Mr.Satwik Joglekar's Contribution

Reminiscences of Revered Awami Adbhutanadaji

 (Srimat Latu Maharaj):

Submitted By:Satwik Joglekar

Once Sri Ramakrishna interrupted Latu’s meditation and told him, “You are sitting here while she in nahabat has no one to help her knead the dough for chapattis [Indian flat bread].” Then he took Latu to Holy Mother and told her that this boy was very pure; he would help her in whatever way she needed. Thereafter, Latu would help Holy Mother with the household work.

Swami Siddhananda wrote about Holy Mother’s loving attitude toward Latu:“At Vrindaban there were no fixed times for Latu’s meals. He would come at odd hours to Mother or her companions and ask for something to eat. Moreover, he would sometimes feed some of Vrindaban’s monkeys with his share of food. The other women were understandably annoyed by this and they would scold him; but Mother was never annoyed by his childlike behaviour, and she would ask Lakshmi Didi and Golap Ma not to rebuke him. She herself would sit by Latu and serve him with motherly affection. Mother knew her child very well, and she knew that his feelings were easily hurt. She asked her companions to keep Latu’s meals well-covered in a certain place so that he might come at any time and take his meals as he liked.”

At Khetri, Latu Maharaj talked with the Maharaja, who was a disciple and friend of Swamiji, with such intelligence that the Maharaja had no idea that he had had no formal education. In fact he enjoyed talking to Latu Maharaj so much the he mentioned it to Swamiji. Swami Dhirananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, related: “One day the Maharaja of Khetri brought out a globe and started pointing out various countries to Latu Maharaj. Latu Maharaj had never seen a globe before. Swamiji understood the situation immediately and came forward to his brother disciple’s help, giving such a turn to the conversation that the Raja could not know that Latu Maharaj had had no schooling.”

Swami Saradananda once told Mahendranath Datta (Swami Vivekananda’s brother): “You know, at night that fellow Leto doesn’t sleep at all. During the first part of the night he pretends to be asleep and even snores; but he keeps his rosary with him, and when the others are asleep he sits up and starts counting his beads. One night I heard the ticking of beads and thought a mouse might have come in the room. When I gave a rap the sound stopped. A little later the ticks began again. This went on for a while, and I began to suspect that it might not be a mouse. The next night I stayed awake and was very watchful. The moment I heard the first tick, I struck a match and found Leto sitting up, counting his beads. Then I laughed: ‘Ah, you mean to surpass us all! While we are sleeping, you are counting your beads!’”

One of his brother disciples, Swami Turiyananda, said of him: “Many of us had to go through muddy waters of intellectual knowledge before we attained God, but Latu jumped over them like Hanuman. His life teaches us how to live in God without touching the dirt of the world.”
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