– Sri M.B. Menon
Mother had invited Her disciples from Trichur to spend a few days with Her. More than a dozen of us were fortunate to avail ourselves of that opportunity. We started from Trichur and reached Tellicherry by about 1.30 P.M. The train was a little late that day. We were met at the railway station and taken home. When we entered the gate we saw Mother waiting for us. Bhagawan was also there. “You must be very tired and hungry after the journey, just wash yourselves and come ready for lunch” – that was Her greeting to us. She Herself came and served us food and saw that all of us ate well. She seemed happy to feed Her children, so like a beloved mother.
In the night, after dinner, all of us assembled in the verandah of the house. Bhagawan and Mother were also there. She talked to us about Her early life and sadhanas. Bhagawan also told us some of his experiences. At about 10 o’clock we were asked to retire early, and take a good night’s rest, as we were tired by the journey. We would have remained there listening to Her, completely oblivious of time.
The men were sleeping in the verandah and the women in the hall upstairs. At about eleven in the night it was drizzling a bit. Then we found Mother gently coming down the stairs with a few blankets. She carefully covered those who had already slept with the blankets and gave the rest to us. She thought that we might feel cold sleeping in the open verandah, when it was raining, and so took all the trouble to supply us with those blankets. This is just to show what great loving care She took to see that we were happy and comfortable. Throughout our stay we were looked after with tender care and affection.
After a day’s stay we knew why Mother had asked us to come and stay with Her. She was teaching us to become perfect grihasthas ourselves. For that there could be no better lesson than Her own perfect example. We saw with our own eyes how our divine guru was living the life of an ideal grihastha. Every act of daily life was exalted into an act of loving service. There was nothing too small for Her attention. Much more forcefully than by discourse, She made us understand how we could spiritualize our everyday existence. More important than daily meditation and smarana, the quality of his daily life is to the sadhaka. The grihastha as a sadhaka is to expand his love and devotion into universal love, and towards this end should he direct his daily life. For us it was a great lesson.