Question: What is your favorite form of the Divine Mother? Will you please tell us a story about her in this form?
Papaji: From the beginning my Mother has been Mother Ganga. She is not only a river, but she is the Mother. Because of her compassion she flows over this soil. I have tread her banks from the Bay of Bengal to Uttarkashi, from 1910 to the present. My family went on yearly visits to Haridwar. I will tell you a story of Ganga Ma which happened when I was at the Maha Kumbha Mela in Prayag, the Mela which comes only once in 144 years.
In the Mela there are so many traditions and centers each trying to promote their own propaganda 24 hours a day. One day it was too crowded for me so I went for a walk downstream to where the Yamuna, Saraswati, and the Ganga flow as one to the Bay of Bengal. After about five kilometers a girl ran up to me and fell at my feet. I looked around but her family was nowhere in sight, which was very strange because a young Indian woman never goes out alone.
'Where are your parents?' I asked. She replied, 'I have no parents, I am alone.' 'Why are you here?' I continued, 'Why don't you go back to the Prayag where the Kumbha is being performed? Why are you alone out here?
Then she said, 'In this Mela everybody comes to remove their sins by having a bath in the confluence of the three Holy rivers. Everybody leaves their sins, but what can I do with them? I have vowed to take the sins away from these people, and I do, but I must leave these sins at the feet of a true Saint and be free of them. I have been searching the Mela for seven days, but I have not found anybody who could take these sins. But now I have found you who are the only person to whom I can release my sins. I am the Ganga!'
Then I looked at her beautiful eyes and knew that they were not human, and I noticed that her body was transparent and that I could look right through it. She stood up and walked out onto the river and slowly became one with the water. I stood there for many hours wondering what had happened and how I could have been so blessed to have seen her in her real form. She had been living in the heavens, but has compassionately come down to earth in response to Sage Bhagirathas penance. Now she blesses all those who see her, or taste her, or touch her. This is the experience of my Mother.
(Excerpt from the book THE TRUTH IS, Bhakti Chapter)
