Anandamayee Ma’s love

Together with a tributary of the Ganga flowing nearby and small temples scattered around, this ideal pilgrimage atmosphere attracted thousands of the Mother’s devotees from all over India.

All idle gossip evaporated and ‘Jai Ma’, a popular greeting among Ma’s disciples, substituted automatically. The main centenary puja, coinciding with the Mother’s birthday, began at midnight and continued till 6 am.

When we arrived at the Kankhal Ashram by noon and inquired whether there was accommodation for our three-day stay, a senior organiser’s remark from across the table surprised us: “You must take your lunch first, if you have not not eaten already.” A delightful lunch completed, we were recommended to another spacious ashram very close by. This solicitude was most touching and typical of Anandamayee Ma’s influence.

As a routine, meals at noon and late evening and morning snacks were served to anybody present at the ashram. The Holy Mother’s utterance once that “Nobody should leave my ashram unfed” — even though she herself accepted food only in pinches most of her years — was meticulously observed. Also, the age-old system that meals to disciples and devotees be served on plantain leaves on the floor and water in small earthen pots, was followed likewise.

Once, staying only overnight at her Delhi ashram, the Mother wished fifty-odd sadhus to be fed, who had come for her darshan. The food supplies were inadequate. Her disciples panicked. But she insisted on the preliminary preparations. Almost at once, a rich local businessman arrived with enough pulses, rice, vegetables and spices to be offered to the Mother. The all-gracious Anandamayee smiled and said, “Well, it has come.”