father Ramachandra. Ramachandra was not slow in understanding his daughter's real object in visiting Calcutta. So he offered to escort her himself.
An auspicious day was then selected, and the party soon started on their long journey towards the end of March,
2 1872. They had to travel a distance of about sixty miles on foot; for in those days there was no railway or steamer service to Calcutta, and the only other alternative means of travel, namely, the palanquin, was beyond the financial capacity of people like them. The first two days of the journey were very pleasant. Corn-fields and lotus ponds greeted their eyes everywhere, while the shade of antique-looking banyan trees offered them protection from the heat of the noonday sun. They were not, however, destined to complete their journey in the same joyous fashion. For on the third day the Holy Mother, who was not accustomed to such long walks, fell ill of high fever, probably owing to the fatigue of the journey. Ramachandra was constrained to break the journey and take shelter in a wayside rest house until his daughter was again fit to travel.
The Holy Mother felt very anxious over this unexpected trouble on the way. She was, however, much relieved in body and mind by a wonderful vision she had at night. Of this she spoke to her devotees in later days to the following effect: 'I was lying unconscious owing to fever, without any sense of decorum even. Just then I saw a woman, pitch dark in complexion, sitting by my side. Though she was dark, I have never seen another so beautiful as she. She stroked my aching head
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2 According to some, the occasion was Dol-purnima which fell on 25th March. According to others it was Chaitra samkranti, which came a month later.