Sri Anandamayi Ma was born in 1896  into a pious, prestigious but non-affluent Brahmin household in the village of Kheora in present-day Bangladesh. Her given name was Nirmala Sundari Devi meaning ‘Immaculate Beauty.” It was entirely appropriate as this beautiful infant blossomed into a lovely child. 

In a private interview with her foremost devotee Bhaiji, Sri Ma revealed the miraculous aspects of her birth:

‘In the early hours of a Friday (by Hindu reckoning a Thursday), in the month of Baisakh (April-May), inside a thatched room, this Body revealed Herself, the head pointing towards the north-easterly direction. The Body, as you perceive it, at the moment of touching the ground lay on Her back, slightly inclined to Her left side. Through the gaps in the thatched roof, this Body could clearly see the sky, branches, and leaves of a neem (margosa) and a mango tree, just as I am seeing you now. At that very moment, Khurima (paternal aunt of this Body’s grandmother) entered the room and picked Her up. She was the only one; no one else was there. She alone knows of the arrival of the Supreme One (Ma’s prakash – manifestation into this world). Khurima was a very virtuous and devout woman and was about sixty years of age at that time. She lived to be quite old and passed away after this Body was married.’ 

Little Nirmala spent her carefree and happy childhood in pleasant village surroundings. She was a favourite with everyone. She was always ready to fetch and carry and render whatever service she could to anyone who asked for it. The entire village, which consisted mainly of Muslim families, extended her love and affection, which endured through the years. Even now, the Muslim population of Kheora refers to her as ‘Our own Ma.’

Sri Ma’s father was a devout Vaishnava [devotee of Lord Vishnu]. He was well known for his beautiful rendering of devotional songs; his melodious voice never failed to touch the hearts of his audience. In fact, he was sometimes compared to Ramprasad, the saintly bard of Bengal who invoked the presence of Shakti by his inspired singing. 

Sri Ma was barely thirteen when she was married to Sri Ramani Mohan Chakravarty of Atpara. Their family had a tradition of Shakti-upasana [devotion to God as divine mother energy]. From a carefree childhood in her parents’ home, she was catapulted into a demanding situation of considerable physical hard work in an atmosphere of restrictive discipline. She cooked, cleaned, fetched water, took care of the children, and served her sister-in-law in every way possible. 

Hard work is the lot of village women not only in India but all over the world. What sets Sri Ma apart from all such girls placed in similar situations is her total adequacy and a little extra, as it were. 

At the age of 18, with the mutual consent of both families, Sri Ma came to Ashtagram to stay with her husband at his place of work. In later years Sri Ma used to refer to her husband by the name ‘Bholanath.’

The township of Bajitpur has acquired special significance for the devotees of Sri Ma as the place where she went through the various processes of intensive sadhana over a period of six years. How this came about may be best related in her own words; ‘One day in Bajitpur, I had as usual gone to the pond near the house where we lived, for my daily bath. While pouring the water over my head, the kheyala [divine impulse] came to me, “how would it be to play the role of a Sadhaka?” And so the lila [divine play] began.‘

These two words used so constantly by Sri Ma, perhaps need to be explained a little. Kheyala may be best explained by the words ‘a spontaneous thought or impulse,’ distinct from an act of will or a wish for some desired end. Once expressed, it was seen that a concatenation of events led to its fulfillment. Sometimes kheyala could be invoked by repeated requests or deflected also. Sri Ma seemed equally agreeable toward any of the results accruing from her kheyala. Lila is translated as ‘divine or sportive play’ – an activity, which is an end in itself, for divine enjoyment.

With Sri Ma, kheyala was synonymous with spontaneous action. The young bride, in the evening, swept out her room and its precincts. She lit incense and made a circumambulation around the cottage with the burner in her hand. She took care of Bholanath’s needs on his return from work, even to the detail of preparing a hookah for his after-dinner smoke. After Bholanath had settled down, she asked his permission to engage in a bit of sadhana. 

He readily granted her request. So Sri Ma sat on the floor in the corner of their room and orally began to repeat the word ‘Hari, Hari, Hari’…, for no better reason than that she had learned to sing this Name from her father in her childhood. Bholanath saw her gradually becoming absorbed in a world of inner joy. Then, after a few days of this routine, he saw her assuming some yogic postures or asanas. The first of these was probably siddhasana [a sitting posture].

Bholanath knew, of course, that she had no previous knowledge of Yoga or Yogic asanas; they were spontaneously happening to her. One day, he said, ‘Why do you say ‘Hari’? We are not Vaishnavas.’ Sri Ma asked, ‘Shall I then say Siva, Siva?’ This made no difference to her divine enrapture, but Bholenath was satisfied.

Sri Ma said that she contemplated no visual forms when she repeated the words. The sound was ‘all in all.’ The syllables were like the resonance being struck off an all-pervasive beat. Her body was in tune with the universal rhythm of that power that underpins all that exists. Her body became a beautiful instrument for the play of this cosmic music. She seemed to become one with the sound of the letters that she uttered; her limbs, her entire body moved rhythmically as if in vibrant dance-forms of an extraordinary choreography directed by an inner Power. Sometimes she lay for many hours absolutely still, absorbed in an inner bliss. 

At such times her body emanated a radiance that was visible to onlookers. Bholanath watched her enthralled, never once doubting the genuineness of the manifestations. He was able to brush aside adverse comments from some of the neighbors who failed to understand that they were witnessing the unfolding of the magnetic personality of Sri Ma, who had the kheyala to reveal herself in the role of a sadhaka.

Sri Ma lived the life of a pilgrim on the path of spiritual endeavour for nearly six years. During this time, she initiated herself and proceeded after that in a more systematic manner. Bholanath realised that he was in the presence of an extraordinary embodiment of Divine Power. He himself accepted the much-coveted initiation from Sri Ma within the first year of this manifestation. After that, their relationship acquired a new dimension, that of Guru and disciple, although Sri Ma never changed in her attitude of complete obedience and deference to Bholanath’s wishes.

Referring to this period of her life, Sri Ma has said, ‘Sadhanas by which man endeavors to attain self-realisation are of endless variety, and each variety has numerous aspects. All these revealed themselves to me as a part of myself.‘  In later years she had occasion to talk about her experiences in select gatherings of ascetics, scholars, or other seekers of Truth. 

The pandits marvelled at her knowledge of all tenets of faith in all their doctrinal details. Even so, Sri Ma has said that she has not talked about one-thousandth part of all that was revealed to her during her years of intensive sadhana. Sometime in 1922, she became ‘maunam’ which means silent. This silence marked the fulfillment of her sadhana. After that, she began to converse with visitors on religious topics.

When Sri Ma and Bholanath moved to Dhaka on April 10, 1924, many of the people who had known them in Ashtagram and Bajitpur had relations in Dhaka. The rumor gained ground that the young housewife was gifted with great spiritual powers. Visitors came out of curiosity and stayed to become life-long devotees.

Following the orthodox customs of those times, Sri Ma kept herself veiled in public. If Bholanath asked her to speak to anyone, she would do so, but not otherwise. Women, of course, we’re always free to visit, and soon there was a crowd around her. The men continued to be at a disadvantage because they were mindful of public opinion, but here Bholanath played an important role. Soon he began to be looked up to as Baba Bholanath, a person commanding respect in his own right. Under his aegis, the swelling crowds assumed the shape of an ever-increasing but close-knit family.

In Dhaka, Sri Ma lived amidst an atmosphere of the miraculous. She experienced ecstatic states of samadhi and mahabhava [intense devotion] during kirtans. An eyewitness account of a mahabhava on the occasion of a kirtan is described in these words:  ‘At one moment Sri Ma was sitting as one of us, the next moment she had changed completely. Her body was swaying rhythmically. Her saree border fell back from over her head. Her eyes were closed, and the entire body swayed to the rhythm of the kirtana. With her body still swaying, she stood up or rather, was as if drawn upwards on her feet. It looked as if Sri Ma had left her body, which had become an instrument in the hands of invisible power. It was evident to all of us that there was no will motivate her actions. Sri Ma was entirely oblivious of her surroundings. She circled around the room as if wafted along by the wind. 

Occasionally, her body would start falling to the ground, but before it completed the movement it would regain its upright position, just like a wind-blown leaf which flutters toward the ground and then is uplifted and blown forward by a fresh gust of wind.’

Sri Ma moved in this manner with the kirtan party for a few moments. After such bhavas she would lie in samadhi for many hours. It was always Bholanath who decided when to try and rouse her. She had this kheyala of obeying him, so when he called her repeatedly, she would somehow open her eyes and say, ‘You want me to get up?’ in lisping and slurred tones. At such time, he would ask the woman to rub her hands and feet gently and keep talking to her and make her answer some questions. In this way, slowly, Sri Ma would be drawn back to the ordinary world. 

Didi Gurupriya writes in wonder, ‘It amazed me that Sri Ma so naturally entered into a state of God-intoxication, a state which is coveted by sadhakas of all time. No, not God-intoxication, her state could not be called that, I do not know how to describe a state which was at once sublime and yet normal.‘

This interplay of the dimensions of normalcy and transcendence was a constant and inalienable feature of Sri Ma’s behaviour. Sometimes it was likened to a sudden play of lightning in the skies. One description is, ‘It was like simultaneously experiencing sunlight and moonlight. Before one could be dazzled and overwhelmed by the rays of the sun, one would be soothed and reassured by the gentle moonbeams.’

These states were frequent and visible to all at this time but they also had happened in her childhood and while she was with Revati Mohan’s family. Her companions of those times had not understood them and had dismissed them as some mild kind of fits that would pass away as she grew older. Sri Ma’s overall deportment was so radiant and cheerful that it was easy to discount a few signs of sudden withdrawals into an inner world of mystery.

Sri Ma set out on her travels in 1927. Baba Bholanath liked to visit places of pilgrimage. They traveled quite extensively. The devotees of Dhaka gradually got accustomed to Sri Ma’s frequent absences. It became clear that Sri Ma had the kheyala to leave Dhaka. The devotees had built a small Ashram for her but Sri Ma’s kheyala to move out proved too strong. So Sri Ma left Dhaka on June 2, 1932.

They traveled through Dehradun to Raipur, a remote village in the interior, where they took up their abode in a dilapidated Siva Temple a little way from the village. This was the beginning of a new way of life for them. Bholanath devoted himself to his sadhana wholeheartedly. Bhaiji tried his hand at rendering services, which so far he had received from his servants. To sweep and clean, wash cloths, and cook primitive kinds of food was hard work for him. Sometimes Sri Ma helped him out, but she generally wandered around alone or sat surrounded by the village women.

When she returned to Dehradun, she and Bhaiji stayed at the Manohar Temple in Ananda Chowk. Bholanath spent almost three years in Uttarkashi doing his own tapasya. In Dehradun she came in touch with all the Kashmiri families who resided nearby. Sri Hari Ram Joshi became a devotee and a great admirer of Bhaiji. He was a man of strong convictions; moreover, he had the courage of his convictions. Having given his allegiance to Sri Ma, he tried his best to bring all his friends to her feet. He was instrumental in introducing Smt. Kamala Nehru to Sri Ma. 

This proved to be a meeting that led to other ties being forged with other people from far and near. Smt. Kamala Nehru’s one-pointed devotion to Sri Ma was remarkable in its depth and strength. She carried her memories to Switzerland and so influenced some of her friends to come to India to see Sri Ma. Mahatma Gandhi came to know a lot about Sri Ma from Kamalaji. He was so impressed by all he heard that he sent his trusted right-hand man Sri Jamnalal Bajaj to Sri Ma. He, in turn, became so dedicated a devotee that Sri Ma had the kheyala to travel to Wardha after his unexpected death and so met Gandhi himself. In later years Sri Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi came to Sri Ma, drawn to her inevitably by their memories of the last days of Kamalaji.

The Raja Sahab of Solon met Sri Ma around this time. He became one of the foremost devotees and was known as Jogibhai. Dehradun became another Dhaka. The tradition of joyous gatherings spread to other towns such as Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow, Solon, and Simla. At Simla, the festival of Hari-kirtan under the aegis of the Hari Sabha received a new lease of life in Sri Ma’s presence and by Bholanath’s enthusiastic participation. Bholanath had rejoined Sri Ma on coming down from Uttarkashi. He had been introduced to the new devotees and was accepted whole-heartedly as Pitaji (father).

The swelling tides of the happy crowd unknown to themselves were facing two crises: Bhaiji passed away in Almora in August 1937, and Bholanath himself left his sorrowing family of devotees in May 1938, in the Kishenpur Ashram. The passing away of Bholanath resulted in a new understanding of Sri Ma and her ways. Sri Ma had been a very devoted wife, and she had tirelessly rendered personal service to him whenever he had been ill. During his last illness, she was constantly at his bedside. He died with her hand on his head and breathing the word ananda. It was felt that he was expressing his state of ananda and peace.

Upon seeing that Sri Ma showed no signs of grief, she answered them gently, ‘Do you start to wail and cry if a person goes into another room in the house? This death is inevitably connected with this life. In the sphere of Immortality, where is the question of death and loss? Nobody is lost to me.‘

Sri Ma’s followers began to understand a little of the meaning of her total detachment and yet overflowing compassion for her people. As the years passed, the enigma of her personality deepened. From the very moment of her birth, she had been fully self-conscious; she was not a sadhika, yet the stages of various sadhanas were revealed through her body and reached their culmination without her being engaged as a doer in a very short time. 

She seemed fully aware of all doctrinal differences, never confusing one with the other in her conversations with the learned pandits, yet she had not been initiated into any particular religious order or trained by any yogic instructor. She had not encountered any Guru who could have exerted any influence on her life. She had never retired from the world to become a recluse; neither did she withdraw herself from her kith and kin. She had not performed sadhana as it is generally understood in the tradition. Yet, she could speak with authority on all aspects of the life of a religious quest for enlightenment. Such are the facts why the word ‘unique’ applies to her.

Sri Ma continued to move around in her own style of unstructured itineraries, but she did not always choose her companions. It was a motley crowd that surrounded her. It so happened that many in her entourage did not speak the same language. People from different provinces, different walks of life mingled together in happy throngs. 

Sri Ma would accept invitations for religious functions; therefore, the devotees would arrange for Bhagavat Saptah, Durga Puja, Chandipath, etc., in their towns. They would pray for her presence at these functions. Wherever Sri Ma stayed, it immediately became the center for a gathering of thousands. Sri Ma, in her compassionate regard for the organisers, moved out as soon as things began to get out of hand. There was no central management in Sri Ma’s vicinity; whoever was able took charge for as long as he could. Matters arranged themselves, as it were. It is difficult to describe the sheer impromptu nature of management, which took place near Sri Ma. 

Unless one has experienced it for oneself, it is not possible to credit the utter fortuitous nature of a concurrence of events which seemed to fulfill Sri Ma’s kheyala regarding her travels, companions, or at times, her places of retreat. In all the major cities Sri Ma visited frequently, the devotees got together to construct one Ashram after another, but it did not serve the purpose of restricting her movements or providing her with some comforts while she stayed in one place because as often as not, she would not visit the Ashram at all but go someplace else.

In 1940 Sri Ma came in close touch with Sri Prabhu Datta Maharaj of Jhunsi, a Mahatma of considerable renown. He invited her to join in their council of sadhus at Jhunsi in 1944. Here other Mahatmas came to know her, notably Sri Haribabaji Maharaj, Sri Chakrapani, and Sri Sharananandaji. Sadhu Samaj had avoided her because she happened to be in the form of a woman, but Sri Prabhu Dattaji broke down this artificial barrier. After that, Haribabaji Maharaj gave her the highest honor possible. The heads of other Monastic Orders recognized in her the quintessence of the Upanishadic tradition and accepted her word as Shastra itself.

At Sri Ma’s kheyala, a great Savitri Yagna was started at Varanasi in the newly built Ashram on January 14, 1947. The Sankalpa was for ‘the Good of Mankind.’ There was great tension in the country just before Independence in August of the same year. Notwithstanding all these negative factors, the Yajna proceeded unhindered and came to a spectacular conclusion on January 14, 1950. A great concourse of renowned Mahatmas graced the occasion. It was attended by princes, artists of repute, political personalities, and a mass of ordinary people. 

In Sri Ma’s presence, all functions take on an extraordinary glamour. This yajna, solemn and grand in itself, was overwhelming in its impact on the participants. The most attractive function under Sri Ma’s aegis was the Samyam Saptah in Varanasi Ashram in 1952. After personal daily puja, all participants would gather in the Central Hall to listen to scriptural discourses, kirtans, and meditation. Doors would be closed so that there would be no disturbances. 

After a short break during the afternoon for food and a little rest, the Vratis (participants) would assemble for the evening session and so on. The best part of the day was when Sri Ma answered questions from the audience—the whole day passed by like a flash in looking forward to this half-hour of Matri Satsang. The participants were amazed to live like ascetics for a week so effortlessly.

The best way to understand Sri Ma is not to compare her with any of the luminaries in India’s spiritual history. The recognition that she gained in her lifetime was just by her presence. Swami Chinmayananda said about her in Bangalore (June 1978), ‘When the sun shines, nobody needs to demonstrate the sunshine.‘ The harmony of opposites was the underlying theme of her way of life. Amidst the splendor and magnificence which seemed inevitable wherever she was, she lived like an ascetic. 

In her time, she met with nearly all the political dignitaries who rose to power after Independence. But they did not talk about state affairs with her. She only spoke about God and the religious aspirations of man. In praise of her all-encompassing message, some devotees sometimes say she welcomed all faiths as true paths to God. This could be an understatement. In fact, Sri Ma saw no differences. Everything was the One only. The same may be said about her treatment of women. She recognized no inferiority or superiority. 

She demanded (if one can use such a word for her) the same high quality of asceticism from the brahmacharis as well as brahmacharini’s of the Ashram. Purity of speech, action, and thoughts was the ideal she set forth for all travelers on the path of God-realisation. When speaking with modern young people, Sri Ma showed herself to be fully aware of the trends of the times; even so, her interlocutors could never make her accede to their demands for compromises. But, with great humor and understanding, she could always bring them around to accepting her request to begin the search for Him, who is hidden in the cave of the heart.

   For all devotees, the following text expresses their sentiments regarding Sri Ma : 

‘bhidyatehrdayagranthicsahhidyante sarvasainsayah kshiyante casya karmani tasmin drste paravare,’ meaning, ‘the knot of the heart is penetrated, all doubts are resolved. All bondages are destroyed on seeing Him who is here and beyond.’ Mundakopanisad 11.2.8

In the late seventies and 1981, as her health declined, she did not have kheyala to respond to any kind of prayers for her recovery. Still, she went about fulfilling her various engagements. She did not look ill but as beautiful and serene as ever, but definitely, the mass of devotees got used to the idea of not getting her Darshana as easily as always. She had withdrawn herself from public audiences for all practical purposes apart from a few exceptions. Her last kheyala seemed to have been for the performance of the Ati Rudra Yagna at Kankhal. This was the greatest of the Vedic Yajnas. Under Sri Ma’s guidance, it was celebrated with such a splendour and scrupulous adherence to every detail of scriptural injunctions that the savants said Sri Ma had initiated the Satya Yuga.

Sri Anandamayi Ma’s mahasamadhi took place at the age of 86 on Friday, August 27th, 1982, around 8 pm. This divine embodiment of love came at a time when India and the world passed through many crises. Yet, throughout it, she remained as one of the people, imparting hope and solace and upholding the old ideals of tradition through overwhelming impacts of alien influences. She fully understood the existential implications of the present age of technology and, by her way of being in the world, put it in a correct perspective for those who wished to see beyond it. 

This is why the land of Bharatvarsha is regarded as holy. Once in a while in India arises not merely a teacher or just a saint, but an exemplar of a way of life that is the quintessential divine spirit. India cherishes a coming together of heaven and earth, a co-mingling of the timeless order and the order of time. Ever rarer do we witness a meeting of horizons of the eternal yearning in man and the descent of Grace. Once in a while, such a dream is realised. Then we find a Teacher, a Jagadguru, who not only awakens the longing for the quest for Truth but enkindles and sustains faith in its ultimate fulfillment. Such was the life of Anandamayi Ma.