Reminiscences
of blessed moments with Swami Prabuddhanandaji
Of
San Francisco, CA, USA
Of
San Francisco, CA, USA
Nandini M. Banerjee
9/20/2017
1 INTRODUCTION
When unasked
blessings get showered on a naïve soul, the soul flows along in the current of
bliss little realizing the value of penning these priceless experiences! Almost
twenty years hence I am trying to recall only the few that has remained in the
fading memory.
The events are not
in chronological order and some maybe juxtaposed but here I would like to bring
forth the immense love he had for the devotees.
Sometime during
1999 most probably, the Vedanta Society of North Texas (Dallas) under the able guidance
of one of the founders, Mr. Mahendra Roychoudhury, invited Swami
Prabuddhanandaji (head of Vedanta Society of Northern California, San
Francisco, CA) for a retreat. We (my husband Tirthankar and myself) had the
privilege of hosting the venerable soul in our home. From now on I will refer
to Prabuddhanandaji as “Maharaj” which is the typical Ramakrishna Mission
terminology when addressing a sadhu (monk).
So we went to the
airport to pick him up. With eager anticipation we were waiting, wondering if
we would be able to recognize him and then comes the saffron-clad,
clean-shaven, hazel-eyed septuagenarian gentleman, with a slight smile playing
on his lips and a deep resounding base voice that nobody would forget ever..!
That was the first time when I got the tap on my bowed head while doing the
pranam (Indian courtesy of touching the feet of the elder) and little did I
know that there would be many mores to follow. The little tap on the head was
Maharaj’s typical loving way of acknowledging the obeisance. Maharaj was a
grave person, a man of few words and his deep resounding voice and slow drawl
was apparently quite intimidating. However, the moment I saw him, I felt like a
little girl (I was in mid-thirties then) and I was very free and frank with
him! So we drove home amidst many chatters (me vocalizing 90% of the time of
course) while he enquired about our society (founded by Mahendrababu, Tirthankar
and myself meeting once a month in the only Hindu Temple of Dallas and then had
shifted to our newly bought home to be met on weekly basis for some months),
about us (jobs, association with RKM, initiation, etc.) etc.
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Nandini Mitra Banerjee
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