THE STARS BLINK STILL

THE STARS BLINK STILL 

@Swami Sampurnananda Puri : Maharaj, where are you? Your very memory sublimates my thoughts still and strengthens me in my resolve to serve Thakur-Ma-Swamiji. Your absence has made your permanent presence more palpable. Bless us from your spiritual abode and receive heartily yet our love.

You came into our house and the fragrance has not faded. My first vision of you in Nilambar Babu's Garden House at Belur towards twilight as you returned from the Ganga after a holy dip, cleansing your holy form further for the evening rendezvous with your divine beloved, remains etched in my mind as a picture perfect, a source of inspiration, a solace in this solitary reflective hour when memories alone are allowed access unto me.

Swami Advaitananda and you visited us that late afternoon after our meeting at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, where you so graciously gave me two rare books on Netaji. Your simplicity of a sling bag carrying your earthly belongings moved my dying mother to tears. You had blessed her and she carried all your holy wishes with her as she crossed corridors. As you boarded the taxi whose advance fare to Belur Math, expected standing charges there for a couple of hours and then the trip to Howrah Station I had handed over to you, I saw a film of water on your eyes as something from childhood must have touched you, perhaps, your mother's love or a brother's affection. Next day I was moved by the beauty of a sannyasi's soul when you rang me up to give an account of how the money had been given by you to the taxi-driver fully and you had not taken back any change from him, and that he had been most kind in his demeanour to his two monastic passengers.

Our online conversations were far more frequent, on Netaji, Gandhiji, Swamiji, RKM, Nirmalanandaji, and so much more. Your ability to run a discussion counter to its standard course by often adopting a contrary stance helped trigger thinking and you were most original in your affirmations.

You were the first monk of the Ramakrishna Mission in my experience who was so friendly, literally without a care for the so-called monastic air that monks put on as they parley with us, householders, from a pedestal. You had no such airs and freely mixed with us as one of us and, so, endeared yourselves unconsciously to us for good. You were most approachable and at any hour of the day. You were never too busy to receive my call and was always most affable in the way you spoke to me. More often than not it was you who unfailingly called me and enquired about my mother's health and condition. Your unassuming nature, simplicity, frankness, truthfulness, absence of airs, freedom from organisational subservience, intelligence, creativity, writing skill -- all these set you apart from many others that don the ochre robe. You were, indeed, a child of Nature and remained so till the end.

Swami Sampurnananda was towards the final years of his earthly sojourn the roving monk, never staying for long at a place and travelling constantly. It cost him his life in the end. The pandemic broke out and for a while he was confined to one place but he broke bounds soon and was drawn irresistibly to the Kumbh Mela. That was the end of it. Maharaj made his last pilgrimage and reported thereafter to Thakur straight. The Coronavirus sanctified itself to release Sampurnananda Swami from his earthly coil. He passed away after running eleven more days in his final lap on earth to rest on the Mother's lap for a while more before he returns to earth to continue his course. We shall wait for you, Maharaj. Be it that we shall meet again, here or elsewhere, wherever. You were a year elder to me only and even that age difference you had bridged like every other man-made difference. So, no pranam to you from me but a deep, deep love that shall never end.

Written by Sugata Bose