Maa Anandamayi : the Bliss-Filled Divine Mother

 

On April 30, 1896, in the village of Kheora, Tipperah District (now Brahmanbaria District), in modern-day Bangladesh, Anandamayi was born as Nirmala Sundari Devi to the traditional Vaishnavite Brahmin couple Bipinbihari Bhattacharya and Mokshada Sundari Devi. Her father was a Vaishnav vocalist, well-known for his unwavering dedication, and he was originally from Vidyakut in Tripura. Despite the family's poverty, both parents came from respected families. Nirmala Sundari claims that her mother had three sons, all of them passed away at a young age. For about two to four months, Nirmala attended the rural schools in Sultanpur and Kheora. 

Her brothers' deaths meant that no one could join her on the arduous commute to school, which is why she attended classes so little. Her mother was concerned about her daughter's mental growth due to her daughter's persistently cheerful and indifferent attitude, even if her teachers were happy with her abilities. When her mother was once very sick, family members also spoke incredulously on how the child seemed to be untouched.

These recollections belonged to their past selves. As a child, she would always glance up at the sky, even when she was feeding her mother. Due to her innate lack of emotion during her early years, people began referring to her as "Dhela" or "Vidisha." It denotes anything crazy or insane. Their feeling of self was absent.

 At the age of twelve years, ten months, in accordance with the custom of the rural community at the time,she got married with Ramani Mohan Chakrabarti of Bikrampur now Munshiganj District in 1908. She would subsequently rename him Bholanath. After her marriage, she lived with her brother-in-law for five years, doing chores while spending much of her time in a reclusive, contemplative condition. Harakumar, a devoted neighbor, first saw Ashtagram's spiritual prominence there. He went on to call her "Ma" and would often bow down to her in the morning and evening.

 

Braj, not many people come to visit Braj and Vrindavan every day, some even come here with the hope of settling here. Many people live here and engage in sadhana by renouncing material comforts, innumerable saints have made this divine land their place of sadhana and have worked for the welfare of the people by building ashrams, monasteries, temples here. One of them is Anandamayi Maa who built a huge temple in Vrindavan and connected innumerable people with the path of religious faith and devotion. Anandamayi Ma was born on 30th April, 1886 at 3 o'clock in the night in the village named 'Seura' of the Bengal province under the Tripura district. His father's name was Pratap Narayan Srivastava and mother's name was Saraswati Devi. They were the memories of their previous lives. Even when she fed her mother as a child, she always looked up at the sky Seeing the natural indifferent nature in childhood people had started calling her 'Dhela' or 'Vidisha'. It means crazy or crazy. They had no sense of their own bodies.

 

Her mother named her Nirmala Sundari when she was young. Anandamayi Maa was later named by Swami Maunananda Maharaj, a sanyasi from Dhaka, after visiting Siddheshwari Sasan once with the famous astrologer Chandra Roy. In his childhood, he had received little education in a village school in the presence of his grandfather because education at that time was limited to the limits of the country. Yet, being endowed with acute talent and prodigious memory, you were not so much aware of education as you are now. As per the custom of that time at the age of 13 years in the year 1909 you were married to 'Ramani Mohan Chakraborty' of Dhaka Vikrampur Atpara village. Introvert sadhana also flowed in their short marital life journey. It was because of his mother that the name of Patidev 'Ramanimohan' came to be known as' Bholanath '. 

After marriage, she left the police service. In such a situation, I had to live with my brother-in-law for 4 years. Sometimes the food is cooked. I was very happy to see such a situation. The sister-in-law was often angry when everything on the stove got burnt. But nothing works. A few years later, Patidev was again employed in the Survey Department in the Nawab 's princely state of Ashtagram. Then you came and lived there in the enclosure of Jaishankar Sen. Sen's wife had so much respect for you that she used to call you Khushi's mother. You used to get emotional while listening to Bhagwat etc. Meanwhile, at the age of 18, there were several job transfers. Seeing the intense light shining in you, many tantriks and ojhas were shown to you by your husband, but all of them used to bow down and go back. Then somewhere Patideva also came to know that this pre-acquired state of consciousness is a God-given state of greatness. Automatic initiation was completed on Shravan Jhulan Purnima 1922. And along with yogic, tantric activities, chanting of mantras etc. continued. You don't run a community. Hindus believed in all gods and goddesses and treated them equally. Meanwhile, in 1924, he again lost his job. Abki baar Nawab got the management of Dhaka. You lived here in Shahbagh with your brother-in-law Makhan and nephew Ashu. It was here that I first met your unique devotee, Gurupriya Didi. 

She remained at her mother's feet throughout her life. The memoirs' Sri Sri Ma Anandamayi 'originally published in Bengal by him till 1964 have been published in 20 volumes. His works have been translated into Hindi and other Indian languages. The outer journey of the mother started from the Kumbh Mela of Haridwar Tirtha from the year 1927. On the way back Mathura came to Vrindavan. Then there were visits to various pilgrimages like Kashi etc. You were a special worshipper of Shakti because of the Bangiya ambience. But at the same time the Gaudiya sect was loyal to Caitanya Maha ̄ prabhu. Mahatma Gandhi, Acharya J. P. Kripalani, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, Yugal Kishore Vidala, Yamunalal Bajaj, Smt. Aparna Ray, Smt. Kamala Nehru, Shri Dilip Kumar Rai, Shri Mahadev Desai, Shri Gopal Swaroop Pathak, Smt. Sucheta Kripalani, Jawaharlal Nehru and Smt. I had also paid a visit to the Vrindavan Dham Ashram once. At that time her health was failing, I visited her and then on 27 August 1982, at the age of 96, Mother left this Dham in her Kishanpura Ashram in Dehradun and left everyone forever. The miracle was that even at such an old age, not a single hair of yours remained white but black. At your ashram in Vrindavan, the service of the trickster Radhakrishna is worshipped The construction of the temple was done by Sushri Maa Anandmayi ji around 1950 AD. In the temple Thakur Chaliya Radhakrishna is worshipped. There is also a gaur nitaai on the side. The temple is built in a large courtyard. 

The reason for the deceitful name of Thakur is very strange Once Maharaja Jiyaji Rao Scindia of Gwalior got a grand statue made of Ashtadhatu made for himself. Mother was also invited to the installation ceremony, but before the ceremony, suddenly Maharaj passed away. His wife Jiaji Rao Scindia was seriously injured in the incident. On the mother 's persuasion it suddenly came to her that Chaliya wants to settle in this Vr ̣ nda ̄ vana dha ̄ ma. I spoke to my mother. My mother accepted. And in front of the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital in Vrindavan is the Ashram of the Blissful Mother. Where Ra ̄ dha ̄ ra ̄ n ̣ i ̄ -vigraha, Chaliya Thakur along with Gaura-nita ̄ i ̄ -vigraha were also established. Since then, Thakur's name has come to the fore. Once there was a Gopal temple of a Bangiya devotee zamindar in the Kashi Pakke locality. Expenditure stopped due to poverty. Bhaktaraj tried to throw Gopalji into the Ganges three times. Gopal stopped after being interrupted twice. For the third time, Thakur gave me a dream to present to my joyful mother. Finding the ashram of the mother the devotee reached. She narrated the incident to her mother. At the same time, Maa built a temple named Anand Jyoti on the banks of the Ganges in Kashipuri and installed the idol of Laddu Gopal there. There are many such incidents in my mother's life. The idol of Radhakrishna and Gaura Nitai is installed in all the ashrams like Poona Ashram, Uttarkashi and Dehradun etc. The festival of Diwali is celebrated with great pomp and joy in Vrindavan.