Recording intelligenceAI-generated brief · check the source for context

Heart of a Stone Image

14:09 recording · EN · 5 speakers

Listen to the original

Brief overview

A mocking skeptic is transformed at Dakineshwar by a vision, an unasked-for meal, and lifelong devotion.

  1. Prayer for another answered at DakineshwarMukunda prayed for his sister's husband, not himself, and the goddess replied, 'Thy wish is granted.'
  2. The challenge answered by a priest's mealSatish demanded to see Divine Mother feed them without arrangements; a priest at once brought food he had set aside.
  3. Mockery turned into silent sainthoodSatish gave up his large bedroom for worship, meditated nightly in Delhi, and died a silent saint.
Executive Summary AI
  • Roma asks her brother Mukunda for help with her husband Satish Chandra Bose, who ridicules the saints' pictures in her meditation room and delights in materialistic views.
  • Mukunda proposes a trip to the Dakshineshwar Temple the next morning, telling Roma to bring her husband without disclosing the object, and Satish jeers at gurus throughout the carriage ride up Upper Circular Road.
  • After about five hours in the lotus posture the temple appears magnified to Mukunda, the stone figure of Goddess Kali takes living form, and to his prayer for his brother-in-law she answers, 'Thy wish is granted.'
  • Satish storms in furious that six hours passed, the temple is closed at noon and no lunch was arranged, whereupon a priest appears and says he broke the temple rule against feeding those who made no prior request, serving a lavish meal with out-of-season mangoes.
  • Satish weeps before Roma that night, turns the large bedroom into a place of worship and vows silence toward Mukunda until he advances spiritually; Roma foretells and dies first, and Satish, though recovered from his illness, dies soon after speaking to her photograph.
Key Quote
“Dear brother, I have deep faith that you can help him.”
— Roma
Key Quote
“I feel that in the vibrations of that holy place, Divine Mother will touch his heart.”
— Mukunda
Key Quote
“Don't give your husband the satisfaction of believing that we take his mockery seriously.”
— Mukunda

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER XXII.
0:03 OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI.
0:05 THIS IS A LIBRIVOX RECORDING.
0:07 ALL LIBRIVOX RECORDINGS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
0:11 FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO VOLUNTEER, PLEASE VISIT LIBRIVOX.ORG.
0:16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA.
0:22 THE HEART OF A STONE IMAGE
0:25 As a loyal Hindu wife, I do not wish to complain of my husband,
0:29 but I yearn to see him turn from his materialistic views.
0:33 He delights in ridiculing the pictures of saints in my meditation room.
0:37 Dear brother, I have deep faith that you can help him.
0:40 Will you?
0:41 My eldest sister Roma gazed beseechingly at me. I was paying a short visit at her Calcutta
0:48 home on Girish Vidya Ratna Lane. Her plea touched me, for she had exercised a profound spiritual
0:55 influence over my early life, and had lovingly tried to fill the void left in the family circle
1:00 by Mother's death. Beloved sister, of course I will do anything I can, I smiled,
1:07 eager to lift the gloom plainly visible on her face, in contrast to her usual calm and cheerful
1:13 expression. Roma and I sat a while in silent prayer for guidance. A year earlier my sister
1:20 had asked me to initiate her into Kriya Yoga, in which she was making notable progress.
1:26 An inspiration seized me.
1:28 Tomorrow, I said, I am going to the Dakshineshwar Temple.
1:32 Please come with me, and persuade your husband to accompany us.
1:36 I feel that in the vibrations of that holy place, Divine Mother will touch his heart.
1:41 But don't disclose our object in wanting him to go.
1:45 Sister agreed hopefully. Very early
1:47 the next morning I was pleased to find that Roma and her husband were in readiness for the trip.
1:52 As our hackney carriage rattled along Upper Circular Road toward Dakineshwar, my brother-in-law,
1:59 Satish Chandra Bose, amused himself by deriding spiritual gurus of the past, present and future,
2:06 I noticed that Roma was quietly weeping.
2:09 Sister, cheer up, I whispered.
2:11 Don't give your husband the satisfaction of believing that we take his mockery seriously.
2:17 Mukunda, how can you admire worthless humbugs, Satish was saying,
2:23 a sad whose very appearance is repulsive. He's either as thin
2:27 as a skeleton or as unholily fat as an elephant. I shouted with laughter. My good-natured reaction
2:34 was annoying to Satish. He retired into sullen silence. As our cab entered the Dakineshwar
2:41 grounds, he grinned sarcastically. This excursion, I suppose, is a scheme to reform me?
2:49 As I turned away without reply, he caught my arm. Young Mr. Monk, he said, don't forget to make
2:55 proper arrangements with the temple authorities to provide for our noon meal. I'm going to meditate
3:01 now. Do not worry about your lunch, I sharply divine mother will look after it i don't trust divine mother to do a single thing for me but i do hold you responsible for my food satish's tones were threatening hall which fronts the large temple of Kali, or Mother Nature. Selecting a shady spot near one
3:26 of the pillars, I arranged my body in the lotus posture. Although it was only about seven o'clock,

Showing the first 40 of 136 lines.