It seems there was a particular candidate
for monk-hood who was with Swami Dineshananda ji for about three years. For our
narration’s sake let us just call him, Achintya. This Achintya left to himself,
would have messed up his daily routine, for though he was skilled in computers
and instrumental music, good in letter writing and English, was utterly lost in
managing his hour to hour daily routine. The disciplined airs of Dineshananda
ji was a great help to be steadfast in his morning and evening spiritual sadhanas
and in his work. So with great reluctance the Swami had to deviate from his
usual practice of delaying the ordination of monastic candidates and had to
recommend him for ordination in due time.The Brahmachari was ordained into monk-hood in due time.
But Swami Dineshananda's ingrained habit of being strict with his monastics kept him on the lookout for some reason or other to
make a case for disciplining people who were in his keep. He thought he had found such a valid
reason, when he found that the monastic had shouted at a devotee in the
morning at 5.30 a.m. The devotee had lost his mother at 2.30 in the early hours
and had come to take some sacramental flowers and called out to our candidate
when he was engrossed in meditation at 5.30 a.m. Disturbed in his morning sadhanas,
not knowing the reason, the Sadhaka became cross at the devotee for coming in
when the temple was not open to the public and said a few harsh words. Later
when he came to know of the matter in details, the brother, with great remorse-fulness profusely apologized. The matter was forgotten. But when he came
to know of it, our tough task-master Dineshannada ji, took this as a valid
reason to take back the recommendation he had made of the above said candidate.
He wrote to this effect to the authorities in Belur Math and they too agreed
with Swami Dineshananda and it was all decided that the young monk would be asked to spend some time with himself to discipline himself.
Now, this was an open secret and
almost everybody in Belur Math (except the poor person concerned) knew what was to
come. They all indirectly tried to prepare the him for the worse. But the
candidate was always having the feeling that people he comes across are all
instruments of Mother and Sri Ramakrishna and these Two out of their sweet will,
get things done through instruments they choose to work with.
The candidate was called into the presence
of what we in our gossips call as ‘Cabinet’. The General Secretary droned on with
deadly seriousness about the miscellaneous misdemeanours of the candidate, the
same one about whom, some weeks back they had received a satisfactory report.
Then the G.S. asked a Senior Assistant Secretary to read out the letter written
by Swami Dineshananda ji. The Asst. Secretary, who had himself been a tough
head-master, went about with his task with all authority he could command. The
letter in Bengali began with all necessary preambles, and went on with the list
of little indiscretions of the candidate. (I don’t know what they were, perhaps
the candidate forgot to put off the light in his room when he came for him
meditations, or he might have taken a minute longer for his ablutions which
might have inconvenienced somebody else. I greatly admire our mighty
authorities for the manner they mange to keep a straight face when they so
officiously read out these nuggets). Then the letter went on with Dineshananda
ji writing ‘Here is what the affected party told me’ and within proper
quotation marks narration began, ‘amar naam Amukh. (My name is so and so).
Shokale adai ta samai amar .. (at 2.30
in the morning my ..) .. ‘ The first page ended at this point. The Asst.
Secretary, turned the page and continued reading the letter, ‘... mrityu holo.
Shade panch ta samay ami Thakurer mandire elam .. (.. death happened. I came to
the Ashrama Temple at 5.30 a.m.)’. The other Assistant Secretaries were perhaps
listening with boredom overwhelming them, but the General Secretary had sharp
ears. He asked, ‘What was that?’ and requested, ‘Please read again’... The
Senior Asst. Secretary read again, ‘at 2.30 in the morning my death happened. I
came to the Ashrama Temple at 5.30 a.m.’. The whole cabinet except the reader
burst into laughter. The General Secretary had to tap the table to bring some
order. The flustered reader made some excuses and went diving deep into the
letter to excavate a missing word. The General Secretary realizing they all
needed to keep a serious face, for they were all in a meeting where they were
planning to discipline an erring monastic, went on with his droning... Another
asst. secretary made a point, that the monastic after all got angry at a
devotee because the devotee was disturbing him in doing his daily duty of
meditation, which somehow makes up for the alleged ill manner of the candidate.
.. In the middle of this grave atmosphere the erstwhile reader, who had been
deep in his excavation, suddenly exclaimed, ‘I have found it’. ‘What is that’
asked the General Secretary again. The obviously relieved Asst. Secretary said,
`I have found the word ‘mother’s’. It has been written at the left margin.
While filing the letter, the word has gone inside the spine of the file’. Much
to the consternation of the Asst. Secretary the rest of the ‘Cabinet’ burst
into a louder round of laughter. The General Secretary now told to the
candidate, ‘Go. Go’; the candidate expressed his desire to prostrate to each of
them. The General Secretary afraid of more hilarity, urged him to go. So he did
and I suppose I don’t need to say that the monk was let off as he really deserved to be.
So this seems the way our Mother chooses
to have Her fun. She appears with mock seriousness and after making some holy
fuss she drops down the abyss of a file and creates hilarity. Then when duly
authorized people bring some seriousness back she re-appears at the edge of the
page and there is hilarity again.
