AT about 12-15 P.M. after giving her opinion about prayer, relationships between human beings. Mother retired into her inner apartment and rested on her cot. When she was sleeping, some one called out from the hall ‘Mother, Mother!’ Some one went out to see who it was. It was found that an old lady by name Smt. Durgamba, the wife of one Sri Vedantam Lakshmipathi came there. She was lying down in the verandah with her head turned towards the hall. She was breathing heavily. Someone was fanning her legs sprinkling water now and then, and a piece of wet cloth was placed on her forhead.
Mother woke up at about 12-45 and enquired whether any visitors came. Then she was told about the arrival of the old lady and some others. Mother asked whether she came by a taxi but none could tell her anything definitely about it. When Mother came into the bath room, some one told that they came by a rickshaw up to the seventh mile. Mother wanted us to ask whether the visitors would dine. The old lady could not go; but her daughter in-law who accompained her went to the dining hall to have her meal before Mother came out.
At about 1-30 P.M. Mother came out. She did not sit on Her cot but directly approached the old lady who was lying down and who by then was half asleep and Mother gently laid her hand on the old lady. Smt. Durgamba recognized that it was Mother’s touch and calling out ‘Mother’, Mother’, she touched Mother’s feet and said “I never thought that I would see you again! When I fell down un conscious on the way, I thought I had met my end”. She was very old and she seemed to suffer from acute pain of legs and she could hardly stand the long walk. She could hardly say any thing more but profuse flow of tears from her eyes spoke out her feelings. Her attitude was not one of mere respect but one of deep attachment and fondness for Mother as one who is very much younger in age. Mother too reciprocated the feeling. The lady was touching Mother’s cheeks, head, face as she said “Mother, did you come out for my sake? My pain is unbearable…………. Oh! you are standing and I am sitting!……… Ah! touch me like that with your soothing hand.. I ventured on this journey and I thought you were testing me….”
Mother was passing her soothing hands on Durgamba’s painful limbs. “My dear, dear one, touch me like that with your soothing hands. Where were you all these days? Did you come out for my sake? Please be seated on my legs!” She entreated. Mother quietly sat on her outstretched legs as a child would sit on its mother’s legs in a typical Indian house. The old woman threw her hands around Mother’s neck and kissed Mother’s cheeks. “My Mother, be seated like that and all my pains would vanish” she said. Mother also embraced her.
Then Mother asked someone to give Horlicks to Smt. Durgamba and asked her “Do you take Horlicks?” “I will, if it is from your hands!” she replied. Thinking that her legs might be paining her more, Mother gently asked. “Doesn’t it give you more pain if I sit here like this?” “No Mother” she replied and added, “Is it inconvenient to you to sit on my legs?”. “No”. replied Mother. Mother wanted a chair to be brought for Durgamba as it might be inconvenient for the latter to squat on the floor but the latter declined saying that she would prefer to lie down. Then both of them retired into the inner apartment where mother sat on the cot and Durgamba, lay down. When some one fanned Durgamba, she took the fan away and wanted that fanning should be done to Mother only and lay quiet.
After a while, Mother again came out into the hall to give darshan to other visitors. One Sri Ramamurthy who was standing near the door bowed with folded hands to Mother and said, “I shall take leave of you, Mother.” Going”? She casually asked him.
Tears welled in his eyes. “come near and beseated here, child!” Mother said to him. He came and sat near her. “Let your Grace be with me always, Mother” he said in a quivering voice. “It is always there, Child!” she replied.
After sitting for a while, he got up saying, “I will take leave of you Mother!” Before he went a few paces from the outer Verandah, Mother asked someone to get the Sugar candy he had brought and offerred to Her the previous day. When it was brought, she wanted him to be called back and she gave it to him. Taking it from her, “My mind has been disturbed……….. I do not find any earthly use with this education of mine….. …. ….. I do not know how you would pull me out of all this”. All along tears had been freely flowing from his eyes. Mother wiped his tears with a cloth and said “You start only when the feeling subsides”. A few minutes later, he took leave and left and Mother retired into her inner apartment.
(Translated from the Arkapuri Diary of Bhavani)
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If a mother seeks to feed a child even by herself starving, that is only for her happiness and satisfaction.
My will is my Will. These lines (on the plan or on the forehead) can’t do anything beyond my Will,
– Mother