Glimpses of Mother Krishnabai - I

Mother Krishnabai - Her patience and fortitude

In the early years of the Ashram life, there were no paid servants in the Ashram and all the duties wee distributed among the sadhaka inmates.  But the brunt of the work was borne by Mataji.  She had to be toiling in the kitchen almost single-handed.  The number of visitors continued to increase daily.  To cook for and serve them was a most arduous task.  Further, Mataji had not yet been relieved of the pain which she had sustained as a result of the injury to her backbone, in the Kasaragod Ashram.  All the time, however, she was showing wonderful patience and fortitude.  On occasions, one noticed her lying down quite still, side-ways, on a long narrow mat, unable to move owing to the intense pain she felt in all parts of her body.  She would be in that position for about half an hour or so, and then she would get up to resume her work as though nothing had happened to her.

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Mother Krishnabai - Selfless service

The gathering in the Ashram in December 1938 was a memorable event in its life.  Many distinguished friends and devotees had assembled from all parts of India.  At that time, a sick woman, who was badly anaemic and was hardly able to walk, came to the Ashram and Mataji received her, and gave her a room in the old kitchen block to lie down.

A very heavy programme had been arranged for the gathering.  And in the midst of the multifarious activities which were going on under her direct supervision, Mataji could still find time to attend on this poor ailing woman.  Soon her condition worsened and her illness took a serious turn.  Mataji sought the help of the doctors present on the occasion, and got the woman treated by them.

But one day her condition was so bad that life was despaired of.  At this critical moment, a friend went to Mataji and suggested that the woman might be shifted to some house outside the Ashram compound, so that in the event of her death, the celebrations might not be disturbed.  To this gratuitous advice, she calmly and gently gave her characteristic reply, "Would you propose to shift the woman in her present precarious condition, if she had been my own sister?" This reply silenced the officious adviser.

This poor woman was later admitted as an in-patient in the Hosdrug Hospital the Ashram bearing all her expenses until she fully recovered.  Soon after, she joined the Ashram service.

                                      

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