Lord Krishna, An Experience To Gopaler Ma

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As soon as it dawned, an inebriated Aghormani ran to Dakshineswar. She could feel Gopala (Lord Krishna) clinging to her bosom with his tiny rosy feet dangling playfully. Her Chosen Ideal had at last come to her arms in flesh and blood. Fate had denied her physiological motherhood, but now she had been more than compensated psychologically. Clasped to her bosom was the loveliest of babies (Lord Krishna). And she realized that the miracle had been brought about by the ineffable compassion of Sri Ramakrishna whom she had been feeding like a baby.

With dishevelled hair, staring eyes, and the hem of her cloth sweeping the ground, she reached the Master's room, crying out 'Gopala, Gopala.' The knowledge had dawned on her that Sri Ramakrishna was none other than the Gopala she had been meditating upon for the last three decades. What followed requires the pen of a Lilasuka to describe. As soon as Aghormani sat down in the Master's room, he went into ecstasy and climbed on to her lap like a one-year-old. And she in turn, fed him lovingly with the delicacies she had brought with her. She bathed him too with her copious tears. It was a regular baptism. She became Gopaler Ma, with the baby Ramakrishna-Gopala in her lap.

A little later the Master, emerging from his trance, left her lap for his bedstead. Gopaler Ma could not contain her joy. She sang and danced. And she talked to the Master saying, 'Gopala is now on my lap. O, now he has entered your body. Ah! he has come out again. Come my darling, come to your poor mother.' What an exquisite prattle addressed to Divinity!

Sri Ramakrishna too congratulated her on the rare bliss that had been bestowed on her. Down the centuries how many have had the privilege of experiencing the infant terrible of Vrindavan in flesh and blood? The Master stroked her body and brought her to near normalcy. He made her bathe and eat, and sent her home in the evening.

The momentum of the divine afflatus, however, continued. On her way back to Kamarhati, Aghormani found Gopala again clinging to her neck. Arrived in her room, she was delightfully harassed by the child snatching off her rosary, and playing mischief of all sorts. Unable to sit for meditation she went to bed with Gopala (Lord Krishna) by her side. But even in bed she had no rest. The unique child complained about the hardness of the bed and demanded a pillow. She had to try to console the child by resting his lovely head on her left arm and promising to get him a soft pillow the next morning.

To be continued

About the author

Sri C.S. Ramakrishnan, a former Joint Editor of the Vedanta Kesari, is a longstanding devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, and is actively associated with the Ramakrishna Movement for nearly five decades. In this write up which is an excerpt from his article 'Gopaler Ma,' he explains her unique experience of experiencing little Krishna and how she came to be known as Gopaler Ma.