Evolution of Love 2

Miracles

The parents of a girl suffering from paralysis approached Mother for a cure, Mother asked the girl to roll on the floor. The girl could not move at all; she could not even turn round. Mother was clipping betel-nuts into tiny pieces for the worship of a deity. A few pieces were thrown at the girl and she was asked to stretch out her hand and catch them. With great difficult she could catch some. After that the family left. At her home the girl was laying in bed. On the following afternoon she heard the rumbling noise of a passing car; she suddenly jumped out of bed and ran towards it. Thereafter she gradually began to move about.
One day a carriage was driving along the road across the Ramna grounds. Mother asked me to hire it. She got into it. The coachman enquired, “Where would you go?“ “To your own house”, was Mother’s prompt reply. Without saying a single word, he drove to his home. On arriving there, it was found that an old man was about to die; by his side his relations were weeping. Mother asked me to bring some sweets which were distributed amongst the people present and She came away. We learnt subsequently that the old man had recovered.
Mother had other ways as well to give relief to sufferers. She would ask a person in distress to use anything he could lay his hands on, at dusk, shutting his eyes. By using such articles he was found to recover. Sometimes She would ask a patient to eat the food prepared for Her and She would Herself eat the sick-diet intended for him. In cases of fever or serious bowel-complaints, patients following Mother’s directions, ate food not considered beneficial by physicians, with the result that they were restored to their former health in no time.
When my son was fifteen or sixteen years old he was suffering from dysentery for about ten or twelve days. Mother came to see him one night. From that night he began to recover but Mother had dysentery for a few days.
It has also been found, if any patient was destined not to come round, he would either willfully violate Mother’s directions or fail, by the pressure of circumstances, to follow them. In these cases the final outcome could be foreseen from Mother’s ways. The Hindu shastras enjoin that the results of our past actions in this birth or of those done during our previous births, can only be neutralized by steady good work in this life with the help of Divine Grace; but work that calls forth divine intervention is very difficult to perform, unless some saint out of compassion volunatrily aids such efforts.
Mother says,—”As long as you see this objective world, creation exists for you. There is conflict so long as the notions of you and I, happiness and misery, light and darkness, prevail. Consider yourself an integral part of Nature and let there be stress on Nature’s work or on Her Laws of work instead of on your own self as the embodiment of your sense perceptions. Then all your senses will be quiescent and your inner being will gradually awaken; the problem of the self and of creation will be solved. Then all your wants will vanish, the impact of life’s basic urges will gradually wear off like a smoke screen at the first breath of wind, your soul will resume its full glory like the morning sun and the time will arrive for you to fix your eyes upon the Supreme Being.
In Mother’s early life, opportunities for Her education were rather meagre, neither did She pay much attention to it. But it was surprising to find that the examiners would ask Her questions from only those topics which She had glanced over beforehand. For this reason She was looked upon as a bright pupil in the class. From Her girlhood She did not, of Her own accord, read any book ;nor did She practice handwriting. Still the groundwork of Her -knowledge appeared to be quite sound. Whatever She studied She could master thoroughly.
One day Mother enquired, “What is Italy?“ A few days later an Italian Professor named Tucci came to Mother at Shah-bag. He had come to visit the University of Dhaka He asked a question in English and it was to be translated into Bengali for Her, but before this could be done She gave the proper answer in Sanskrit.
We prayed to Her several times to give us a specimen of Her handwriting in Bengali. She said, “I don’t write anything with any purpose in view. When the time comes, you may get it.”
Fortunately some 22 years back on the 4th of Ashad, 1337 (Bengali Era), we did receive a specimen.
(English translation :—“O thou Supreme Being thou art manifest in all forms—this universe with all created things, wife, husband, father, mother and children, all in one. Man’s mind is clouded by worldly ties. But there is no cause for despair. With purity, unflinching faith and burning eagerness go ahead and you will realise your true Self.”

There are many photographs of Mother; their number may be not less than 1,000. But what is surprising is that no two are alike. Sri. Subodh Chandra Dasgupta of Dhaka, and Sri. Shashi Bhushan Dasgupta of Chittagong amongst many other photographers took many snapshots. In October 1926 Shashi Babu came to Dhaka during the Durga Puja celebrations and some of us went to Shah-bag together to take a photograph of Mother early in the morning.
On reaching there we found that nobody knew where Mother was. At last we discovered that She lay in a state of samadhi inside a dark room. It had been arranged that Shashi Babu would leave Dhaka the same afternoon. He was therefore very anxious to take a snapshot of Mother that very morning. Pitaji was specially requested to approach Mother for permission.
He, himself with my help brought Mother out and seated Her for an exposure and we withdrew from the range of the camera. Mother was still in a state of self-absorption with Her body and limbs slack. Suspecting that She might have moved during the exposures, Shashi Babu used eighteen plates. He then left for Chittagong. Subsequently he wrote to say that of the eighteen plates only the last one produced a good portrait which contained a moon-like ball of light on Her forehead, and what was stranger still, my figure appeared behind Mother’s. An extract from Shashi Babu’s letter written to me long after, is given below.
Shashi Babu’s letter ran thus :-“When Mother’s photograph was being taken I loaded six plates at a time and in three shifts eighteen plates were exposed. In the first few plates there were no impressions, only a ball of light covered each plate. The next few plates showed some hazy outlines; it was only on the last plate that the figure of Mother came out in full relief. You were far away beyond the range of the camera and on one side. From there you gave me the signal for giving the exposure. From the very outset I was feeling nervous when taking the exposures, as I had a dim suspicion that things were not all right, which caused me much pain. When the last plate was exposed, I felt a flood of joy filling my heart. At that time I just began to approach Mother’s feet as my only refuge. During those days an incident like the one mentioned above almost overwhelmed me (the letter was dated 5.5.37).
When the photograph was received at Dhaka people suspected some trick of the photographer in developing it.