Words of Sri Anandamayi Ma

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This book contains a selection from Sri Ananda- mayi Ma's replies to oral questions, recorded at meetings of large and small groups. They have been arranged. not in chronological order hut, as far as possible. according to subjects. The simpler ones have been put first. They deal with meditation, the spiritual path and Self-realization ; with a great variety of problems - practical, philosophical, and metaphysical - as encountered by seekers after Truth at various stages of their quest. In her replies. Mataji rcsponds exactly to the inquirer's capacity to understand, his specific disposition and line of approach. She throws light on every question from many different stand- points. In fact, in her utterances we find united every creed and philosophy, every school of thought and method of yoga, -- yet she stands above and beyond them, all. It has been said of her that she has the right word, at the right time, in the right manner, for every seeker after Truth, be he a believer in any faith or an agnostic, an intellectual or an artist, a scholar or an illiterate, a beginner or highly advanced on the path. Just as the earth provides for each plant. the substance necessary for its growth, even so does Sri Anandarnayi Ma guide every aspirant, according to his uniqueness and his need at any particular moment. Her replies are not mind-made. She has often declared unequi- vocally that she does not talk to 'another.' For her: everything is the One Supreme Being. who manifests in infinite diversity, yet at the same time is beyond expression and limitation, formless, immutable, incon- ceivable. In THAT there is no room for distinctions, although on our level they do exist. Questions are asked from the standpoint of the individual, but the true answer lies beyond the ego-mind where no sepa- ration, no divergence of opinion exists, and Mataji gives it expression.

The recorder of the discussions, Brahmachari Kamal Bhattacharjee, well-known as 'Kamalda' to all devotees and visitors of the Sri Anandamayi Ashram, met Mataji first in Dacca in 1926, and kept in touch with her ever since. In 1942 he joined the Ashram and became one of its most devoted and prominent workers. Gifted with a keen intelligence and a great thirst for real Knowledge, he conceived the intense desire to record Mataji's exact words, since he was convinced that they emerged spontaneously from depths to which ordinary human beings have no access. For his own study and enlightenment, he took it upon himself to note down, whenever he got the opportunity, Mataji's words as he heard them uttered. Notwithstanding his numerous duties as the Joint Secre- tary of the. Shree Shree Anandamayee Sangha, the mana- ger of the Benares Ashram, etc., as soon as he got to know that Mataji was replying to questions, he would at once leave the work in hand, and hasten to the spot where the discussion took place. In the stillness of night he used to make fair copies of his records, pondering over the profound significance of what he had heard and written down. Often the dawn would remind him that he had spent the best part of the night in this delightful meditation. In his eagerness to preserve Mataji's utterances in their original purity and with the greatest possible precision, he soon developed a technique of his own. He might have missed a word here or there, but he never missed the point of what was being said. If, for some reason, he was prevented from recording a part of the conversation, he felt it as an acute personal loss. But on many such occasions, he would later, to his great delight, hear Mataji explain the same point to someone else, thereby elucidating the part of the conversation he had missed. Not only Kamalda, but many others who have come into contact with Mataji, have found their questions answered by Mataji before they were put to her. Mataji sometimes says about her own person: "This body is like a musical instrument; what. you hear depends on how you play." The wonder is that it responds even to silent playing! To mention a striking .example : one night at Puri, a discussion occurred on the seashore. To his utter dismay, Kamalda was unable to note down anything, since there was no light. Soon after, however, he found Mataji covering the entire subject matter in practically the same words. and was able to take down the whole of it. It is one of the most inspiring talks ('TWENTY-FIVE' in this collection), which •probably gives a more consummate idea of Mataji's universality than any other.

Kamalda's diaries comprise several volumes. When, in 1953, he showed one of them to Dr. Gopinath Kaviraj, this great savant was deeply impressed with the contents. He suggested the publica- tion of extracts from those diaries in "Ananda Varta” and offered to write commentaries on them. He himself selected the conversations to be published. They appeared in “Ananda Varta” from May 1953 to August 1958 under “Mataji's Amara Vani” in the Bengali original, as well as in Hindi and English translations. The present volume represents a care- fully revised version of the English translation of most of these conversations.