1896 - 1982 · Bengal and all India
The bliss-permeated mother
Born in a Bengali village, Nirmala Sundari showed from youth states of absorption so complete that observers were left without categories. She underwent no formal initiation and had no human guru; the sadhana, she said, unfolded through her of itself. For six decades she moved across India, and hundreds of thousands — from villagers to scholars to statesmen — knew her simply as Ma.
Her teaching returned always to one point: the one aim of human life is the realization of God, and every moment not turned toward that is a moment spent asleep. She met each person exactly where they stood, prescribing to each their own next step.
The practice she urged most often was constant remembrance: keep the divine name moving in the mind through all activity, set apart a fixed time daily for japa and meditation however brief, and regard everything that happens as coming from the One. Joy, in her presence, seemed less an attainment than the native climate of being.
