away the cobra and protect them. This event, looking strange and miraculous, has to be accepted as it comes from the Mother's lips. It also raises interesting issues regarding the Master's ailment.
Another occurrence was her experience at Tarakeswar Siva Temple where she had gone to pray and seek Divine remedy for the Master's illness, which had been declared incurable by medical men. For two days she lay before the Deity without food or drink, supplicating for some remedy. During the night of the second day she was startled to hear a sound resembling the breaking of a pile of earthen pots at one blow. She woke up from her torpor, and the idea flashed in her mind: "Who is husband and who is wife? Who is my relative in this world? Why am I about to kill myself?" Freed from all personal attachments, her mind was full of an intense spirit of renunciation. She had another vision in which she saw that the image of Mother Kali was bent to one side. When she asked the Deity, "Mother, why do you stand like that?" she got the reply, "It is because of this (pointing to the Master's diseased throat). I also have it in my throat" All such experiences prepared her mind for the exit of the Master from his earthly sojourn, which took place on the 16th August, 1886. With the passing of the Master, this phase of the Mother's life came to a close.
After the Master's Passing: Pilgrimage to Vrindaban
The Master's demise brought about a drastic change in the Holy Mother's life. She reacted to his passing with extreme fortitude, exclaiming, "O Mother Kali! Have you left me!' She shed no tears, though her heart was heavy with the sorrow of separation. Soon after the cremation, she was removing her gold bracelets and tearing off the red border of her wearing cloth in order to be dressed in the pattern of a Hindu widow. Immediately she had a vision of the Master, telling her, "What are you doing? I have not gone away. I have only passed from one room to another." A reassuring experience indeed for her grief-stricken heart! All through life she wore her bracelets and a thin-bordered cloth in acceptance of the assurance of her experience that her Lord and Master is the Eternal Being, who never dies.
About a fortnight after the Master's Mahasamadhi, the Cossipore establishment was disbanded, and the Holy Mother had to shift to the house of Balaram Bose. As a measure for assuaging