From my very childhood I heard about the greatness of Lahiri Mahasaya from my grandfather and also from my parents. They always mentioned to me that Lahiri was the saviour of mankind. He was my idol as a great Guru and greatly influenced my life.
In 1935, when Guruji returned to India, he also mentioned Lahiri Mahasaya as one of the great saints of India. On many occasions he advised his disciples to remember and to take the name of Lahiri Mahasaya during any difficulty.
Later in my life I experienced this as true. In 1946, during the Hindu-Muslim riots in India, some of us in my family were standing on the roof of our house when my younger brother, Shyamsunder, was unfortunately shot dead and my father also received a bullet injury in his chest.
Though I was also there I escaped miraculously with the grace of God and Guruji. That was a terrible mishap in our family and all of us were in grief. My parents decided to go to Varanasi for a change. So in the month of January, 1947, we went to Varanasi for one month. My father rented a house very near to Lahiri Mahasaya’s house, and every morning all of us used to go to Lahiri Mahasaya’s house and sit in meditation in his room, and immediately we had peace of mind. We also found an old man sitting every morning at the doorway of Lahiri Mahasaya’s house. This man used to see us every day and somehow he came to know that we were in grief.
One day while we were coming out of the house, the old man asked my father, pointing out to me, “Is he your older son?” My father said, “Now he is my only son.” Then the old man said, “I would like to examine your son’s palm.” So he examined my palm for some time and said to my father, “Your son will live long and he will be married within a year, and the bride will be beautiful and good in all respects, and she will be most appropriate to your family.”
My father heard everything but did not pay much attention to his words. But strangely enough the same evening, when my parents went out for shopping along with my sister Shefali and my mother’s sister in the Biswanath Lane, which leads to the holy Biswanath Temple and where there are many sari shops, there my mother first saw a beautiful young girl who also came there with her family for shopping.
My mother liked her very much and thought to take her as a bride of this family. Then my mother asked her name and address. She said she was from Calcutta and we came to know that her house was near to Guruji’s house. My mother was also very much delighted to know the girl’s name was Anjali Bose, because the Ghosh and Bose families are most appropriate for marriage.
Now here it is very interesting to note that Yogananda’s mother belonged to Bose family before her wedding; his three sisters were married into Bose families; Ananta’s daughter, Amiya; Bishnu’s daughter, Ava; and my daughter, Papia all married into Bose families. My son Somnath also married Sarita Bose. So my mother was delighted that Anjali was from Bose family.
After the two families came back to Calcutta from Varanasi, negotiations about the marriage ceremony started between the guardians of the two families, and myself and Anjali were married on 7th February, 1948.
I, along with my parents and Anjali, strongly feel and believe that as this marriage originated from Lahiri Mahasaya’s house, this marriage took place with Lahiri Mahasaya’s great blessings. According to that old man’s sayings, Anjali is worthy and appropriate in this family, doing everything to keep the house clean, maintaining Guruji’s attic meditation room as a holy shrine with flowers, welcoming each and every devotee, serving prasad to them.
Besides this, she looks after the needy relatives and distributes new clothes to needy neighbors. All these are possible with Lahiri Mahasaya’s blessings.