← Mother KrishnabaiHer autobiography

39

Likhit Japa Yajna

O PAPA, the ocean of kindness! People are spending on charitable purposes large amounts of money. But instead of aspiring for eternal happiness they aim at transitory pleasures. At this I feel acute pain. So I do not resist admonishing them for this. In some cases they do not take my advice in the right spirit and suffer great pain. Therefore, I pray to you, who are the lover of your devotees, to reveal yourself in their hearts and grant them immortal bliss in this life itself.

O blissful Papa! The devotee who took the lead in collecting money to present you with a purse on the occasion of your 60th birthday celebration wrote to us whether he could collect twenty-five thousand rupees and offer the amount to me on the occasion of the twenty fifth year of my renunciation. When consulted in this matter by you, I replied, “We are tired of appealing for funds. In future we should not beg for money but accept only what is given or remitted to us by devotees of their own accord. Instead, let devotees do twenty-five crores of Ram Nam Japa. This will help them to realise soon your immortal existence.”

On hearing this, with great enthusiasm, you wrote to this particular devotee what I had said and also to the devotees in other places, and published in The Vision that the Ashram had undertaken a Likhit Japa Yajna of twenty five crores of Ram Nam. All your devotees in different parts of the world, with great zeal and earnestness, started to write the Mantra given to them by you and other Gurus who are your forms.

O Papa, the bestower of bliss! As the day of the celebration approached, the books in which the Mantras were written poured into the Ashram from various places and countries. As it would have been impossible to count the Japa up to the date of the celebration, we fixed an earlier date for it and counted the Japa till that date. Still, in two years the figure of the Japa rose to 32,53,33,158. If we had taken into account all the Japa that came later than the fixed date, the total would have been about forty crores.

O Papa, who is really the form of the Divine Mother! I had never dreamt that such a celebration would be held in the Ashram. Moreover, I had not the least desire to have it. Yet, because of your enthusiasm and that of all others who are your forms, we were obliged to celebrate the completion of the Likhit Japa Yajna. We received innumerable letters from the devotees that they proposed to come to the Ashram for the celebration. But as we did not possess any funds and on the contrary we were deep in debts, I did not go forward in making preparations for the celebration and remained silent.

O infinite Papa! It was not at all strange for the Ashram to run into debts. Every month, as the amounts received as donations were far less than the expenses incurred by the Ashram, we were always running into debts, but by the help of the devotees we would liquidate them. Before we started on the world tour we had paid off all the Ashram debts. Towards the expenses of the Ashram during your absence on tour we had to borrow five thousand rupees from a Bombay devotee. As this devotee considered the Ashram as his own, he told us that he would not take back the money advanced by him. This money was used in the Ashram to meet the deficit during our absence on tour. No sooner we returned from the world tour than we again became a prey to debts; so I did not want to undertake any new work.

O all-pervading Papa! In the mean time, money started pouring in towards the expenses of the celebration from the devotees. You were often telling me that I should undertake the rebuilding of the office owing to its dilapidated condition. So, since the amounts intended for the celebration had come much earlier than the day of celebration, we thought of reconstructing the office building out of that money. We forthwith started the work because the furniture and windows of the office were being eaten up by white ants. Another reason was that there was no room for stocking the Ashram publications in the office. The publications were till then kept in big bookcases in the Udyog Shala. Moreover, the office work was carried on in two or three buildings. So co-ordination in the work was found not possible. Again, the house by the side of the office occupied by Sadhus had cracks in the walls and so we had to construct a new building for their use and incorporate the rest-house with the office building by joining the foundations of these two buildings. We received from a Bombay devotee five thousand rupees for constructing a separate room in the new office building for securely stocking the Likhit Japa Yajna books. For this purpose we had purchased twelve steel cupboards. The cost of the building came to about nineteen thousand rupees.

O Papa, the ocean of kindness! On account of the construction of this building a large portion of the money received for the celebration was spent. So, whenever you hurried me up for making preparations for the celebration, I did not encourage you and asked you to go at a slower pace. About five hundred families wrote to us that they would be attending the celebration. To prepare food for the expected countless number of devotees, some of the inmates of the Ashram arranged to procure the services of sixty cooks from Trichur. To prepare tiffin we had to engage about forty people from Mangalore who were workers in a hotel there.

O Papa, the giver of bliss! Even after we made these preparations I had not any enthusiasm to proceed in the matter. At last I made a list of all the requirements for this celebration. Grocers came forward to supply all the necessary provisions, etc., and soon our store rooms were filled with the best available articles. Next, workers came to construct Pandals. When I saw them, I awoke, as it were, from a dream. For constructing the Pandals we had no bamboos and no coconut leaf mats. However, with the help of about a hundred workers and other devotees the Pandals were got ready within eighteen days. I wondered how you managed to get ready all these things. The devotees were carried away with enthusiasm. The Ashram and the Pandals were beautifully decorated and the celebration took place on a grand scale. Many Mahatmas, Sadhus, devotees, musicians, lecturers and Harikatha performers assembled together and embellished the celebration.

O compassion-incarnate Papa! Although the day was celebrated with great pomp and circumstance, I was not satisfied with regard to four things. Firstly, there was a scarcity of water and a lot of trouble was caused by it. Secondly, the toilets temporarily built were unsatisfactory. Thirdly, the Sadhus who came for the celebration joined together and beat one of the Ashramites, with the result that we had to drive away many poor people along with them. And fourthly, some devotees introduced the system of allowing people through the gate only on the presentation of tickets, in order to control the crowd. Although the tickets were distributed free and thousands of people were fed, there were some who did not get meals and were put to trouble. I was then so deeply pained that I felt that we were not at all fit to conduct such functions on this scale. However, all the programmes of the celebration were carried out with great fervour and all the people who attended it derived unique joy and ecstasy.