Ma Anandamayi was an internationally famous saint of the highest order. Once she went to a city where some rich man had lent his big spacious bungalow in the outskirts of the city for the mother to stay as long as she liked. The mother was accompanied by a number of Sannyasis (her disciples) and Brahmacharinis (female celebates). On the fourth day of arrival, Ma called a Sannyasi disciple early in the morning and told him “For the last three days, in my morning meditation I have been seeing the vision of a young lady of fair complexion (aged about 32 years or so) with bobbed hair and of medium build. She lives somewhere within 20 kms radius from this place but it could be in any direction. I find her in my vision daily going to the third floor of her house at 3 a.m. in the morning, standing before a well-lit wick embedded in a circular plastic ring floating in a transparent jar of oil and mumbling some inaudible prayers for full three hours and then returning to her domestic chores. She has been doing this regularly for the last fifteen years. God has commanded me to take her in my hands and shape her. You have to go out just now, find her out and bring her to me. The only other clue I can give you is that
she drives a small car of blood-red colour. Go and may God be with you.”
The Sannyasi started on this unique errand even though it looked more like a wild goose chase. Till 12 in the noon he was walking looking at the occupants of every blood-red coloured car on the way. He became tired. He stood where he was and prayed to Ma – “Ma, I am sorry, I have not been successful in my errand. Please advise me what to do now.” Pat came a response in his heart – “Come back here by the same way by which you went. But at every step, repeat “Bhagawan”, “Bhagawan”. Lord will do the rest. The monk followed Ma’s advice and was returning. After walking back for half an hour, he was approaching a small nursery school from which a number of small children were coming out. Just at that moment he saw a blood-red car driven by a young lady coming out of the school gate and going ahead in the direction away from him. He ran into the school and asked some of the lady teachers who were standing as to who that lady was, who had just left the school in a red car. They told him that it was Mrs. C, a Parsi lady who was a teacher in that school. They even came out and pointed out her house which was a little ahead at the end of the same street. The monk walked up to that house. As the door opened on his touching it, he went straight inside without even knocking or ringing the bell (In the earlier days most of the monks were simple souls who did not know anything about the etiquettes of social life). The lady was sitting engrossed in the reading of a newspaper and did not notice the arrival of the newcomer.
Without any preliminaries, the monk addressed her – “Madam, my Guru Dev and a saint of great repute, Ma Anandamayi who is camping in this city desires to meet you. Will you please come along with me?” Mrs. C was righteously indignant and asked him “Who are you and how dare you come inside without knocking even. I know that you thieves just enter into big houses under some pretext with evil intentions at a time when the male members are likely to have gone out.” She began to ring up the police. The monk fell at her feet and began to tell her how Ma had seen her in a vision, going up to the third floor and praying before a light for three hours daily for the last fifteen years. Mrs. C abandoned the telephone as she was impressed by
the sincerity and accuracy behind the monk’s narration. Except for her husband nobody knew about her daily prayers on the third floor. She asked him for some more details about Ma
whose name she had never heard earlier. She kept a note for her husband who had gone to his office asking him to come to Ma’s place in the evening in case she was delayed and went along
with the monk in her car. When they entered she saw Ma and her companions sitting on a platform and singing Bhajans (musical compositions on God) while a huge audience was sitting in her front facing her. She found herself on the backside of the platform, facing the back of Ma, where a number of Brahmacharinis of the Ashram were sitting. The inmates of the Ashram forbade her from going to the front and informed her that Ma’s Bhajan programme would last for one or two hours more. Mrs. C was vexed at the thought of waiting for an hour or so longer and was thinking of leaving for home immediately. At that moment Ma stopped her own singing, ordered her companions to carry on the singing, got down from the platform, came straight to Mrs.
C who was still standing undecided and hugged her. She took Mrs. C to her own room and conversed with her with all love. In answer to her inquiry Mrs. C told Ma that she was very happy with her life and that she used to pray to the Fire God to keep her in the same state of happiness forever. In her childhood and youth she was brought up by the Parsi priests and so she used to worship only the Fire God. Mrs. C was completely won over by the explicit and boundless love and kindness of Ma, which transcended the barriers of religion and caste. That day, both Mrs. C and her husband were initiated into meditation and they remained to be fervent admirers and followers of Ma. If only one performs some worship or prayer or chanting
of a name or japa or other spiritual practices (anushthan) regularly without fail for a few years, the Lord Himself provides a good guide in order to speed him in his quest.
Source: Stories for Meditation by Swami Sri Shantananda Puri of Vasistha Guha
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