| Sri Sarada Devi, The Holy Mother | Main page |

felt rather shy. I thought: ' What is this? What will people think of it? They will say, "Mother has started making dlsciples so soon." But on three consecutive nights I heard the Master telling me, "I have not initiated Yogen. You do it." He even told me what Mantra I was to give him. Before that time I had never spoken to Yogen. So the Master asked me to initiate him through daughter Yogin (Yogin-Ma, her woman companion). I therefore spoke to her about it. She asked Yogen about his initiation and learned that the Master had not given him any Mantra. The Master had also appeared to Yogen and asked him to take initiation from me, but he did not dare to tell me about it. As both of us had received the Master's command, I initiated him'.
   The initiation took place in this way: One day the Holy Mother was worshipping in her room. A picture of the Master and a small box containing his relics were before her. She sent for Swami Yogananda and asked him to sit near her. While performing worship, she entered into Samadhi and in that state initiated him. She uttered the holy words so loudly that Yogin-Ma, who was in the next room, could hear it.
   After staying in Brindavan for about a year, the party went to Hardwar2where the Holy Mother consigned a part of the Master's relics in the sacred waters of the Brahmakunda. Next they visited Jaipur and Pushkar and then returned to Calcutta. On their way they halted at Allahabad where the Holy Mother immersed the Master's hair at the holy confluence of the Yamuna and Ganges. To describe the ceremony in her

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2 On the way to Hardwar Swami Yogananda got very high temperature in the train and got delirious. Yogin-ma nursed him, giving pomegranate juice. In the delirious condition, Swami Yogananda saw a terrible form before him, telling him, 'I would have finished you, but I am helpless. There is the order of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and I have to quit at once.' When departing, the figure pointed to a deity with red clothes and directed him to offer some Rasagulla to her. Swami Yogananda recovered and continued his journey with the party. From Hardwar they went to Jeypore, and there while they were visiting several shrines, Swami Yogananda cried out at the shrine of a particular goddess that was the very deity he saw in his vision in delirium. This goddess was Sitala and Rasagullas were offered to her by the party.

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