lt was indeed a turning point in my life when in the year 1944 at the age of nine, I had the good fortune to meet Ma Anandamayee, the Divine Mother in Human guise. My family members of course had the privilege of meeting Mother much ahead of me.

Who knew then that this event would go a long way in shaping and reshaping my future life, providing me such a close proximity ‘to Her! So colourful and splendid are those memories which beggar description. Our Mother left Her mortal frame long ago but Her grace is boundless. She would never forsake those who unconditionally surrender themselves at Her feet. Reaching at ‘life’s end’, when I recall those glorious moments | spent with Mother, tears obscure my eyes and | find bliss and solace in the hours of weariness, both mental and physical. . In this book, I have made a vain effort to highlight my days with the Mother. They might illuminate the readers mind with ineffable joy and guide the ‘bhakta’ to the Divine path amidst ‘encircling gloom’.

In this holy land of ours people of outstanding stature manifest themselves in all ages and times to revive spiritualism. In our age such an outstanding manifestation is Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee. She was a miracle for two reasons: for one, She revealed Herself in the form of a woman—a typical housewife hidden behind the veil. Secondly, Her revelation in public was not prompted by any conscious effort in the form of any kind of penance. The whole thing was a spontaneous outburst proclaiming Her coming like a tempest that carries everything in its wake. She is the embodiment of the declaration made in Devi Sukta, Rig Veda:

At the vital contact of that flow, lives of many have been revived into a second birth. One of them is the writer of "My Mother Anandamayee"—Brahmacharini Vishuddha. Everything about her, right from the naming up to moulding of her life is the doing of the Mother.

The sole aim of Ma Anandamayee was to motivate the lives of human beings Godwardly. Specially due to Her divine vision She evoked the spirit of Gouri within a woman. "Yatra nari, tatra Gouri." ‘Wherever there is a woman, there is Gouri.’ With the same goal in view, Gurupriyadidi, who served Mother whole heartedly and was an inseparable associate in Her divine Leela, founded a Kanyapeeth at holy Varanasi Dham. Vishuddha having her lodging in that Kanyapeeth from her infancy was initiated into the means of elevating her life to a divine existence.

As a resident of the Kanyapeeth, she had the rare opportunity of direct participation in diverse divine modes (leelas) of Shree Shree Ma. Here she has recorded them with the highest pitch of commitment and sincerity. While reading this book, those who were acquainted with the Mother would be gratified by having once more a direct view of Her in an incarnate form. They would be able to realise in what diverse ways the Mother inspired those who came directly under Her aegis sometimes by Her indulgent affection and sometimes influencing them by the regulating power of Her strict discipline—to mould their lives into ideal form. Vishuddha was able to have the rare fortune of serving the divinity embodied in the Universal Mother by bathing Her, cooking food for Her consumption, massaging Her feet and lying down near those very feet. In this way she was able to purify and gratify herself.

Many would be able to know from this book the detailed account of the Savitri Maha Yajna performed by the kheyal of Ma at Varanasi. Besides, many miraculous divine incidents have been recorded in it. Shree Shree Ma laughed and played with celibates like Vishuddha. Ma was dressed as they liked to dress Her and sometimes even wept profusely while detecting some lapses in them. She, prostrating Herself at their feet, crying effusively with eyes moistened with tears would say, "Forgive me, forgive me thou Goddess in the kumari form".

Once, finding Her bathed in tears and repeating the same words in a state of trance, Gurupriyadi was struck dumb with surprise, She said, "Ma, why are you asking for forgiveness? We are the perpetrators and are at fault at every step." Ma replied, "Didi, the faults committed by those who are called upon to gather around this body, are part and parcel of this body."

In this way the Mother identified Herself with all. When we realise it, we would be alert and try to do no wrong lest it should go down to Her and bring tears to Her eyes. The responsibility of keeping the Mother free from tears, rests with Her children.

We can get these wonderful instructions from these anecdotes of Vishuddha. I hope that all would read this book and be gratified by deriving inspiration towards the life divine. I for one am gratified and these few lines are just to unlock my heart, for I am too humble to write an ‘introduction’ to this wonderful book. Only fellow celibates like Vishuddha, or her teachers at Kanyapeeth, are competent for the task. Only a teacher, striver or a fellow student of Vishuddha, her contemporary at Kanyapeeth is entitled to this task.