Not a Coincidence, Nor By a Chance - It is Pure Blessing!!

Writing this blog in flight on my way to Kolkata and mind has already reached where it belongs to– Belur!

Earlier, always I have been there with someone or other. Either it is a group of students, devotees or friends. 

Last time in February 2013 I had been to Belur for almost 11 days with my mother and Ushatai. After they left, i returned to Belur from the programme at Shovabazar and stayed alone for few hours at the Guest House and got a glimpse of being alone at Belur.

Everything happens at the right time!!

In January 2014 present President of Sri Sarada Math, Rev. Bhaktiprana Mataji had been to Pune at Sri Sarada Math for 10 days. It so happened that I could not go for her darshan and later when I went everyone asked me the same question, where was I during those 10 days & why didn’t I come?

I felt so guilty that, then n there decided to visit Dakshineshwar to meet the Holy trio and the Rev. Bhaktiprana Mataji. So here I am Kolkata..

But let me tell you, nothing happens by chance!

Every year we have 3 Spiritual Retreats at Sarada Math Pune. One on the immediate Sunday after Guru Purnima, then other 2 on the Sundays after the Holy Mother’s and Sri Ramakrishhna’s birthdays.  Last year during the Guru Purnima Retreat, I spoke on Rev. Bharatiprana Mataji, the 1^st President of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Kolkata.

Now here’s the climax…!

Her birthday falls on Ulto Rath day, i.e. when the Lord Jagannatha’s Rath returns to the original place.

By the infinite Grace of Guru, The Holy Trio, Lord Jagannath and by Rev. Bharatiprana Mataji herself I will be at Sri Sarada Math tomorrow which happens to be her birthday – the Ulto Rath Day.!

When i did the booking i just had my birthday and Guru Purnima in mind. It's only yesterday i came to know this amazing coincidence that 7th July is her birthday and i am going to be in Sarada Math to receive the blessings. Of course it isn't coincidence, I truly know in the heart of my hearts, it is a pure BLESSING.!!! 

Earlier also once i had said in my blog, when we give donation we get receipt. So, how do we know that  whatever we have offered to the Lord, had reached HIM? 

This is His way to show that Yes, my child, whatever you gave has reached ME..!

I know this is not by chance or by coincidence, it is mere and only grace of Divine Mother that things happen in our lives. My lecture reached the most dear Late Rev. 1st President of Sri Sarada Math, Bharatiprana Mataji...!

I had written a poem on her when i was reading her life and had read it at the Spiritual Retreat. It goes as below -

जब लौटे रथ में कान्हा बलभद्र सुभद्रा 

उस दिन हुआ एक तपस्विनी का उदय

स्त्री कौम के उज्जवल जीवन के लिए 

आपका इस दुनिया में आना था तय

शुरू से अंत तक इतनी शुद्ध ओ निर्मल 

कभी कभार ही होती पवित्रता निर्माण 

स्वामीजी का स्वप्न श्रीश्रीमा का कार्य, 

ठाकुरकृपा का बोलो  कौन नापे परिमाण 

बनी पारुल कभी सरला कभी श्रीभारती 

की घोर तपस्या हुए प्रसन्न काशीराणा

जीवन भर रही करती माँ की आरती 

और माँ की बेटी बन बैठी भारतिप्राणा !!

"To The 4th Of July" - A Great Prophet Who Poured Blessings on America

After returning from the West Swamiji’s health completely broke down. He used to say, “Whatever I had I have left in that country.”

During the lectures in America, it appeared as though a power emanated from His body and infused the audience. The thought current of the entire country had undergone a change which was not an easy matter..!

Budo Baba (Swami Satchidananda) had begged Swamiji to grant him Nirvikalp Samadhi. Swamiji said, “If I put on the loin cloth and become absorbed in spiritual practice without thinking of ways and means of maintenance, then perhaps the power to grant Nirvikalpa Samadhi may come. It has become exhausted, or lost, by giving lectures in America."

In January 1894 Swamiji wrote to Sw. Ramakrishnanada, “As our country is lacking in social virtues, so this country is lacking in spirituality.” No doubt Swamiji gave spirituality to Americans individually as well as collectively.

Marie Louise Burke says, 'The fact is that American devotees view him, not as an intellectual expounder of the Vedanta philosophy, but as the first great prophet sent to this country by God. Swamiji himself said that he did not lecture, He Gave. Being what he was - a completely illumined soul whose heart cried over the suffering of all men - he inevitably poured out his blessings as the sun pours out its light. In and through everything he said and did, his profound calm and peace, his boundless compassion for all humanity, and his ready ability to awaken spirituality in others loomed large. And it was these things - not his patriotism or his intellectual genius - that captured the heart of this country."

I love the way Swami Abhedananda interprets and evaluates Swamiji’s visit to the West, as he was in America, and closely knew Him. In the lecture before the Vedanta Society of New York on March 8, 1903, Swami Abhedananda said: "The preachers of truth are very few, but their powers are felt by those who happen to come within the atmosphere of their divine personality. Such a preacher of truth occasionally appears like a Gigantic Comet above the horizon, dazzling the eyes and filling the hearts of ordinary mortals with wonder and admiration, and silently passes away into the invisible and unknown realms of the universe. The late Swami Vivekananda was one of those great comets who appeared in the spiritual firmament once perhaps after several centuries."

Yes, indeed He was a divine prophet who moved among the people of America, talking with them and blessing them which formed one of the most important parts of his entire mission to the West.

May be due to His love for America He has chosen 4th of July to be immortal. His famous poem was written in 1898 at Kashmir when He was with His American disciples Sister Nivedita, Josephine Macleod and Sara Ole Bull. He gifted this poem by reading it to them at the early breakfast. 

Imagine the joy they must have felt.!!