Living in The Presence

A wish fulfilled

When Ma and I came away from Calcutta to the Ashram, we were able to bring with us only a few pieces of our jewelry, which we offered to the Mother. Since we had left the house against Father's wishes, we were not able to take any money with us. The Mother too had never brought up this topic. However, I had a secret desire which was to offer some money

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    Many, many years later, a gentleman named Robi Bhaduri opened a shop called Auro Jewellers close to the Playground that sold sarees, kurtas and bed-linen etc. brought from Bengal. I got to know Robi-da because of our common interest in music. He was very fond of me and invited me from time to time to see the new arrivals in his shop. I was attracted to these different kinds of sarees from Bengal and although I could not afford to buy them, I still would enjoy seeing them. One evening after my Group activities, I went to Robi-da's shop. I saw there were two sarees with fabric painting. At once I asked Robi-da that since the sarees did not seem to be from Calcutta, where they had come from. He replied that a woman from the Ashram had painted them. "Do you pay for the painting work?" I asked. Robi-da answered that he did pay for this work, although the amount was decided upon by the painter of the Saree. This set my mind thinking: if I could paint some sarees in this way and sell them through Auro Jewellers I would earn some money from it which would help me fulfil my long-cherished desire of offering some money earned by me to the Mother. After talking to Robi-da, I returned home. Now I had to tell the Mother about it for without Her permission I could not do this work. Plucking up courage, I acquainted the Mother with my long-cherished desire and prayed for Her permission to go ahead with my plan. Luckily, the permission was granted.

the Mother some money earned through my effort and She accepted it most graciously. The pressure of daily work was so great that I could not continue with this plan for very long. I was forced to abandon it.