made for her monastic children. This was the prayer from which the monastic Brotherhood of Sri Ramakrishna gradually took shape as an organized body with the monks staying in Ashramas and centres of work.
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Towards the end of the same year (November 1888), the Holy Mother visited the famous temple of Puri with a party including Yogin-Ma, and swamis Brahmananda, Yogananda and Saradananda. They were accommodated at Puri in a house belonging to Balaram Bose's family. Now, Balaram Bose's brother, Harivallabh Bose, a famous advocate of those days, was a very influential man in those parts, and the priests of Puri held him in great respect. As the Holy Mother and party were his guests, Govinda Singari, one of the prominent priests of the place, wanted to show special honour to her by taking her to the temple of Jagannath in a palanquin. But she told him, 'No Govinda, you lead me to the temple, and I shall go after you just like a humble, destitute beggar woman to see Jagannath, the Lord of the Universe.'
As Sri Ramakrishna had not visited the temple of Jagannath in his lifetime, she took his photograph to the temple covered with her cloth and showed it to the image. She stayed for about four months at Puri, often visiting the temple at the time of the morning and evening services, and spending much time in meditation at the shrine of Lakshmi.
Recounting her experience of Jagannath, she said afterwards, 'I saw Jagannath seated like a Person of leonine bearing on His precious altar, and I was serving Him as an attendant.' Regarding the identity of
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1 About this incident she said as follows; 'Ah! For this I have shed tears and prayed to the Master! And only then through his grace has this Math come into existence now. When the Master left the body, the boys gave up the world and gathered together round a rented shelter for some days. Then they scattered about independently and went on roaming about here and there. Then I felt intensely sad and prayed thus to the Master: "Lord, you came, disported with these few and then went away; and should everything end with that? If so, where was the need for coming down and undergoing so many travails? I have seen in Banaras and Brindavan many holy men who get their food by begging and shift their residence from the shade of one tree to that of another. There is no dearth of holy men of that type. I shan't be able to bear the sight of my sons, who came out in your name, going about begging for food. My prayer is, that those who leave the world in your name may never be in need of bare sustenance. They will all live together holding to your ideas and ideals; and the people afflicted by the worries of the world will resort to them and be solaced by hearing about you. That is why you came. My heart is pained to see them wandering about." After that Naren began gradually building up all this.'