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Master Mahasaya and the Divine Mother

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Brief overview

Yogananda's grief for his mother is healed by Master Mahasaya, whose pleas the Divine Mother answers.

  1. The saint's request was always answeredWhatever Master Mahasaya mentioned to the Divine Mother came to pass: the acquaintance left, the lecture lights failed, the city fell silent.
  2. Devotion answered a grief that argument could notYogananda's moaning collapse over his mother's death ended in a ten o'clock vision and tears that welled from bliss and not pain.
  3. He taught by contagion, not preceptNo rule and no chastisement in his school; he spread wisdom by spiritual contagion, ending every counsel with "My master told me so."
Executive Summary AI
  • Chapter IX of Paramhansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, read for LibriVox and in the public domain, portrays the blissful devotee Master Mahasaya and his cosmic romance with the Divine Mother.
  • On his first visit to the saint's fourth-floor room at fifty Amherst Street, the young Yogananda is greeted with "Little sir, please be seated. I'm talking to my divine mother," and collapses in the torture of his mother's death, clutching the saint's feet and begging him to ask the Divine Mother whether he finds favour in her sight.
  • Master Mahasaya finally yields with "i will make your plea to the beloved"; that same night at ten o'clock the Divine Mother appears to Yogananda in his attic saying "Always have I loved thee, ever shall I love thee," and the next morning the saint already knows of the assurance before Yogananda can speak of it.
  • Yogananda identifies the saint as Mahendra Nath Gupta, who signed his literary works simply "M", ran a school for boys without a word of chastisement, was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, and told the boy "I am not your guru. He shall come a little later."
  • Three demonstrations follow: a tiresome acquaintance departs at the red gate exactly as promised, the lights of a dull university lecture go out until the two can leave, and a slap over the heart outside the university hall silences all Calcutta into a soundless, luminous panorama in which Yogananda sees behind and beside himself and passing friends fail to recognise him.
Key Quote
“Little sir, please be seated. I'm talking to my divine mother.”
— Master Mahasaya
Key Quote
“Little sir, quiet yourself.”
— Master Mahasaya
Key Quote
“i will make your plea to the beloved”
— Master Mahasaya

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER IX. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI.
0:04 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
0:09 For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org.
0:15 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI by Paramhansa Yogananda
0:19 The Blissful Devotee and His Cosmic cosmic romance, Master Mahasaya.
0:33 Little sir, please be seated. I'm talking to my divine mother. Silently I had entered the room in great awe. The angelic appearance of Master Mahasaya fairly dazzled me. With silky white
0:39 beard and large, lustrous eyes, he seemed an incarnation of purity. His upraised chin and folded hands apprised me that my first visit had disturbed him in the midst of his devotions his simple words of greeting produced the most violent effect my nature had so far experienced the bitter separation of my mother's was an indescribable torture of the spirit.
1:06 I fell moaning to the floor.
1:08 Little sir, quiet yourself.
1:11 The saint was sympathetically distressed.
1:14 Abandoned in some oceanic desolation, I clutched his feet as the sole raft of my rescue.
1:21 Holy sir, thy intercession.
1:23 Ask Divine Mother if I find any favour in her her sight this promise is not one easily bestowed the master was constrained to silence
1:32 beyond reach of doubt i was convinced that master mahasaya was in intimate converse with the universal mother it was deep humiliation to realise that my eyes were blind to her who even at this moment was perceptible to the faultless gaze of the saint shamelessly gripping his feet deaf to his gentle remonstrances i besought him again and again for his intervening grace
1:56 i will make your plea to the beloved the master's capitulation came with a slow compassionate smile what power in those few words that my being should
2:06 know release from its stormy exile! Sir, remember your pledge. I shall return soon for her message.
2:14 Joyful anticipation rang in my voice that only a moment ago had been sobbing in sorrow.
2:20 Descending the long stairway I was overwhelmed by memories this house at fifty amherst street now the residence of master mahasaya had once been my family silent witness of my grievous hurts and final healing.
2:47 My steps were eager as I returned to my Gopar road home. Seeking the seclusion of my small attic,
2:54 I remained in meditation until ten o'clock. The darkness of the warm Indian night was suddenly
2:59 lit with a wondrous vision. Haloed in splendor, the Divine Mother stood before me. Her face, tenderly smiling,
3:07 was beauty itself. Always have I loved thee, ever shall I love thee. The celestial tones still
3:15 ringing in the air, she disappeared. The sun on the following morning had hardly risen to an angle
3:21 of decorum when I paid my second visit to Master Mahasaya.
3:30 Climbing the staircase in the house of poignant memories, I reached his fourth-floor room.
3:35 The knob of the closed door was wrapped round with a cloth, a hint, I felt, that the saint desired privacy. As I stood irresolutely on the landing, the door was opened by the master's
3:41 welcoming hand. I knelt at his holy feet. In in a playful mood i wore a little provoked must you test me to the assurance you received last night at ten o'clock from the beautiful mother herself master mahasaya possessed control over the floodgates of my soul again i plunged prostrate at his feet but this time my tears welled from a bliss and not a pain past bearing
4:38 think you that your devotion did not touch the infinite mercy the motherhood of god that you have worshipped in forms both human and divine could never fail to answer your forsaken cry who was this simple saint whose least request to the universal spirit met with sweet acquiescence i ever knew these are respectful titles by which he was customarily addressed his name was mahendra nath gupta he signed his literary works simply m school for boys. No words of chastisement passed his lips. No rule and fair rule maintained his
5:27 discipline. Higher mathematics indeed were taught in these modest classrooms, and a chemistry of
5:32 love absent from the textbooks. He spread his wisdom by spiritual contagion rather than
5:37 impermeable precept. Consumed by an unsophisticated passion for the Divine Mother, the saint no more demanded the outward forms of
5:46 respect than a child. I am not your guru. He shall come a little later, he told me.
5:52 Through his guidance, your experiences of the Divine in terms of love and devotion shall be
5:57 translated into his terms of fathomless wisdom. Every late afternoon I betook myself to amherst street i sought master mahasaya's divine cup so full that its drops daily overflowed on my being
6:11 never before had i bowed in utter reverence now i felt it an immeasurable privilege even to tread the same ground which master mahasaya sanctified sir please wear this tumpak garland i have fashioned especially for you i arrived who dwells within. His vast nature lacked space
6:46 in which any egotistical consideration could gain foothold. Let us go tomorrow to the Dakshi
6:53 Neshwar temple, forever hallowed by my guru. Master Mahasaya was a disciple of a Christ-like
6:59 master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. The four-mile journey on the following morning was taken by boat on the
7:06 Ganges. We entered the nine-domed temple of Kali, where the figures of the Divine Mother and Shiva
7:11 rest on a burnished silver lotus, its thousand petals meticulously chiseled. Master Mahasaya

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