Brahmajna Ma^[1]

  
CONTENTS

 
  
  
Brahmajna Ma
  
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i     Publisher's Preface
v     Letter from Sadhu Arunachala to Sri D.N.Sen
vi    Foreword by Editor, Sadhu Arunachala
vii   Introduction

      Part One
1     Memoir

      Part Two
27    Publisher's Foreword
29    Teachings[2]
40    Poems
46    Letters
69    Questions and Answers
70    Maya
76    Knowledge, Devotion and Action reconciled
87    The Six Mystic Centres

xiii  Appendix
xviii Glossary

Publisher's Preface

The Editor of this Book is Sadhu Arunachala (Major A. W. Chadwick, 0.B.E.)

His letter dated 12th September, 1960 and his Foreword explain the circumstances under which this book was written twenty years ago, in 1940, when the author, Swami Prabudhananda was residing in the Ashram of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and also why this book could not then be published. The devotees of Mother are indeed grateful to Sadhu Arunachala and to the late Swami Prabudhananda for enabling them to understand Her Teachings.

Swami Prabudhananda. (S.K.Ghosh, M.A., B.L.) had been my College friend at the Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1913. Since then we did not meet till 1930. He began as a lawyer, later entered business and visited London and other piaces in Europe, Hongkong, etc. In January 1930, I met him accidentally in Calcutta and on 18-1-30 1 went to him for business. In answer to his queries, I told him at first that Mother was ill, living near his house and that I often came to see Her. I also said that She was not my own mother but my Guruma, and that I had received Her Grace since 1913, ie. the year after Her Self-realisation and that She was my Guide and Protector in all matters. His mind was at that time much disturbed owing to serious illness of his younger brother. He was eager to meet Mother and came with me to Her house. He was introduced to Mother as a friend. He talked with Mother and from that time on he frequently came to Her and even accompanied Her to Deoghar and other places as an attendant. Eventually he took the garb and the name Prabudhananda on his own initiative, and was the principal attendant of Mother till She passed away. This has been described in his Memoir in this book.

In our younger days we did not possess religious inclinations and, influenced by the prevailing religious customs, were disinclined to think and reason independently. The advent of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and Swami Vivekananda and the introduction of the education and the writings of Burke, Mill, Spencer, etc were the principal causes of India’s awakening. India in 1913 was full of prejudices and bigotry. During the summer vacation of that year I met Mother in my brother's house at Sachar, Dist.Tippera, and was amazed at Her discourses - fearless, free from prejudice and full of reason. That night in our presence She related to Her illiterate female friends the stages of Her Self-realisation (sakśatkara) and changes in Her body, the snake-bite, cancer in the breast and the Open Sesame of Self-realisation, viz. Concentration and Brahmacharya and Her condition of absolute Bliss and Joy.

I was charmed by Her talks and felt none but a person who passed through these stages could relate them in such detail in the simplest Bengali without any reference to any religious book. I was convinced that She possessed the highest Power and would give us anything if She so desired. She asserted that Brahma is the only Reality and all else is illusion. She was indifferent and would not listen to worldly talks. Some young men with Western education were attracted to Mother at the time and received Her blessings and were permitted to attend Her and went with Her to different places and at last to Her native village where She remained till the middle of 1928. During this period, She stayed in Calcutta on several occasions and at times She came and lived with us in our hostel, and She sometimes lived in the houses of my relations or rented houses and all along the favourite devotees were all in Her Service. The Divine Grace of Mother has descended like sun shine freely and equally on each and every devotee; to the degree one has faith, sincerity and surrender - one feels the Grace of Mother and is elevated in mind.

In 1928 I was passing through the greatest crisis in my life. At this time, I was informed one day that Mother had come to Calcutta for treatment of Her teeth troubles and wanted me to see Her. On hearing the news my heart leaped up with joy. I felt sure Mother had come to save me. This proved to be true indeed. I met Mother and she came to my house and lived there for some time and Her teeth were extracted by doctors. Then She moved from one place to another till She passed away. When She came to Calcutta sometimes She remained in my house. She was particularly affectionate to my wife and also my children who used to look upon Her as their Grand Mother (Thakur-Ma). By Her Blessings they all are Her devotees. In February 1932 when my eldest son Sri Santi Sen Gupta (Mahabir Sen) was only twelve years old, Mother told me that we should leave worldly matters to this boy when he became fit to take charge of affairs and live separately. By Her Blessings the boy took charge of my affairs and of his brothers and sisters without my telling him to do so and we are now living at Deoghar, S.P.Bihar.

When Swami Prabudhananda was the principal attendant, I had to arrange the movements of Mother as desired by Her. It was at this time that a Muslim Sanyasin was the cook of Mother as related in the Memoir chapter.

Part 1 contains the Introduction and the Memoir by the author. Some changes have been made regarding the arrangement and in omitting occasional repetitions.

Part II is the translation of the Bengali Book ‘Brahmajna-Mayer-Katha’, which was published by me in 1932 as desired by Mother. Mother dictated a few lines about Her life which is contained in the Publisher's Foreword of that Book. A few approved sayings of Mother from my diary are given in the Appendix.

I am grateful to my nephew Sri A.B.Gupta, B.Sc., Publicist, and Shri B.K.Ghose for assisting me to publish this book and to the Trustee of Nirvan Math, Swami Omananda and to my son Sri Santi Sen Gupta for taking charge of the publication. I am also grateful to my friends who have helped me in many ways. I am ever grateful to my wife who gives me inspiration to serve Mother. D.N.Sen

Dear Mr. SEN,

I have retrieved my own copy of the Life and Teachings and have copied for you the Foreword I wrote some years ago when Prabudhanandaji hoped to publish this book. It explains the circumstances under which it was written and the part we both played in the production.

I hope it will meet your requirements.

Yours sincerely,
Arunachala S.

To:   Mr.D.N.SEN, M.A, B.L.,
  Santi Asram, Bela Bagan,
  P.O.Deoghar, S.P. Briar (INDIA)

Editor's Foreword

When I first met the author he was observing silence and so was unable to answer my many questions about his Guru. Then for a while he was taken ill and more or less confined to his hut and it was during this time of leisure that this “life” was written, not as a consecutive whole but a page or two at a time scribbled on odd sheets of paper; sometimes in reply to some questions of mine or else as the ideas came into the author's mind. This will account for the unconventionality of the life as well as for its very personal nature. It was never intended for the public but was a purely personal document written by someone for his friend. This too will account for its great charm and spontaneity. As will be seen in the book itself “Mother” was always against any life being written of Her, so in observance of Her wishes this has been substituted to give the public some idea of Her antecedents.

The above was written some years ago at the request of my friend Prabudhanandaji who was hoping to publish this book with the help of a friend. Unfortunately this attempt fell through. Now again an effort is being made to print a record of Mother and Her Teachings. May I be allowed to congratulate those responsible and to wish them every success.

Introduction

Sri Brahmajna-Ma was born during the early hours of the 21st of February, 1880 A.D. at Bitara, a small village near Sachar, in the District of Tipperah, East Bengal. She was named Kadamvini Devi by Her father Abhaya Charan Chakravarti, who was a landholder of modest resources. She was a little over eight years of age when She was married to a Brahmin young man of Putia, a village nearby; but became a widow before ten and passed the early years of Her life mostly in these two villages till She got self-realisation.

The Hindu inhabitants of the neighbourhood were either Saktas or Vaishnavas, but she, strangely enough intui- tively followed the Jnana-vichara marga (i.e., the path of Knowledge and Discrimination). We do not hear of any other woman attaining Self-realisation by following this path in modern times. Even in ancient times followers of this path were very rare amongst women. This is a unique feature of Her Sadhana.

After Realisation in 1912 Mother was taken to crowded localities, towns and cities and she became for some years a centre of attraction for the educated and religious public, but thereafter She preferred to live a quiet and retired life. During the last few years of Her life, She was practically an invalid and lived principally at Puri (Orissa), Baidyanath Deoghar, Ranchi, (Bihar) and Calcutta, occasionally visiting Her native village. She left Her body at Deoghar on the 5th of November 1934, and an Ashram, named Nirvan Math was erected there to Her memory where some of Her disciples and devotees are living. Besides the places already mentioned, Mother also visited Dacca, Benares, Vizagapatam and some places in the District of Manbhum, made a pilgrimage to Sitakundu (East Bengal) and lived for some time at a small place in the Himalayas, near Darjeeling. She was not fond of travelling and all Her travels were under physicians’ advice for the benefit of health.^[3]

Mother did not want Her life to be written and it seemed that the public would never have the benefit of knowing about Her. When the first edition of “Brahmajna-Mayer-Katha” was in the press and we thought of giving in the introduction of the book a short sketch of Mother's life, none of us venturing to write it, Mother was approached to tell us what should be written. She asked me to take down a few lines which were put in the introduction of that book. Translated into English, they are:

She was naturally given to discriminaton and was engaged in the search for Spiritual Truth. From her childhood, she used to think -

1. where does a human being go and in what state does he remain after death, and whence does he come?
2. In nothing can peace be found in this world, what then, is real peace?
     In such thoughts she would then become immersed. And lastly, such thoughts as
3. who am I, what is this body, mind or Atma - used to engage her. These are the three stages of Her Sadhana. Without the help of books or Gurus, by dint of pure discrimination and search for Truth, she tore asunder the meshes of Maya, overcame all doubts and attained Self-realisation.

The memoir in the first part of this book was written by me only for its Editor, Sadhu Arunachala of Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai (Madras) when I was residing there at the holy feet of Shri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. 1 never had the least idea that what I write would even be made public. Later on while the memoir was still being written, my friend said that he would show what I had written to Sri Bhagavan and began typing it. After I heard this, my pen got checked and I finished by writing the supplementary portion. Nothing has been added since then.

Sadhu Arunachala then requested me to translate into English ‘Brahmajna-Mayer-Katha’, a Bengali book containing her instructions and teachings. This I did assisted by my friend Brammachari Bhumanandaji, a disciple of late revered Swami Purnanandaji of Hrishikesh, who collaborated with me wholeheartedly with- out grudging time and trouble. The whole thing was then corrected and edited, the songs and poems being put in blank verse and then typed and beautifully bound in book form and eventually presented to Sri Bhagavan by Sadhu Arunachala through me. But for him this book would never have seen the light of publicity, he is the Socrates who brought about its birth.

At that time I had not the faintest idea that it would ever be printed. Many visitors and inmates of Shri Ramanashramam read the typed book and liked it very much and some suggested that it would be worthwhile to print it But as I had neither time nor money, I did not take any notice of the suggestion. At this stage Monsieur Jalaluddin, a Sufi Mohammadan Englishman, visitor at the Ashrama, read this book. He was very much impressed by the personality of Mother and Her sayings and borrowed the book of which I had a copy, to get copies for himself, his Sufi Guru and friends. He had the book lithoed and very kindly sent me a dozen copies. This helped a further circulation later on.

My late lamented friend Mr.Ratanshaw Koyaji, advocate, a Parsee gentleman of Surat who had formed a very high opinion of Mother from a perusal of this book, with the object of giving publicity to her sayings, published some portions of the book in “Vision”, a journal published from the 'Ananda Asram' Kanhangad, Mangalore. This book has also been translated into Telugu by my friend Mr. Venkata Krishnaiah, Vakil of Nellore, but not yet printed. The second part of this book is the translation of the second edition of the Bengali book “Brahmajna-Mayer-Katha”. Mother's instructions, opinions, sayings, letters, poems, and songs were collected by many of Her devotees, and so this book contains instructions especially for those who have made Self-realisation the only aim and ambition of their life. It was never expected that She would allow such a book to be published as She would often say, “There are many books full of instructions but only a few read them and none follow them. What is the good of adding another book containing the instructions of a person like me, illiterate and unversed in the Shastras?” But one gentleman, a follower of Sri Nimvarkacharya, persuaded Mother to give Her consent to the publication, a few days before I lelt my worldly pursuits and came to live with Her. Collections were received from various devotees and out of these the selection was made by Mother.

The Bengali book has been divided into seven chapters: Teachings, Poems, Letters, Questions and Answers, Maya, Reconciliations of Jnan, Bhakti, and Karma and Shatchakra (six centres of concentration in the body). Excepting the questions and answers, which were mostly written by me and corrected and altered by Her on the spot, the contents of the other chapters were collected long before the actual publication. They were altered by Mother Herself and so may be said to contain Her Teachings faithfully,

In the second edition of the book a few questions and answers were added which were taken down by me and these were included with Mother's previous permission. I intended to publish some of Her songs as well but She would not allow it.

The translations which follow are free, but attempt has been made to retain the sense and spirit of the original as far as it is possible. No attempt has been made to condense or systematise them. So the readers will come across some repetitions and other defects which they are requested to tolerate.

Lastly, I thank the friends, some of whom have been mentioned above, who helped me in bringing out this publication and shall consider myself amply rewarded if readers derive any benefit from this book. I have no other personal interest in it.

– Prabudhananda

...I questioned Mother but She replied, “I did not do anything. I am always in the same condition. Others get the benefit of their own faith and wonders are worked through the faith of the people concerned. I do nothing but ever remain like the Sun.”

After I met Her she became very retiring, and would not receive any visitors;

We also had instructions not to talk to anyone about Her, and we lived in places where no one knew who She was. Many thought She was my own mother and as She used to wear the white cloth usually put on by Bengali widows, no one used to take Her for a Saint. When anyone came and talked to Her she would carry on the conversation without giving any hint of Her speciality, as when travelling in a train. But everybody would be struck by Her intelligence. When visitors came and asked questions, Her attitude of putting counter-questions was very much luke our Bhagavan’s. She had a wonderful memory. A song which She liked She could remember with intonations if She heard it sung but once, and She could repeat it months afterwards. I composed some songs and sang them to Her. Sometimes She would ask me to sing a particular song and if I could not remember She would always help me. She was also a poet by nature. She could dictate songs and poems as if She was quoting from memory.

She seemed to be of opinion that a man who sought Self-realization should give up all other pursuits and devote his whole time and attention to this alone. That is why happy-go-lucky aspirants could never find favour with Her. She was a strict disciplinarian and would not tolerate anti-Sannyasin tendencies. She never encouraged reading. She would say, “The Gita and Vivekachudamani are enough.” She would also say, “Mere reading is good for nothing. Get hold of some passage and translate it into action. If knowledge of books could do anything, all the Pandits would have been liberated long ago. But they are still where they were, [ ending at pg.4 ]

.....

To a sadhaka Mother would say, “You will have to court death sooner or later. When it is certain that you must die one day, why don’t you die now when you are still alive, (ie. let all your likes and dislikes be dead to you and remain as you really are, devoid of all vasanas). If you do this you will not have to die hereafter, and you will be in perpetual Bliss and Existence.”

"I am without alternative – undivided, inexhaustable.
 Untouched by age or ailment – I am devoid of fear.
 I am the innermost essence –  the source of all origins.
 Never am I born – nor ever do I die.
 I am beyond the read of time – ever existent.
 Never diminishing or expanding – I am equal everywhere.
 I am formless – and yet undivided in form.
 Devoid of the three mortal characteristics – I am yet whole, primordial
 I hae no fear or apprehension – no desire for salvation.
 Never any bondage – no pangs of childbirth.
 I am without shelter – in this whole universe,
 in my own thoughts I abide all the time"