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Gangadi's Tale
Dual Language
--- Bengali only
Name:
Srimatti Gangarani Patra
Husband:
Srijukto Mritunjaya Patra
Village:
Dayulpur
PO:
Kuldanga Bazaar
District:
Howrah
Ganga
dee is sick. [brain stroke]. But I was able to hear all the stories from
her daughter.
The
question was asked: Since when and in what way did you come to be
acquainted with Gurudev?
She answered that she
had been initiated way back in childhood,
before her marriage. Because Gangadi's
house was near to Molina's house.
And Ganga Dee's
mother was initiated by Gurudev so Ganga Dee would also go and see Gurudev.
Gradually her love for Gurudev ecclipsed everything and
she became intitiated.
As Ganga
dee came of age she became very big-hearted person.
In this
way, after a while, she got married, but her mind was totally not in the
worldly and domestic life. Gangadi was all the time doing worship after
worship.
So engrossed did she
become during worship that she had no care at all left for worldly life.
She would
even forget to feed milk to her child
because only the worship was in her mind.
This all
because Gangadi's mother-in-law had take the Mangalchandi jar with the
worship water and thrown it into the pond. After
that, slowly but surely, the mother-in-law's two eyes went blind.
Since
very early childhood she used to go with her mother to the Ramanathpur
ashram.
Gangadi's mother was an initiated disciple of Gurudev.
In childhood Ganga dee
was also intitiated with "mangel chandi" mantra of the mother Goddess "Chandi."
She grew into an
extremely devotional woman.
So absorbed
and engrossed in her
worship would she become that she no longer cared for anything else in
this world.
Gangadi's marriage took place in a village named
Gangadharpur. From Gangharpur to Ramanathpur the distance is almost 50
kilometers. Gangadi's harvest from farming used
to be fairly good.
Taking Gurudev's favorite vegetables and
things to cook, she used to go by foot to Ramanathpur
ashram and without herself eating anything at all.
After she reached the ashram by all available means she would present the
things to Baba and then take his feet and wash them and then she would
drink the water from the foot washing. Day
after day she used to do this.
One day in chaitra or boushakh month, as she
was walking in the heat with a heavy bag on her head, at some point she
lost her way. She was so thirsty that she was panting as if
her chest would burst. She became disgusted with herself and saw a
pond in front of her and she tied her clothes around her and was going to
jump into the pond, thinking "I don't want to live anymore."
She is thinking "I don't
want to keep this life anymore."
Thinking she was going to
jump one brahmin's son came along and he said
"What's the matter, have you lost your way?
"You
are suffering, where do you wish to go?"
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