Abhoya Durga (benevolent form of Durga) at the Ananda center
It is hard to imagine any other place or setting to experience in greater variety or beauty the glory of divine mother in all her forms as Durga puja in Kolkata. It is a phenomenon that is fairly impossible to explain without someone experiencing it in person.
This year, Oct 14th, was the sacred day of Mahalaya - the day when all the Gods and the positive forces in the universe gathered their energies into one, and that energy became the form of Durga, the universal mother. The spirit of Durga puja enters the air on this day, and we (Jitendra, Venkat, and I) could feel it as we stepped onto the airport that morning - an auspicious beginning to a journey filled with ma's grace.
There are numerous spiritual excursions in this holy city that have kept us busy these past few days. I won't describe each one, just in the interest of time.
Our first highlight was the concert organized at the Ananda Center in Kolkata for me to share traditional Bengali devotional music in honor of divine mother. When we met for rehearsal on the 14th, it was like meeting very dear family members we have known for years. We sang and rejoiced for a couple of hours, and the Satsang continued even after that over dinner.
The concert on Sunday (Oct 15th) evening will be one of the highlights of my life. The word "concert" can almost be misleading as it was an evening of sharing music, and also singing along, clapping and rejoicing in rapturous devotion. A very sweet local devotee played "khol, " a traditional Bengali drum used for this style of music. This genre of music is called "shyama sangeet" - or music devoted to Kali.
Almost all the songs presented were from two great bengali mystics - Ramprasad and Kamalakantha. Ramakrishna and Yogananda were deeply fond of this music. There are innumerable accounts from Ramakrishna's life of how he would enter deep states of ecstasy when he heard the songs of these two mystics, and Master was no different.
While parts of the evening were recorded it would be beyond any technology to capture the energy felt in the room. It was joyful, exuberant, and yet still and meditative. The small center room was packed way over capacity, and everyone squeezed into their cozy spots. They even hired a sound engineer at the last minute so that the speakers could carry the sound, and there were some in adjacent rooms listening to the music.
Personally, it was, for me, an incredibly fulfilling moment - to be able to sing the music my Guru grew up with and loved to an audience who knew the words to every song and relished every bit of it. It was he, who was enjoying it through each one of their ears that evening, and his love was the devotion we felt in our hearts.
A delicious and indulgent Durga puja feast followed the concert. Manash Mukherjee (the grandson of Tulsi bose) came to the concert as well and shared a number of stories of Master and his family, with the three of us over dinner.
Meditation room at Tulsi bose shrine where Master meditated throughout his boyhood
We were/are staying at the Tulsi bose shrine, and to have Manash share these stories that evening made it all the more special. Every room and relic in the house started to look different and incredibly special. To imagine how many hours Master spent meditating in the meditation room downstairs and that he was levitating and surrounded by a blue light when he was there gave us goosebumps when we returned to the room that evening.
On Tuesday evening, when we went to master's attic room at 4 Garpar road (this house is 3 mins walk from Tulsi bose shrine), we were greeted by Sarita Ghosh with the same warmth and hospitality. After a blissful hour-long meditation, we offered healing prayers for many from the room.
After that we were joyfully surprised by some of the most delicious Durga puja delicacies lovingly served by Saritaji. As we enjoyed them she treated us with many interesting and uplifting stories from master's family and her association with master - most of which I had not heard before. We were all overjoyed to have her company for so long and it was well past an hour when her doorbell rang and she went to greet a monk from YSS.
She still returned after greeting him to complete her stories (and a few more :)) before bidding us goodbye for the night. Our hearts were filled with gratitude.
With Sarita Ghosh at 4 Garpar road, where Yogananda grew up and had Samadhi
In between these visits, we were able to visit the Kali temple in Dakshineshwar a couple of times. And also visit and meditate in the sacred garden and house in a place called Cossipore where Ramakrishna spent the last months of his life and revealed to his close disciples his true form and the nature of his consciousness. These are two of the most special and powerful places in Kolkata to meditate and tune in. I will perhaps share more about these in the next post.
And, on Monday (Oct 16th) we had two very special excursions - the first one in search of the home of the sleepless saint, Ram Gopal, in very rural parts of Bengal and then driving to the village and the places where the great saint poet Ramprasad spent all his life singing to Kali. The day was filled with miracles that boggle our minds as we look back. I will save those stories for the next post.