Our Time with Sri Sri Babathakur

by Sri Dipak & Smt. Monjusree Chowdhury

Before we say anything about our experiences with Sri Sri Babathakur, we bow to Him with our deepest reverence and love.

We truly feel very blessed that during our lifetime, we not only had darshan of such an enlightened Master, but were given many opportunities to sit close to Him, listen to His teachings directly, and be blessed by Him. Our first meeting with Him was many years ago in our mashi’s (Smt. Bani Chakravarty) house. At that early age, we weren’t interested in anything spiritual and so we didn’t really take any notice of who Sri Sri Babathakur was. To us, it was only a matter of doing pranam and leaving his room, until many years later.

I (Dipak) was visiting Sri Sri Babathakur and he asked me to come back and see him the next morning, after taking my bath. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my spiritual journey. That next morning, when I visited Him, Sri Sri Babathakur gave me my mantra—which I’ve chanted every single day since then, according to his instructions. After that, whenever we’d go to India, we’d always visit Him to pay our respects.

Today, both of us spend an important part of our lives doing our mantra, Japa, practicing meditation and studying spiritual teachings, including Sri Sri Babathakur’s. Our memories of His presence and teachings will always be treasured until our last days.

Truly, Sri Sri Babathakur was beyond words. To us, He was a compassionate and loving teacher who exuded Divinity at all times. May we all be blessed by Sri Sri Babathakur. May we always have the wisdom to remind ourselves constantly about who we truly are—Suddha, Mukta, Buddha, Atma—as Sri Sri Babathakur always reminded us.