१० जुलै २०२५ रोजी गोव्यातील आघाडीचे मराठी दैनिक तरुण भारत मधील श्री रामकृष्ण आणि स्वामी विवेकानंद यांच्या तत्वज्ञानावरील लेख.
'स्वामी विवेकानंद युवा जागृती स्पर्धा' ह्या विषयावरील बातमी, २९ जून २०२५ रोजी गोव्यातील आघाडीचे मराठी दैनिक तरुण भारत मध्ये
A Miracle in Shillong City
Author: Swami Bhaskarananda
The incident happened many years ago. I was then working at the Belur Math, at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission. One morning, an unknown gentleman came to meet me. He was wearing quite neat clothes, and his age must have been around forty-five.
After the usual exchange of greetings, he suddenly said, "Have you ever heard of the Panchanan Brahmachari of Shillong, a disciple of Mother Sarada Devi?"
I thought for a while, then said, "Yes, many years ago an old monk spoke about him. He said that a miracle had happened in his life. But unfortunately, now I cannot remember the whole incident properly."
Hearing this, tears came to the eyes of the gentleman. He said in a trembling voice, "I am his son. A very unworthy son. My father was a great devotee and a saintly man."
I said to him, "Then don't you tell me yourself what happened to your father."
The gentleman paused and began the miraculous story:
The incident took place in 1912, when Mother Sarada Devi was still alive. And my father, Panchanan Brahmachari, was a school teacher in Shillong. At that time, the British government temporarily shifted the capital of Assam from Shillong to Dhaka. As a result, Shillong became almost deserted. Most of the houses on the roadside were empty.
There were about eighty houses in my father's neighborhood, only three of which were inhabited, the rest were empty. Taking this opportunity, some tribal boys entered the empty houses and started vandalizing them, and even set some houses on fire.
My father was not living in his own house at that time, but in the large house of a respectable man in Shillong, Bhupal Chandra Bose Ray Bahadur. Mr. Bose had gone to Calcutta for a vacation and requested that my father look after his house.
One day, my father was doing some repairs in his old house. Three Nepalese workers were doing the work. Suddenly, my father saw a house down the road on fire.
That house belonged to the Queen of Bijan, a princely state under British India.* The queen's property, a royal bungalow. The small building was on fire, and the flames were about to leap into the big building next door.
My father wasted no time in bringing a bucket of water from a neighbor's house, giving it to a Nepalese worker, and himself climbing onto the roof to put out the fire.
But unfortunately, a lot of the water had spilled over, and by then the fire had jumped to the thatched roof of the big building. The twenty-foot-high fire had surrounded my father. My father knew that death was imminent.
He then began to call out desperately to Mother Sarada Devi—
"Mother! Mother! Save me!"
And right then, the miracle happened. Mother Sarada Devi appeared in front of him as if flying through the sky. Light like electricity was shining from her body, and a ray of superhuman compassion was emanating from her eyes. She said, “Don’t be afraid, child! I have come!”
As soon as Mother raised her hand and gestured, the burning power of the fire faded. Father no longer felt the heat of the fire.
After that, Father lost consciousness and lay on the roof for about three hours. When he regained consciousness, he saw that the small house had been burned to ashes, but not even a single straw on the roof of the big house had burned!
While Father was sitting on the roof, the Nepali workers standing below were surprised and said,
“Sir, you are alive! We saw you being burned in the fire, and all we heard was you shouting ‘Mother! Mother!’. After that, we heard no more sounds. We thought you were dead.”
The workers brought Father down. He saw that only a few blisters had formed on his face, and the rest of his body was not damaged.
Within a few days, his father's face started to turn very dark, and even his acquaintances could not recognize him. A doctor friend told him that when the burnt skin layer was removed, white spots would be visible underneath, as if he had leucoderma (white spots like white spots).
Author: Swami Bhaskarananda
The incident happened many years ago. I was then working at the Belur Math, at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission. One morning, an unknown gentleman came to meet me. He was wearing quite neat clothes, and his age must have been around forty-five.
After the usual exchange of greetings, he suddenly said, "Have you ever heard of the Panchanan Brahmachari of Shillong, a disciple of Mother Sarada Devi?"
I thought for a while, then said, "Yes, many years ago an old monk spoke about him. He said that a miracle had happened in his life. But unfortunately, now I cannot remember the whole incident properly."
Hearing this, tears came to the eyes of the gentleman. He said in a trembling voice, "I am his son. A very unworthy son. My father was a great devotee and a saintly man."
I said to him, "Then don't you tell me yourself what happened to your father."
The gentleman paused and began the miraculous story:
The incident took place in 1912, when Mother Sarada Devi was still alive. And my father, Panchanan Brahmachari, was a school teacher in Shillong. At that time, the British government temporarily shifted the capital of Assam from Shillong to Dhaka. As a result, Shillong became almost deserted. Most of the houses on the roadside were empty.
There were about eighty houses in my father's neighborhood, only three of which were inhabited, the rest were empty. Taking this opportunity, some tribal boys entered the empty houses and started vandalizing them, and even set some houses on fire.
My father was not living in his own house at that time, but in the large house of a respectable man in Shillong, Bhupal Chandra Bose Ray Bahadur. Mr. Bose had gone to Calcutta for a vacation and requested that my father look after his house.
One day, my father was doing some repairs in his old house. Three Nepalese workers were doing the work. Suddenly, my father saw a house down the road on fire.
That house belonged to the Queen of Bijan, a princely state under British India.* The queen's property, a royal bungalow. The small building was on fire, and the flames were about to leap into the big building next door.
My father wasted no time in bringing a bucket of water from a neighbor's house, giving it to a Nepalese worker, and himself climbing onto the roof to put out the fire.
But unfortunately, a lot of the water had spilled over, and by then the fire had jumped to the thatched roof of the big building. The twenty-foot-high fire had surrounded my father. My father knew that death was imminent.
He then began to call out desperately to Mother Sarada Devi—
"Mother! Mother! Save me!"
And right then, the miracle happened. Mother Sarada Devi appeared in front of him as if flying through the sky. Light like electricity was shining from her body, and a ray of superhuman compassion was emanating from her eyes. She said, “Don’t be afraid, child! I have come!”
As soon as Mother raised her hand and gestured, the burning power of the fire faded. Father no longer felt the heat of the fire.
After that, Father lost consciousness and lay on the roof for about three hours. When he regained consciousness, he saw that the small house had been burned to ashes, but not even a single straw on the roof of the big house had burned!
While Father was sitting on the roof, the Nepali workers standing below were surprised and said,
“Sir, you are alive! We saw you being burned in the fire, and all we heard was you shouting ‘Mother! Mother!’. After that, we heard no more sounds. We thought you were dead.”
The workers brought Father down. He saw that only a few blisters had formed on his face, and the rest of his body was not damaged.
Within a few days, his father's face started to turn very dark, and even his acquaintances could not recognize him. A doctor friend told him that when the burnt skin layer was removed, white spots would be visible underneath, as if he had leucoderma (white spots like white spots).
This news disturbed his father a little. Early one morning, his mother Sarada Devi came to him again and gave him a darshan. She said,
"Son, are you suffering from this form of your face? Tell me once, I will fix your face again."
His father cried and said,
"Mother, I cannot ask you for such a trivial thing. If I have to ask for something, I will ask you for something more expensive."
His mother smiled and said,
"If that is the case, then I am telling you myself—on the last day of the Bengali year, if you go and bathe in the nearby spring, your face will be as before."
His father did not tell anyone this at first. Later, when the word spread, many—especially the Brahmo Samaj people—started making fun of it. No one believed it.
Baba became worried—if he failed, people would laugh at his mother! So he finally decided not to bathe.
But on the last day of the Bengali year, as if pulled by an invisible force, Baba himself went to the spring and bathed, returning.
He saw that two acquaintances had come to his house and were waiting. They were surprised to see that there was no scar on Baba's face. His face, which had been burned, was as beautiful as before!
The gentleman said with deep emotion,
"This was a miraculous incident that happened in my father's life. The monks of the Ramakrishna Mission accepted it as a true story. Later, my father wrote this story in a letter to his friend Acharya Jagadish Mukherjee. That letter was published in the newspaper 'Udbodhan' in 1939.
*Bijni was a historical kingdom in the present Chirang district of the state of Assam, which is located in the area adjacent to the India-Bhutan border. This kingdom was founded by Koch Raja Chandranarayan, who was later known as Bijit Narayan. The name 'Bijni' is derived from his name. That house was then lying empty, because like many houses in the city, it was also abandoned at that time."
This was a truly extraordinary and miraculous incident in the life of Panchanan Brahmachari of Shillong, which was a result of the merciful blessings of Mother Sarada Devi.
"Son, are you suffering from this form of your face? Tell me once, I will fix your face again."
His father cried and said,
"Mother, I cannot ask you for such a trivial thing. If I have to ask for something, I will ask you for something more expensive."
His mother smiled and said,
"If that is the case, then I am telling you myself—on the last day of the Bengali year, if you go and bathe in the nearby spring, your face will be as before."
His father did not tell anyone this at first. Later, when the word spread, many—especially the Brahmo Samaj people—started making fun of it. No one believed it.
Baba became worried—if he failed, people would laugh at his mother! So he finally decided not to bathe.
But on the last day of the Bengali year, as if pulled by an invisible force, Baba himself went to the spring and bathed, returning.
He saw that two acquaintances had come to his house and were waiting. They were surprised to see that there was no scar on Baba's face. His face, which had been burned, was as beautiful as before!
The gentleman said with deep emotion,
"This was a miraculous incident that happened in my father's life. The monks of the Ramakrishna Mission accepted it as a true story. Later, my father wrote this story in a letter to his friend Acharya Jagadish Mukherjee. That letter was published in the newspaper 'Udbodhan' in 1939.
*Bijni was a historical kingdom in the present Chirang district of the state of Assam, which is located in the area adjacent to the India-Bhutan border. This kingdom was founded by Koch Raja Chandranarayan, who was later known as Bijit Narayan. The name 'Bijni' is derived from his name. That house was then lying empty, because like many houses in the city, it was also abandoned at that time."
This was a truly extraordinary and miraculous incident in the life of Panchanan Brahmachari of Shillong, which was a result of the merciful blessings of Mother Sarada Devi.
News about Ramakrishna Mission's activities, particularly the Yuva Jagriti Competition, was telecast on Goa Door Darshan on Tuesday, 15th July 2025, at 7 PM."