent.

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"Since we are both devotees of the Mother, you may put the garland on this bodily temple, as offering
to Her who dwells within." His vast nature lacked space in which any egotistical consideration could
gain foothold.

"Let us go tomorrow to the Dakshineswar Temple, forever hallowed by my guru." Master Mahasaya was a
disciple of a Christlike master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

The four-mile journey on the following morning was taken by boat on the Ganges. We entered the
nine-domed Temple of Kali, where the figures of the Divine Mother and Shiva rest on a burnished silver
lotus, its thousand petals meticulously chiseled. Master Mahasaya beamed in enchantment. He was engaged
in his inexhaustible romance with the Beloved. As he chanted Her name, my enraptured heart seemed
shattered into a thousand pieces.

We strolled later through the sacred precincts, halting in a tamarisk grove. The manna
characteristically exuded by this tree was symbolic of the heavenly food Master Mahasaya was bestowing.
His divine invocations continued. I sat rigidly motionless on the grass amid the pink feathery tamarisk
flowers. Temporarily absent from the body, I soared in a supernal visit.

This was the first of many pilgrimages to Dakshineswar with the holy teacher. From him I learned the
sweetness of God in the aspect of Mother, or Divine Mercy. The childlike saint found little appeal in
the Father aspect, or Divine Justice. Stern, exacting, mathematical judgment was alien to his gentle
nature.

"He can serve as an earthly prototype for the very angels of heaven!" I thought fondly, watching him
one day at his prayers. Without a breath of censure or criticism, he surveyed the world with eyes long
familiar with the Primal Purity. His body, mind, speech, and actions were effortlessly harmonized with
his soul's simplicity.

"My Master told me so." Shrinking from personal assertion, the saint ended any sage counsel with this
invariable tribute. So deep was his identity with Sri Ramakrishna that Master Mahasaya no longer
considered his thoughts as his own.

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Hand in hand, the saint and I walked one evening on the block of his school. My joy was dimmed by the
arrival of a conceited acquaintance who burdened us with a lengthy discourse.

"I see this man doesn't please you." The saint's whisper to me was unheard by the egotist, spellbound
by his own monologue. "I have spoken to Divine Mother about it; She realizes our sad predicament. As
soon as we get to yonder red house, She has promised to remind him of more urgent business."

My eyes were glued to the site of salvation. Reaching its red gate, the man unaccountably turned and
departed, neither finishing his sentence nor saying good-by. The assaulted air was comforted with
peace.

Another day found me walking alone near the Howrah railway station. I stood for a moment by a temple,
silently criticizing a small group of men with drum and cymbals who were violently reciting a chant.

"How undevotionally they use the Lord's divine name in mechanical repetition," I reflected. My gaze was
astonished by the rapid approach of Master Mahasaya. "Sir, how come you here?"

The saint, ignoring my question, answered my thought. "Isn't it true, little sir, that the Beloved's
name sounds sweet from all lips, ignorant or wise?" He passed his arm around me affectionately; I found
myself carried on his magic carpet to the Merciful Presence.

"Would you like to see some bioscopes?" This question one afternoon from Master Mahasaya was
mystifying; the term was then used in India to signify motion pictures. I agreed, glad to be in his
company in any circumstances. A brisk walk brought us to the garden fronting Calcutta University. My
companion indicated a bench near the goldighi or pond.

"Let us sit here for a few minutes. My Master always asked me to meditate whenever I saw an expanse of
water. Here its placidity reminds us of the vast calmness of God. As all things can be reflected in
water, so the whole universe is mirrored in the lake of the Cosmic Mind. So my gurudeva often
said."

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Soon we entered a university hall where a lecture was in progress. It proved abysmally dull, though
varied occasionally by lantern slide illustrations, equally uninteresting.

"So this is the kind of bioscope the master wanted me to see!" My thought was impatient, yet I would
not hurt the saint by revealing boredom in my face. But he leaned toward me confidentially.

"I see, little sir, that you don't like this bioscope. I have mentioned it to Divine Mother; She is in
full sympathy with us both. She tells me that the electric lights will now go out, and won't be relit
until we have a chance to leave the room."

As his whisper ended, the hall was plunged into darkness. The professor's strident voice was stilled in
astonishment, then remarked, "The electrical system of this hall appears to be
defective." By this time, Master Mahasaya and I were safely across the threshold. Glancing back from
the corridor, I saw that the scene of our martyrdom had again become illuminated.

"Little sir, you were disappointed in that bioscope,2 but I think
you will like a different one." The saint and I were standing on the sidewalk in front of the
university building. He gently slapped my chest over the heart.

A transforming silence ensued. Just as the modern "talkies" become inaudible motion pictures when the
sound apparatus goes out of order, so the Divine Hand, by some strange miracle, stifled the earthly
bustle. The pedestrians as well as the passing trolley cars, automobiles, bullock carts, and
iron-wheeled hackney carriages were all in noiseless transit. As though possessing an omnipresent eye,
I beheld the scenes which were behind me, and to each side, as easily as those in front. The whole
spectacle of activity in that small section of Calcutta passed before me without a sound. Like a glow
of fire dimly seen beneath a thin coat of ashes, a mellow luminescence permeated the panoramic view.

My own body seemed nothing more than one of the many shadows, though it was motionless, while the
others flitted mutely to and fro. Several boys, friends of mine, approached and passed on; though they
had looked directly at me, it was without recognition.

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The unique pantomime brought me an inexpressible ecstasy. I drank deep from some blissful fount.
Suddenly my chest received another soft blow from Master Mahasaya. The pandemonium of the world burst
upon my unwilling ears. I staggered, as though harshly awakened from a gossamer dream. The
transcendental wine removed beyond my reach.

"Little sir, I see you found the second bioscope to your liking." The saint was smiling; I started to
drop in gratitude on the ground before him. "You can't do that to me now; you know God is in your
temple also! I won't let Divine Mother touch my feet through your hands!"

If anyone observed the unpretentious master and myself as we walked away from the crowded pavement, the
onlooker surely suspected us of intoxication. I felt that the falling shades of evening were
sympathetically drunk with God. When darkness recovered from its nightly swoon, I faced the new morning
bereft of my ecstatic mood. But ever enshrined in memory is the seraphic son of Divine MotherMaster
Mahasaya!

Trying with poor words to do justice to his benignity, I wonder if Master Mahasaya, and others among
the deep-visioned saints whose paths crossed mine, knew that years later, in a Western land, I would be
writing about their lives as divine devotees. Their foreknowledge would not surprise me nor, I hope, my
readers, who have come thus far with me.