Memorable Contacts with The Mother

X: THE MOTHER’S MAGNANIMITY

A young man came to me with a letter of introduction from a friend in Calcutta. Our friendship went back to Scotland days but we had hardly met since our arrival in India. This man had gathered all particulars about me from that friend, and, adding that he too was a doctor, said he would like to stay here. He also said he knew Dr. Sanyal. From other details it appeared that he was well- connected in Calcutta. Quite impressed, I arranged for him a room in Golconde. I informed the Mother about him and even consulted him in a medical case. Some days passed; he was gaily moving about and telling many tall stories to the young people.

One evening, when he was at the Playground gate, Dr. Sanyal also happened to be there. The Mother was in her Playground room. The boys caught hold of Sanyal and introduced him to this man. Sanyal could not identify him at all nor could he trace the connections he had mentioned before. There was great excitement at the gate. It was proved finally that he was a bogus fellow and had played a big hoax on us all. Finding that the game was up, he was crest-fallen, and admitted that he belonged to a political party, was involved in a murder case for which the Government had issued a warrant against him and announced a sumptuous reward for his capture. Now an absconder, he had sought asylum in the Ashram.

I was called at once to the scene and we took him before the Mother. She heard the tale very gravely and said to me

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at the end, "Since he has taken refuge in me, I can’t hand him over to the Police. But he must leave the Ashram this very night; otherwise I will call the Police. Go with him to the station and see that he leaves." We went to Golconde. While packing his things, he showed me a revolver he was carrying with him. I took him to the station, calmed his fears that we would expose him, but rebuked him for playing this dirty trick on us. I put him on the train and sent him off! I felt ashamed at the same time that I could be so easily duped.

The incident passed like a shock through the Playground but because of the Mother’s Presence it could not disturb the routine activities. She went on with her work as usual as if nothing had happened. Some of us were moved to tears by her divine magnanimity and her words echoed and re-echoed in my heart, "He has taken refuge in me!"

Now I shall relate the story of how the Mother too once appeared to have been "duped" - at least so we thought, till we knew the truth — by an unknown young man. We noticed this man coming one day to the Mother and doing pranam to her with great devotion. He knelt down, clasped her around her knees and looked up at her like a child in utter self-abandonment. The Mother too looked at him with a smile full of love and compassion. The scene reminded me of some Renaissance painting of the Madonna and the child. We wondered who this lucky fellow was, how he came to the Mother. The Pranam- scene was repeated for two or three days, I believe. He paraded himself as an officer in the Indian Air Force and naturally became very popular with our youngsters. Some days after he left we heard the shocking news that he had

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impersonated an I. A. F. officer and had been discovered and arrested as a Pakistani spy. The report went up to her and when she was asked how she could have been so misled about him as to accord him special favour she calmly explained, "The very first time he met and did pranām to me, his soul jumped out weeping and prayed to be saved. That is why I was kind to him." This story called "Weeping Soul" has appeared in Madhav Pandit’s book, Sidelights on the Mother.

The next story of a minor deception went in this way. It took place a few years after the first incident. A youngster of about 20 saw me and proposed to stay in the Ashram. He said that he hailed from my village and gave me details about his family members whom I had known very well. I spoke to the Mother about him. He was given some work. After a few weeks, a complaint went to the Mother that he had been caught preaching communistic ideas to the workers, while he himself was doing very little work. It was suggested that he should leave the Ashram. I took him before the Mother at the Playground. It was evening. Plenty of boys and girls flocked around. Far from rebuking him, she looked at him in silence for about half a minute with a kind and sweet smile. I did not know what to make of her enigmatic smile. The boy had to leave. Years later, he sent me a silk chaddar for my personal use.

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