“Behold, now and always one with the Eternal,
‘I am ever the same.’”
{FN45-1} I find some further facts of Ananda Moyi
Ma’s life, printed in east-west. The
saint was born in 1893 at Dacca in central Bengal.
Illiterate, she has yet stunned the intellectuals by
her wisdom. Her verses in Sanskrit have filled
scholars with wonderment. She has brought consolation
to bereaved persons, and effected miraculous cures,
by her mere presence.
{FN45-2} mark 12:30.
THE WOMAN YOGI WHO NEVER EATS
“Sir, whither are we bound this morning?”
Mr. Wright was driving the Ford; he took his eyes
off the road long enough to gaze at me with a questioning
twinkle. From day to day he seldom knew what
part of Bengal he would be discovering next.
“God willing,” I replied devoutly, “we
are on our way to see an eighth wonder of the world-a
woman saint whose diet is thin air!”
“Repetition of wonders-after Therese Neumann.”
But Mr. Wright laughed eagerly just the same; he even
accelerated the speed of the car. More extraordinary
grist for his travel diary! Not one of an average
tourist, that!
The Ranchi school had just been left behind us; we
had risen before the sun. Besides my secretary
and myself, three Bengali friends were in the party.
We drank in the exhilarating air, the natural wine
of the morning. Our driver guided the car warily
among the early peasants and the two-wheeled carts,
slowly drawn by yoked, hump-shouldered bullocks, inclined
to dispute the road with a honking interloper.
“Sir, we would like to know more of the fasting
saint.”
“Her name is Giri Bala,” I informed my
companions. “I first heard about her years
ago from a scholarly gentleman, Sthiti Lal Nundy.
He often came to the Gurpar Road home to tutor my brother
Bishnu.”
“‘I know Giri Bala well,’ Sthiti
Babu told me. ’She employs a certain yoga
technique which enables her to live without eating.
I was her close neighbor in Nawabganj near Ichapur.
{FN46-1} I made it a point to watch her closely; never
did I find evidence that she was taking either food
or drink. My interest finally mounted so high
that I approached the Maharaja of Burdwan {FN46-2}
and asked him to conduct an investigation. Astounded
at the story, he invited her to his palace.
She agreed to a test and lived for two months locked
up in a small section of his home. Later she returned
for a palace visit of twenty days; and then for a
third test of fifteen days. The Maharaja himself
told me that these three rigorous scrutinies had convinced
him beyond doubt of her non-eating state.’
“This story of Sthiti Babu’s has remained
in my mind for over twenty-five years,” I concluded.
“Sometimes in America I wondered if the river
of time would not swallow the YOGINI {FN46-3} before
I could meet her. She must be quite aged now.
I do not even know where, or if, she lives. But
in a few hours we shall reach Purulia; her brother
has a home there.”
