Life of Ma Anandamayee in brief
Shree Shree Anandamayee Ma was born as Nirmala Bhattacharya on May 1,1896, in a small village named Kheora (Brahmanbaria District) in Bangladesh, very close to the Indo-Bangladesh Border adjoining Tripura.
Her parents were highly pious but poor. She had a very elementary education for a couple of years and when She was 12 years and 10 months old in 1909, She was married to Sh. Ramani Mohan Chakravarty (known later as Bholanath). who worked with the Police Department. Her husband lost his job soon after marriage and he left his wife under the care of his elder brother, who worked with the Railways as a Station Master, and his family for 4 years, where the young bride was expected to look after all household duties of the family, which she did most admirably.
Around the age of 17, she came to Astagram where her husband was then employed –and it was here that Her religious sadhanas started to manifest. This state could not be understood by Her husband who was led to believe that she was perhaps possessed by evil spirits. However later, he got advised by people more knowledgeable in spiritual matters– that she was at a highly elevated spiritual plane and that he should not disturb or obstruct her activities.
Bholanath, often watched his young wife sit on the floor after her daily domestic duties, and start doing pujas and adopt yogic postures spontaneously, and sometimes mantras would sprout from her lips and She would go into a trance well into the night. All this was totally foreign to him and he could not fathom what was happening.
Around 1924, he was posted as a garden superintendent in the Shahbagh Gardens of Begum Piaari Banoo, the sister of the Nawab of Dhaka, and it was here that the intensity of Her sadhana increased further and parts of which were witnessed and recognized by the educated gentry who had by then come to know about Her. They were surprised to observe the high spiritual state of this young woman with no formal education.
The information about Her spread by word of mouth and people started gathering. Often kirtan would be held at the NAACH GHAR or the DANCING HALL of the garden. Some miracles were observed during this period and news about which spread all over the city and very soon She was named the LIVING KALI OF DHAKA.
In 1927, Ma left Dhaka and came to North India. During the next 55 years She travelled relentlessly to most parts of India. There was hardly a place not visited by Her.
Around the end of 1954 She came out to the Sadhu Samaj at the Kumbh Mela and people were awed by Her divine presence and interpretation of the complicated Sastras.
When asked how She had mastered so much without a formal education —she responded that there comes a stage in the spiritual world when the answer to any query gets self-revealed.
During the next 30 years, She travelled wherever devotees called – travelling over long distances by train, road or other means of transport. She travelled ignoring her physical health, giving guidance to all seekers of all religions who came to her for guidance.
Physically she is no more, but in the Ashrams like the Delhi Ashram people come and pray and some who have never seen her experience vibrations and visions of Her in their dreams and get peace or answers to their queries.
MA was far beyond the physical body and once She said that She was “Purna Brahma Narayan”.
Which includes all that exists as per our intelligence and beyond, in all forms of life.
She never identified herself to Her physical body and this is best expressed in Her own words
“My consciousness was never associated with this temporal body
Before I came to this earth I was the same,
As a little girl I was the same,
I grew into womanhood I was the same
and ever afterwards through the dance of creation which changes around me in the hall of eternity
I shall be the same.”
“There is only One and nothing else but the One
– Everything is in the One and that One is in everything.”
She encouraged people to delve within themselves to enquire about their own identity and ask the question— “WHO AM I” . She explained that
“To know yourself is to know God and to know God is to know yourself”.
She told people that there is only one GOD and that all religions are different paths to HIM only.
She said she believed in all religions and often she was known to have advised people of different faiths in their own religion.
