Binodbehari Som, a student of the school where Master Mahashaya taught, was introduced by him to the Master who influenced him very much. But subsequently Som entered a theatre and took to drinking under the influence of which he talked desultorily when returning home at dead of night. He knew Swami Saradananda intimately and used to call him his dost (chum). His friends nick-named him Padmabinode. Now, Padmavinode, when passing by the Mother’s house on his way home from the theatre, used to call on his dost, who, however instructed everyone neither to respond nor to open the door, lest the Mother should be disturbed. One night, getting no answer from inside the house, Padmabinode started singing under the influence of liquor:
Get up, Mother gracious, and open the door;
Nothing is visible in the dark; and my heart ever throbs.
How often do I call on thee, O Tara (Kali) at the pitch of my voice!
And yet, though kind thou art forsooth, how thou behavest today!
Leaving thy child outside, thou sleepest inside;
While crying, ‘Mother’, ‘Mother’, am I reduced to skin and bone!
With proper pitch, tune, modulation, and cadence in all the three gamuts,
I call on thee so often; and still thou awakest not!
Maybe, thou hast turned thy face because of my engrossment in play.
Do thou look at me with upturned face, and I shan’t go for play again.
Who but a Mother can bear the burden of such a wretched son?
The plaintive appeal of the song was irresistible. The blinds of the Mother’s window went up at once, and then the window itself opened wide. Padmabinode noticed this and said with delight, ‘Have you got up, Mother? Have you heart your son’s call? Since you’ve got up, take this salute.’ So saying he began to roll on the street. Then taking the dust from the street and putting it on his head he went away singing another tune,
Keep Mother Shyama (Kali) carefully concealed in your heart;
O mind, mayst thou and I only see Her, and none else.
and he repeated with some gusto,
May I see Her, and not my dost.
Next day the Mother inquired about him, and learning everything, remarked, ‘See, how firm is his conviction!’ Padmabinode saw the Mother in that very manner at least once again. Next morning, when her attendents remonstrated that it was not proper for her to leave her bed at that unearthly hour, she replied, ‘I can’t contain myself at his call.’
Not long after, Padmabinode had a severe attack of dropsy, and he had to enter a hospital. During his last moments he expressed a desire to hear the Bengali Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, which was read out to him. Tears trickled down the corners of his eyes and he heard the blessed words, and he passed away in eternal silence with the Master’s name on his lips. The Mother heard all this and said with evident satisfaction, ‘Why should this not be so? Was he not the Master’s son? He was wallowing in mud, and has now retuned to the lap to which he belonged.’
- ‘Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’ by Swami Gambhirananda, P206-07
