"
We sat together in the rear seats of the car. The Blissful Mother
soon entered the immobile ecstatic state. Her beautiful eyes
glanced heavenward and, half-opened, became stilled, gazing into
the near-far inner Elysium. The disciples chanted gently: "Victory
to Mother Divine!"
I had found many men of God-realization in India, but never before
had I met such an exalted woman saint. Her gentle face was burnished
with the ineffable joy that had given her the name of Blissful
Mother. Long black tresses lay loosely behind her unveiled head. A
red dot of sandalwood paste on her forehead symbolized the spiritual
eye, ever open within her. Tiny face, tiny hands, tiny feet-a
contrast to her spiritual magnitude!
I put some questions to a near-by woman chela while Ananda Moyi Ma
remained entranced.
"The Blissful Mother travels widely in India; in many parts she has
hundreds of disciples," the chela told me. "Her courageous efforts
have brought about many desirable social reforms. Although a Brahmin,
the saint recognizes no caste distinctions. {FN45-1} A group of
us always travel with her, looking after her comforts. We have to
mother her; she takes no notice of her body. If no one gave her
food, she would not eat, or make any inquiries. Even when meals
are placed before her, she does not touch them. To prevent her
disappearance from this world, we disciples feed her with our own
hands. For days together she often stays in the divine trance,
scarcely breathing, her eyes unwinking.
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