My Days with Sri Ma Anandamayi

She would say in humility, l am a little girl only, I have not been educated at all , but I have heard the effervescence of VedaVedanta pouring forth from her divine lips. Mahamandaleswar 1008 Sri Vidyanandaji Maharaj, Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh For a span of more than fifty years Sri Ma Anandamayi dominated gracefully the spiritual horizon of India. The keepers of the Vedic heritage the ascetics orders of India were united in declaring her the quintessence of the Upanishadic Spirit. Eminent philosophers like Mahendra N. Sarkar and T.M.P. Mahadevan acknowledged her utterances as authoritative. Much has been written about Sri Ma by erudite scholars as well as ordinary men and women. The present book is a lively and engaging account of Sri Mas enigmatic personality from the point of view of a single devoted family. It is an intimate and moving study of personal commitments. Yet through the authors perspective an emerging modern society is glimpsed where orthodox rites, political upheavals, social changes create the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope. Sri Ma and her entourage of visiting dignitaries, princes, scholars, village women and children, and renowned ascetics assume a threedimensional image. According to Richard Lannoy, who has written the Foreword, the book is a valliant attempt at closing the distance between the known and the unfathomable. Trained in the highest rigours of academic discipline in renowned universities of India and Canada, Bithika Mukerji, being very close to Anandamayi Ma from early childhood, was able to observe from near rare dimensions of a surpassingly beautiful spiritual being. Her reminiscences of her days with the Mother consequently, have an authenticity, charm and insight difficult to come by. Manas Mukul Das, Professor of English, University ofAllahabad