How our Master came to be known as Sri Sri Babathakur

From the pages of SmritiGatha (translated by Smt. Swapna Banerjee)

Sri Sri Babathakur started his early career as a teacher in an eminent school in South Kolkata, India. During those days He was addressed and referred to as “Mastermashai,” a formal address for a teacher in Bengali. In the late 1960s He lived in Kankulia, a neighborhood in the Ballygunje area of South Kolkata. His spiritual aura was already drawing seekers, aspirants, devotees, and other curious people around Him.

On February 12th, 1967 late Srimati Bani Chakraborty (wife of Late N. C. Chakraborty, Senior Advocate of Kolkata High Court), a highly qualified and devoted soul, accompanied by her equally dedicated cousin Late Srimati Uma Raychaudhuri, paid a visit to Him at His residence in Kankulia to satisfy their spiritual quests. The first encounter with the Divine Personality of MasterMashai unleashed profound changes in their lives turning them into the most ardent devotees of Sri Sri Babathakur. Sri Sri Babathakur moved into Srimati Chakraborty’s residence on Fern Road in early 1968 and stayed there until 1996. Srimati Bani Chakraborty, with the full support and encouragement of her husband who revered Sri Sri BabaThakur as his Supreme Guru, dedicated her life at the service of Sri Sri Babathakur, taking care of Him as Iswar Atma Brahma Guru, but with the utmost love, affection, care and dedication of the most protective mother.

It may be worth mentioning here that Srimati Chakraborty was already spiritually initiated by Srimad Hansha Baba Abhadut when she met Sri Sri Babathakur. While single-handedly fulfilling the responsibility of His bodily care, Srimati Chakraborty’s greatest legacy is the chronicling of Sri Sri Babathakur’s daily activities, lectures, revealed songs (bhajans), Divine ecstasies, and numerous spiritual experiences for a period of almost three decades in her journals. Her diary narrating the life of Sri Sri Babathakur first came out as a series in the spiritual quarterly, Sri Sanai, from 1982 onwards and were subsequently published in two volumes, SmritiGantha Volumes I (2003) and II (2009). The account narrated below is from the pages of SmritiGantha (Garland of Memories), the memoirs of Srimati Bani Chakraborty. The translation has tried to remain close to the original so as to retain Srimati Chakraborty’s voice.

Smt. Swapna Banerjee
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From the pages of SmritiGatha: Memoirs of Late Srimati Bani Chakrabarty, Calcutta: Saccidananda Society, Manashi Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-81-86571-30-9; pp. 24-25

April 13th, 1970: I was preparing MasterMashai’s bed after he had finished his dinner. In the midst of various conversation, MasterMashai kept saying — “All Divine Mother (Chaitanyamoyee Ma) says so many inchoate things (Abol Tabol) [incoherent and nonsensical talks] . Wouldn’t she say abol tabol? Ma speaks in terms of A-bol (My/I- language) and Ta-bol (Your language). ”A-bol” means the language of Ananda (Bliss), “tomar bol” means the language of Tattva (Absolute Reality). In the course of the conversation He again said — “Any sadhana (discipline/practice) with ahamkar (ego) is the sadhana of jnana (knowledge) – it is devoid of rasas, the joy and bliss derived from Savikalpa Samadhi. The sadhana of bhakti (devotion) is full of Joy or Bliss.“

It was the middle of April. After MasterMashai had his lunch and I mine, I sought His permission to visit my friend and Guru-bhagni (co-disciple) Manju-di. I went to learn a special recipe from her. I talked a lot about MasterMashai with Manju-di. As we spoke Manju-di told me, “Why would you call Him who you respect so much and hold in such high regard,as “MasterMashai”? “MasterMashai” is a highly respectable address but in the spiritual field you do not use this address for someone who you regard so highly in your heart. We spoke about MasterMashai for an hour-hour and a half and I came back home.

Right after I came back MasterMashai’s asked: “So Ma! You met your friend after such a long time. What did she say?”

I told him why I went to see Manju-di and also shared the rest of the conversation I had with her. I told Him straight -- “Manju-di does not like we addressing You as “Master Mashai”. She said although “MasterMashai is a highly respectable term, it is not an appropriate address for someone you consider your Guru (spiritual mentor).” MasterMashai quietly listened to what I said and after a brief silence said – “She was indeed right.”

I asked — “So what should we call you? “ MasterMashai said -- “ Ma, I really don’t know all that. Call me whatever you like.” There was no further conversation on this matter that day.

That evening when Dwijeshda, Uma, and Binay came, I told them right away what Manju-di had suggested. I said, “ There’s no reason why we should continue to call Him MasterMashai because that’s what we have been calling him for ages.? We ought to change the address.” Dwijesh-da said, “MasterMashai is such a beautiful address! Master means Ma + Star, i.e. Ma Tara (literally, star in Bengali). We laughed at Dwijesh-da’s humor, but Uma and I continued to ponder over what Manju-di suggested. The next day when Harisadhan-da came, I related to him the whole incident. I gave him the responsibility of choosing a name at his earliest. He said, “All right, I will think it through tonight.” The next day Harisadhan-da came back with ten to twelve names. Of those, I only remember three —Thakur, Babathakur, and Thakurbaba. Uma send those names to Bombay-r Ma. We have to select the name from this list. We sought Ma’s opinion. Ma said nothing about which name is better or how we should address Him. She responded to Uma saying that Sri Sri Sarada Ma (the Holy Mother and the consort of Sri RamaKrishna ParamaHansa) used to address Sri Sri Ramakrishna as BabaThakur. But not everybody knows about it.

After we received this letter from Bombay, we decided that we should start calling MasterMashai, “BabaThakur”. We let MasterMashai know that we had come to this decision based on the letter from Ma. He did not raise any objection to what we said but smiled softly.

From that very day we started to practice calling Him “BabaThakur” and instructed everybody to do the same. Old habits die hard. “MasterMashai” came to our lips very easily; we acquired the habit of calling Him BabaThakur much later. Although we cannot recall the exact date, we do remember that we started calling Him “BabaThakur” from the month of May. We spent all April thinking about the address and exchanging letters. Let me state here that from May 1970 onwards, I will refer to Him as BabaThakur in my journal entries in SmritiGatha.