Last Updated on January 10, 2025 by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Shree Maa, Swamiji and our group made a short stop in Mumbai on our way to Nasik. While in Mumbai, Shree Maa had the opportunity to meet with several of her family members and friends, and blessed them by residing in their apartment.
Mumbai is a big city with a lot of temples, so the group was able to visit several temples during our short stay.
One such temple was the small, humble, Lakshmi Narayan Temple. When we arrived, a group of devotees were having satsang.
Swamiji made his way into the temple and chanted some mantras for the temple deities Maha Lakshmi, Lord Vishnu, as well as Lord Ganesha and Lord Shiva. He then offered dakshina to the deities.
Noticing Shree Maa and Swamiji, the members of the temple were inspired to make offerings to honor the visiting sadhus.
They offered a bouquet of flowers on behalf of their community. Then, they brought Shree Maa and Swamiji microphones for them to lead in kirtan.
Using Swamiji’s iPad, Shree Maa began to sing Narayana, Narayana, Narayana! Everyone went ecstatic and began to clap and sing along. The joy and bhava in the temple began to grow as people stood up and began to dance. It was an amazing, spontaneous satsangha!
After the singing, the grateful devotees offered respect by giving their pranams to our beloved Shree Maa and Swamiji.
As Shree Maa and our group walked away from the temple, the sound of joyous kirtan continued to resound from inside. For sure, it was a day that the local devotees will never forget!
Swamiji, always taking the opportunity to teach, explained, “The greatest places to visit in India are often called “Anjan”, which means they are unknown and unmarked places. It is those places where real spiritual seekers and sadhus reside because they don’t have any interest in advertising or drawing big crowds. They are only interested in doing sadhana.”
The next temple on the circuit was a well known Kali Temple.
The temple had a beautiful image of the Divine Mother Kali.
Swamiji made offerings of food and dakshina and then sat down to recite the 108 names of Goddess Kali.
After chanting Kali’s names, Shree Maa led the group in singing Kali Bhavani and other songs for Mother Kali.
When we had finished worshiping, the pujari of the temple brought prasad for everyone to eat and, as we were leaving, Shree Maa was offered sweets and fruit.
Then, we visited a neighboring Lord Shiva temple where the group took darshan of Lord Shiva and recited the pranam mantras.
In the evening, a large group gathered in the home where Shree Maa was staying. Shree Maa inspired the group by leading everyone in devotional songs. The singing grew louder and louder as more and more devotees joined.
Shree Maa inquired, “Does anyone else want to lead a song?” Swamiji, seeing that no one was stepping forward, burst into a song for Lord Krishna – loudly singing “Govinda Krishna Jai! Gopala Krishna Jai!” The bhava was amazing and all the while, Shree Maa sat smiling and laughing sweetly as everyone joined in with Swamiji.
At the end of the kirtan, everyone present had a chance to perform Arati. The small room could scarcely fit the large number of devotees who had now come to join us! Several people had to stand outside the doors as the room became packed from wall to wall.
After Arati, Shree Maa and Swamiji blessed each devotee with a tilak and prasad.
Jai Maa! Jai Swamiji!