Mathur Babu – The Devotee Who Served Sri Ramakrishna

 After the death of Rani Rasmani, the management of the Dakshineswar temple passed to her favorite son-in-law, Mathur Nath Biswas, known as Mathur Babu. He was deeply devoted to Kali and also became a devoted supporter of Sri Ramakrishna, whom he protected and served for fourteen years. Without Mathur's support, Harding writes, Sri Ramakrishna would have faced difficulties with the temple guards on several occasions.

Sri Ramakrishna's way of worshipping Kali was not always understood by the people responsible for the temple. During his worship he could become completely absorbed in ecstasy. At times he offered food prepared for Kali to a cat or ate it himself. Sometimes he placed flowers meant for the Goddess on his own head, and in his intense joy he even climbed onto the image of Shiva and embraced it. The temple guards regarded such actions as madness or sacrilege and brought their complaints to Mathur Babu. 

Mathur did not interfere with Sri Ramakrishna's worship. He went personally to Dakshineswar to see what was happening. After silently observing Sri Ramakrishna during the worship of Kali, he gave the temple's chief officer a simple instruction: Bhattacharya was not to be disturbed, no matter how he performed his worship.

Mathur's trust in Sri Ramakrishna was not without moments of uncertainty. On one occasion, after Sri Ramakrishna struck Rani Rasmani in the Kali temple, Mathur became concerned about his condition. He called in a well-known doctor, who found nothing wrong with him. Mathur then wondered whether years of complete continence might have affected Sri Ramakrishna's mind. He even arranged for a woman from Calcutta to visit him. When Sri Ramakrishna saw her, however, he greeted her as Mother and called the temple priests to see her.

Mathur himself experienced powerful changes in his devotional life. He once asked Sri Ramakrishna to give him bhava, an intense spiritual mood. Later, when this state came upon him, he found himself unable to attend to his worldly responsibilities. For three days he was overwhelmed by devotion: whenever he spoke about God or heard the name of God, he wept, his eyes became red, and his heart beat strongly. Finally he called Sri Ramakrishna and asked him to take the state away because his estate was suffering while he remained absorbed in religious emotion. 

Mathur regarded Sri Ramakrishna as God, yet Sri Ramakrishna remained unmoved by such devotion and did not consider himself superior to Mathur. Their relationship was described by Harding as one in which each in his own way cared for the other. When Mathur's wife Jagadamba became seriously ill and the doctors had lost hope for her recovery, Mathur turned to Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that she would recover. Harding relates that he then took her illness upon himself and suffered from severe dysentery for the following six months. Mathur was overcome with devotion and fell at his feet. 

There is another striking episode in Mathur's relationship with Sri Ramakrishna. Mathur's horoscope stated that his chosen deity, when taking human form, would always be gracious toward him, accompany him and protect him. One day Mathur saw Sri Ramakrishna walking back and forth on the veranda outside his room. As he moved in one direction, Mathur saw him as Kali; as he moved in the other, he saw him as Shiva. 

Mathur Babu remained closely connected with Dakshineswar and with Sri Ramakrishna for many years. His position allowed him to protect the unusual worship of Kali carried out by the young priest, while his own devotion brought him into a close relationship with Sri Ramakrishna and with the spiritual life of the temple. 

Source & Note

This article is based on Elizabeth U. Harding’s Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar (Nicolas-Hays, 1993). The material has been edited and adapted for this publication.