All World
Gayatri Pariwar

   There was an old mansion in Aanwalkheda. There lived a joint family with brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles. There was a continuous flow of visitors, relatives and seekers in the house. It was always busy with activity. Pt. Roop Kishoreji was 55 years old then. Everybody in the household used to call his wife Daan Kunwari Devi as ‘Taiji’ (elder aunt). Panditji was the eldest among all his brothers and sisters in the family. So, it was natural for all the younger ones to call him ‘Tauji’ and his wife ‘Taiji’. Taiji took great care of all the family members. She was like an elder sister or mother to all the family members. She would wake up early in the morning and work incessantly all day for the family and the guests who visited their house and would go to bed late in the night.

In 1911, she had the first experience of motherhood. Taiji began to have some unique and wonderful experiences. She would tell confidently that these experiences were neither evoking fear nor anxiety in her. When she spoke about her feelings to the elderly ladies in their neighborhood, they said that it was the sign of family God being pleased. Later she realized that it was not just about the grace of their ancestors and family gods. She told about an incident of one morning when she was boiling milk after having completed her bath and daily worship. She was as usual thinking about the other morning chores. She typically possessed immense energy that even after working till late in the night, she still felt full of energy. She did not feel any trace of fatigue even after working continuously for hours. For some reason, that morning she felt sleepy and her eyes began to droop. In that sleep, she had a dream.

The dream was in an unknown forest. She was alone in that solitary place. Golden rays of the sun were diffused in all directions. Sun was rising in the east like a golden ball of fire and had scattered its fiery hues in the eastern horizon. The radiance of that rising sun was spreading everywhere. The fragrance present in the atmosphere had Taiji mesmerized. She was completely engrossed in the beauty of the atmosphere. The rising sun began to come out in all its intensity and glory. At the centre of the fiery ball, she could see the outlines of a woman. A resplendent divine form was seated on a swan. She had kamandal in her right hand and a book in her left hand. Taiji could not clearly see what book it was. She thought that it was Bhagavat since her husband was a renowned scholar of the Mahapuran. She could see that divine form for a few moments and then it vanished. She opened her eyes to see milk boiling out of the vessel and falling into the earthen stove. It was with that sizzling sound of burning milk in the fire that her trance was broken.

She narrated this dream to her husband. She also told him that the divine form had Bhagavat in her hand. Her husband clarified that they were the Vedas and not Bhagavat. Entire Bhagavat is an exposition of one verse in the Vedas. Bhagavat, Ramayan, etc have been composed as elaborations of Gayatri Mantra or to give detailed explanations of the inspirations that surge forth from Gayatri Mantra.

Taiji had a similar dream once again. One afternoon, she was taking a short break from her work after finishing her lunch. While she was still present in the kitchen preparing for evening chores, Taiji went into Bhavasamadhi in which she found herself standing beside a lake. There were lotuses in full bloom. She saw the same divine form sitting on one of the big lotuses in the lake. In one of her dreams, she saw that an airplane with Devatas flew in from the East. The Devatas sitting in it were showering flowers. According to Panditji, this vision was related to some stirrings in the subtle worlds. Indications could also be interpreted as the changes in one’s consciousness. Whenever a divine soul is to take birth and has already entered the womb, such visions and dreams are experienced.

Strange incidents began to occur in their house and vicinity also. Taiji used to tell that suddenly some fragrance would envelop the house as though incense sticks have been lit or as though some yagya is being performed. The fragrance would linger on for sometime and then gradually vanish. Suddenly cows began to come to their residential mansion in the village. There was a shed adjacent to the house where the cows were kept. In addition to their own cows, there would at times come more than 8-10 cows and stand at their doorstep. Those were the cows belonging to other families living in Aanwalkheda. When they found their cattle missing, they would start their search for them and be surprised to find them at Panditji’s house. Typically one tends to shoo away other’s animals, but Taiji had undergone strange transformation because of which, instead of shooing those cows away she began to worship them, and offer them food.

Taiji indeed behaved unnaturally when bees came into their house in large numbers and began humming. They came in such numbers that in a week’s time, they had made 4-5 beehives. All the members of the family experienced inconvenience because of the bees. Though they were not stinging anyone, there was unrest in the family because of them. They then thought of a scheme to scare the bees away. In villages, the common practice to disrupt a hive was to light a fire and create smoke.

When Taiji learnt about their plan to send the bees away, she was upset. She was the one who moved around the house most and hence the inconvenience to her was also more than to others, but she somehow did not like the idea of disrupting the hives. She shouted in a stern voice that bees were not hurting anyone but were living in their hive. Why then were they hurting them? On this outburst of Taiji, everyone calmed down.

Panditji was not at home during this incident. He had gone out to perform Bhagavat Katha and returned after 8-10 days. When he learnt about the incident, he supported Taiji. He explained the spiritual significance of the phenomenon of the bees coming and making hives in their home was a symbol of Lord Shiva. When a divine soul was to take birth, it was with the blessings of Shiva. The creatures sent by him were gathering honey from flowers. This has to be understood as the grace and blessing of Lord Shiva for the soul that is to embody.

Congratulations echo from all directions

On 20th September 1911, Shriram was born at nine in the morning at their ancestral house in village Aanwalkheda situated on Agra-Jalesar route. Those were the days of Pitrupaksh. According to sanatana dharma, it is considered auspicious to leave one’s body or take birth during this period. It is said that those who leave their body in Pitrupaksh need not spend time wandering in the other worlds. There is no desire or want pending in them that they have to stay in a bodiless state waiting for its fulfillment. The soul either directly goes to pitrulok or assumes a new body immediately. The souls that embody during this time are said to have arrived at the gates of liberation (mukti). They have taken up a body so as to fulfill some remnant desire.

It is also a belief that those born in Pitrupaksh are none other than a scholarly ancestor who has come back to restore or increase the glory and fame of their family tradition and to pay back those who have helped and assisted him in the past. Based on his birth in pitrupaksh and also bearing in mind the incidents that occurred before his birth, the pandits of Anwalkheda asserted that a yogi had taken birth in the house of Pandit Roop Kishoreji. At the age of 55, he had obtained this great boon.

The birth of the child brought festivities not only at his home but also in the entire village. There were 30-40 houses in the village. The incidents before his birth – cows coming to their house, bees making their hives in the house, and the experiences narrated by Taiji spread not only in their village but also in neighboring villages. When these events occurred, scholarly and learned elderly people predicted that a soul of a yogi would be born in Panditji’s house. When the child was born, wealthy and famous people from various villages in whose house Panditji had done Bhagavat katha also came to see the child. The inhabitants of Aanwalkheda found their coming to be a natural thing. What appeared special was the sudden influx of sanyasis and sadhus to the village. Typically, just a mendicant or two would wander into the village. After the child was born, about 4-5 sadhus began to visit every day. On the day the child was born, a tall, well-built and radiant sadhu came and stood at the doorstep of the house. On hearing the cries of the baby, he expressed his desire to see the baby. Taiji was hesitant but agreed on Panditji’s intervention. On seeing the child, the sadhu raised both his hands and blessed the child for a long and illustrious life and then left the place.

Taiji used to say that on the day Shriram was born, the place started resonating with some sweet and divine music. Until the next morning, one could hear the recitation of mantras and Ramayana reverberating in the house. This could have been experienced by Taiji because of the inner tranquility she was experiencing. But she was visibly upset at the visits of sadhus who stood at the doorstep gazing quietly at the child. When they were offered something, they plainly refused. They just wanted to see the child and once he began to cry, they would leave the place. Even Panditji found it strange that so many sadhus visited his house, but he was never worried about it. He tried to console Taiji when she worried too much about these happenings.

The child was 16-17 days old when it was arranged to conduct the naming ceremony. A strange incident occurred that day which ruffled the calm of Panditji too. The auspicious day of vijayadashami was chosen for the ceremony. According to the tradition in the village, the day of vijayadashami was spent in reciting ‘Ramcharit Manas’, ‘Saptashati’ etc. They typically did not conduct Ramlila or burn the effigy of Ravana. Due to the birth of the child, they were observing sutak (state of ritual impurity existing after a birth or a death in one’s household) because of which the family members did not conduct any special Navaratri puja. Only regular rituals of sandhyavandan were being observed. The sutak was over on the day of Navami and the same day, they started the incessant recitation of Ramacharit Manas (Akhand Parayan). It was planned that on the next day they will have the Purnahuti and yagya followed by naming ceremony.

Almost everyone in the village attended the Purnahuti of Ramcharit Manas recitation, yagna and naming ceremony. People began to gather since the early hours of Vijayadashami. Whoever walked in observed a sanyasi standing at the doorstep. After sometime a female mendicant (Sadhvi) came and joined him. They did not converse amongst themselves but continued to stand undisturbed till the naming ceremony commenced. Once the ceremony began, both of them walked into the house and began to gaze at the child lying in Taiji’s lap. When Taiji noticed both of them, she was taken aback and tried to cover the child with her saree. At that, the sadhu said, “O Mother, let us also see the little one. Let us gaze at him to our heart’s content. Only God knows whether we will get another chance to see him or not.” Taiji interpreted that he was speaking something inauspicious about the child and became angry. She stood up from the dais and started taking both of them to task. Both of them offered their explanation but Taiji’s anger was not to be assuaged. Panditji got up and said, “Let it be, Shriram’s mother. Nothing untoward will happen to your child. Everything will be fine and auspicious”. On hearing this the sanyasis left imploring that the child be named as ‘Shriram’ in accordance to what had come out from his father’s mouth involuntarily. He said that it was the desire of the Lord that the child be named thus. Panditji agreed to the suggestion and Taiji did not argue further. The sadhu and sadhvi stood at the doorstep till the ceremony was completed.

There is another incident in which an old sanyasi stood for one and a half hours at the doorstep. Taiji was worried and walked out of the house and asked the sadhu why he was casting an evil eye on the child and what harm the child had done to him. On hearing this, the sadhu clarified that he had not come to do anything evil to the child and that he had come to just see him. He said that, ‘I got a feeling that a great soul from the Himalayas has taken birth in your house. So, I have just come to see the child. Let me just take a short glance at him and I will go away.” The mother abided by Sanyasi’s wishes and showed him the child. She also clarified that she will not show the child to any sadhus from then on and that no one should come to their house with such a request.

She then went to her room and sat in front of Lord Krishna and kept crying for a long time. The mother was confused and alarmed at the various terms like Soul from  the Himalayas, Siddha purush, Sanyasi etc and was worried if she would be separated from her child in the future and if he would  become a mendicant of some kind. It is possible that the mother would have prayed to her revered deity that she be never separated from her child and that he always stayed with her. What the devotee asked her Lord is completely a private conversation. But the visible result was that saints and mendicants stopped visiting their house after that day.

The initial 3-4 years were spent with parents enjoying their child learning to walk and utter his first words. Three years after the birth of Shriram, one more girl-child entered the family. She was named Kiran Devi. One more sister was born in due course and she was named Ram Devi. After the birth of his sisters, Taiji’s attention got divided among her three kids. Until then she used to shoulder the entire responsibility of the house right from cooking food to hosting the guests. While doing all her household work, her eyes were always on Shriram. She rarely left her son under the care of any family member or even his father. The words uttered by mendicants regarding Shriram kept echoing in her mind. She was always tormented by this lurking fear that some sadhu or sanyasi might cast a spell on her son. After the birth of Kiran Devi, Taiji had to leave Shriram under the care of others, mostly under the care of only his father. She tried to take full care of both Shriram and Kiran Devi. When Panditji was not at home, she made Shriram sleep along with the new-born and when his father was at home, she would leave him to his care.