GREAT SAINTS I HAVE SEEN
I opted Calcutta as my working place due to some
reasons. First of all Calcutta is such a place where always great saints lived,
so there was a high chance of fulfilling my wish of meeting such a great
god-realised saint and following the path of spirituality under his/her
guidance. The second reason, which just strengthens the first reason, is my
friend Arindam Chakraborty (though he is 10 years elder than me) whom I know
since 1992 told that his gurudev Swami Atmananda Saraswati, who is a
god-realised person, lives at a place just near to Calcutta. In 1995, I came to
Calcutta with him to see the Swamiji and after talking to swamiji I felt that
he was a very much humble person. I could talk to him for only 5-6 minutes so I
understood absolutely nothing about his spiritual achievements. Actually
something else was there in the God's mind. In 1996 I got selected in VJTI MCA
and probably in 1998-99 I came to know that Swami Atmananda Saraswati was no
more with us. After completing MCA I came to Calcutta in 1999 and till mid 2000
I couldn't get a single clue of existence of any great saint in Calcutta. After
that, once I went to Ranchi and met my friend Arindam Chakraborty and again he
claimed that after Swami Atmananda Saraswati there are 2 disciples of him in
the same ashram one is 'Swami Paramananda Saraswati' and other is 'Sumita Ma',
both are god-realised. Naturally nobody will believe the existence of so many
god-realised persons at a time in the same ashram but I was so keen of meeting
a god-realised person that I decided to go to the ashram once again to meet
them.
Second time (year 2000) when I went to the ashram and
talked to mataji (Swami Paramananda
Saraswati doesn't live in the ashram but often comes) then I slightly felt that
I am standing in front of such a person who devoted almost every moment of her
life to achieve the highest position of spirituality. That day I talked to her
for not more than a single hour but that small duration was enough to see such
a confidence within her, which I had never seen before in any other saint. She
was explaining her experience, how tuff days she spent for spiritual
achievements and I was thinking, if what she was saying is true then she must
be a great person. That enforced me to go to that ashram again &
again.
I met Swami Paramananda after some days of my second
visit to the ashram. The impressive thing in him at first sight was his big
eyes, voice and face, which really adds to his great personality. I took months
to understand his greatness because he doesn't live in the ashram, so I
couldn't every time get his company (satsanga) whenever I went to the ashram. I
can feel his greatness when he talks about Vedanta, Swami Vivekananda or his
own gurudev because the way of his explanation clearly indicates that, what he
is explaining is not only some theories written in the books, but he has
actually realised them.
Though whenever I went to the ashram every time I
could get the company of Mataji but I took a long time to get confirmed about
her greatness because she was totally different than the imagination of a great
saint I had in my mind. Always I saw her to be involved in some works like
cooking, looking after the guests, looking after the daily activities of the ashram
with other disciples etc. She seldom tells anything about spiritualism, which
totally contradicts the previous imagination of mine about great saints that
they often preach about spiritualism. But gradually I could observe some
characteristics of her, which I had never seen before. She is always happy
regardless of anything good or bad happens with her or with the ashram. So far
I haven't seen a slight sorrow on her face at the time of listening a bad news,
or slightly more happiness on her face at the time of listening a very good
news. This observation with some other observations made me confirmed about
Mataji's and Swami Paramananda's spiritual achievements.
The ashram was initially established by Swami
Atmananda Saraswati as an orphanage. 3-4 orphan children were there in the
ashram. Initially there was almost no financial contribution to the ashram thus
the orphan children could get food only when Swamiji returned after begging
rice etc. Sometimes later some greathearted persons started donating money to
the ashram and the financial condition of the ashram became slight better. Now
also the financial condition of the ashram is not so good but despite of that
they are trying their best to help people. Swami Atmananda Saraswati ji's
birthday is a holy day for the disciples and that day 500-1000 poor children
gets School dresses, copies, pencils etc. from the ashram.
Dear friends, these are not all they are doing,
neither these are the major activities of them. Their major activity is to
donate us the best thing of the universe, to make us spiritually so improved
that we can feel our life totally fruitful at the end of our life. Those who
regularly go to the ashram and observe the activities of Mataji and Swami
Paramananda may always feel that there is something greater than money or other
worldly pleasures, which happily can be opted instead of all of them. And you
can see the reflection of their thoughts in the activities of them. None of the
disciples in the ashram wants any bless for them or their family from Swamiji,
Mataji or the God as a result of the works they are doing for the ashram. All
of them know that they are working for establishing the truth, they are working
for the God and they can easily sacrifice their life for those.
First time when I read a religious book I got
impressed. The book was full of preach of Swami Vivekananda and I deeply could
understand that religious life is a real glorious life. But whenever I tried to
explain my view to some other person many times I was asked, is it really
possible to lead such life? If it is then will it really be a happy life? Do
great saints really exist? I answered them but I could not prove that really
such a glorious life is possible. Now I can see 2 of the happiest persons of
the world in an ashram very near to my house. They are such great persons that
I think I'll never see any other person like them in my lifetime. I am ending
this writing with my respect and love to them.
Swapan Dey
Email: dey_swapan@yahoo.com
Home page: http://profiles.yahoo.com/dey_swapan