Brother Ananta and Sister Nalini

This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Rohit Gokhale. by param hams yoganand brother ananta and sister nalini ananta cannot live the sands of his karma for this life have run out these inexorable words reached my inner consciousness as i sat one morning in deep meditation I paid a visit to my birthplace, Gorakhpur, as a guest of my elder brother, Ananta. A sudden illness confined him to his bed. I nursed him lovingly.

The solemn inward pronouncement filled me with grief. I felt that I could not bear to remain longer in Gorakhpur, only to see my brother removed before my helpless gaze. Amidst uncomprehending criticism from my relatives, I left India on the first available boat. It cruised along Burma and the China Sea to Japan. I disembarked at Kobe, where I spent only a few days. My heart was too heavy for sightseeing. On the return trip to India, the boat touched at Shanghai. There, Dr. Mishraishra the ship's physician guided me to several curio shops where i selected various presents for sri yukteswar and my family and friends for ananta i purchased a large carved bamboo piece then I dropped it on the floor, crying out, I have bought this for my dear dead brother.

A clear realization had swept over me that his soul was just being freed in the infinite. The souvenir was sharply and symbolically cracked by its fall. Amidst sobs, I wrote on the bamboo surface, For my beloved Ananta, now gone. My companion, the doctor, was observing these proceedings with a sardonic smile save your tears he remarked why shed them until you are sure he is dead when our boat reached calcutta dr mishra again accompanied me my youngest brother bishnu was waiting to greet me at the dock.

I know Ananta has departed this life. I said to Vishnu before he had had time to speak, Please tell me, and the doctor here, when Ananta died. Vishnu named the date, which was the very day that I had bought the souvenirs in Shanghai. Look here, Dr. Mishra ejaculated. Don't let any word of this get around. The professors will be adding a year's study of mental telepathy to the medical course which is already long enough father embraced me warmly as i entered our gurpar road home you have come he said tenderly two large tears dropped from his eyes ordinarily undemonstrative he had never before shown me these signs of affection outwardly the grave father inwardly he possessed the melting heart of a mother After Ananta's passing, my younger sister Nalini was brought back from death's door by a divine healing.

Before relating the story, I will refer to a few phases of her earlier life. The childhood relationship between Nalini and myself had not been of the happiest nature. I was very thin. She was thinner still. Through an unconscious motive or complex, which psychiatrists will have no difficulty in identifying identifying i often used to tease my sister about her cadaverous appearance her retorts were equally permeated with the callous frankness of extreme youth by a gentle box on my ear as the elder ear time passed nalini was betrothed to a young calcutta physician panchanan bose he received a generous dowry from father presumably as i remarked to sister to compensate the bridegroom to be for his fate in allying himself with a human beanpole elaborate marriage rites were celebrated in due time on the wedding night i joined the large and jovial group of relatives in the living-room of our calcutta home-in-law and grinned at him in friendly fashion he had never seen naliniya untiled in my ear say what's this why doctor i replied it is a skeleton for your observation as the years went on dr Bose endeared himself to our family who called on him whenever illness arose he and i became fast friends often joking together usually with Nalini as our target everything on your lean sister cod liver oil butter malt honey fish meat eggs tonics still she fails to bulge even one hundredth of an inch we both chuckled a few days later i visited the beaux home I was leaving unnoticed, I thought, by Nalini.

As I reached the front door I heard her voice, cordial but commanding. Brother, come here. You are not going to give me the slip this time. I want to talk to you. I mounted the stairs to her room. To my surprise she was in tears. Dear brother, she said, let us bury the old hatch hatchet i see that your feet are now firmly set on the spiritual path i want to become like you in every way she added hopefully you are now robust in appearance can you help me my husband does not come near me and i love him so dearly.

But still more, I want to progress in God-realization, even if I must remain thin and unattractive. My heart was deeply touched at her plea. Our new friendship steadily progressed. One day she asked to become my disciple. Train me in any way you like. I put my trust in god instead of tonics she gathered together an armful of medicines and poured them down the roof drain as a test of numerous difficulties i paid her a visit sis you have been conscientiously observing the spiritual injunctions your reward is near aunt who hasn't seen her feet inauspiciously turned out to be ideally happy i learned that during my absence nalini had been stricken with typhoid fever i rushed to her home and was aghast to find her reduced to a mere skeleton she was in a coma before her mind became confused by illness my brother-in-law told me she often said be faring thus.

He added despairingly, the other doctors and myself see no hope. Blood dysentery has set in, after her long bout with typhoid. I began to move heaven and earth with my prayers. Engaging an Anglo-Indian nurse, who gave me full cooperation, I applied to my sister various yoga techniques of healing. The blood dysentery disappeared. But Dr. Bose shook his head mournfully. She simply has no more blood left to shed. She will recover, I replied stoutly. In seven days her fever will be gone. A week later I was thrilled to see Nalini open her eyes and gaze at me with loving recognition.

From day her recovery was swift although she regained her usual weight she bore one sad scar of a nearly fatal illness her legs were paralysed indian and english specialists pronounced her a hopeless cripple war for her life which i had waged by prayer had exhausted me i went to serampore to ask sri yukteswar's help his eyes expressed deep sympathy as i told him of nalini's plight your sister's legs will be normal at the end of one month he added let her wear next to her skin a band with an unperforated two-carat pearl held on by a clasp.

I prostrated myself at his feet with joyful relief. Sir, you are a master. Your word of her recovery is enough. But if you insist, I shall immediately get her a pearl. My guru nodded. Yes, do that. He went on to correctly describe the physical and mental characteristics of Nalini whom he had never seen sir i inquired is this an astrological analysis you do not know her birthday or hour astrology, not dependent on the testimony of calendars and clocks. Each man is a part of the Creator, or cosmic man.

He has a heavenly body as well as one of earth. The human eye sees the physical form, but the inward eye penetrates more profoundly, even to the universal pattern of which each man is an integral and individual part. I returned to Calcutta and purchased a pearl for Nalini. A month later her paralyzed legs were completely healed. Sister asked me to convey her heartfelt gratitude to my guru. He listened to her message in silence, but as I was taking my leave, he made a pregnant comment. Your sister has been told by many doctors that she can never bear children.

Assure her that in a few years she will give birth to two daughters. Some years later, to Nalini's joy, she bore a girl, followed in a few years by another daughter. Your master has blessed our home, our entire family, my sister said. The presence of such a man is a sanctification on the whole of India. Dear brother, please tell Sri Yukteswarji that, through you, I humbly count myself as one of his Kriya Yoga disciples.