Editorial
D
Invite the Mother
October 2020
urga Puja this year will be a different experience. Even if devotees go shopping for the Puja, visit relatives and friends, and hop from one Puja pandal to another, their joy will be tinged with a sense of fear and sadness created by the pandemic conditions. And for many devotees, the only wise option is probably to worship the Mother in their own homes.
The Vedanta Kesari
10
After the first Durga Puja in image at Belur Math, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi who participated in it had said, “Mother will come here every year.” Truly, this blessing applies to every branch centre of Belur Math where the Mother is worshipped. So, not being at the Math during the Puja, in the living presence of the Divine Mother and the Holy Trio, is a very painful prospect for our devotees. But every adverse circumstance has a hidden opportunity. Devotees unable to come to the Math for the Puja, can invite the Divine Mother and Sri Ramakrishna to attend the Puja at their homes! In 1868, Sri Ramakrishna’s nephew Hridayram decided to worship the Divine Mother at his house in Sihar, near Kamarpukur. He wanted Sri Ramakrishna to accompany him. But Mathur Babu held Sri Ramakrishna back because he wanted him at his own residence during the worship. When Hridayram was about to leave with a sad heart, Sri Ramakrishna consoled him saying, “Why are you pained? In my subtle body I shall daily go to see your worship; nobody except you will see me! Have as the Tantradharaka a Brahmin to dictate the mantras to you and perform the worship yourself according to your own devotion. Instead of keeping a complete fast, at midday drink milk, Ganga water, and the syrup of candy. If you perform the worship in this way, the Mother of the universe will certainly accept
your worship.” From Saptami onwards and also at the Sandhi Puja, during the time of arati, Hriday had the blessed vision of Sri Ramakrishna “in a luminous body standing in ecstasy beside the image” of the Mother. When he returned to Dakshineswar, Sri Ramakrishna confirmed the vision stating, “I went along a path of light and was present in your worship hall in a luminous body.”
In October 1885, Sri Ramakrishna was staying in Shyampukur, Kolkata, undergoing treatment for his throat cancer. Surendranath Mitra, a close devotee, was celebrating Durga Puja at his residence; he was very sad because Sri Ramakrishna was unable to join the celebrations at his home. On the Ashtami Day, in the evening, Surendra sat in the courtyard in front of the Mother and wept loudly like a boy crying out ‘Mother’ ‘Mother’ for over an hour. At the same time, Sri Ramakrishna had entered into a deep Samadhi. When he returned to normal consciousness, he told the assembled devotees, “I saw that there opened a luminous path from here to Surendra’s house. I saw, further, that attracted by Surendra’s devotion, the Mother had appeared in the image and that a ray of light was coming out from Her third eye. I also saw that rows of lamps were lighted in the front verandah and Surendra was sitting and weeping piteously in the courtyard in front of the Mother.” Sri Ramakrishna then sent Swami Vivekananda and other devotees to visit Surendra’s house. This Durga Puja, let us with a childlike faith call the Mother as Sri Ramakrishna often advised us: “Cry to your Mother with a real cry, O mind! / And how can She hold Herself from you?” When She comes along with Sri Ramakrishna, let us pray for strength to overcome all the challenges that She is throwing at us these days.
