"LADIES AND MEN ARE EQUAL"
BY DURGA DEVI MATAJI, SRI LANKA
(published in the Tamil magazine "Gokulam Kadir" in November 2000)
I was an English teacher working abroad for many years. I liked the service Swamiji was doing for the poor and needy and I started visiting his Ashram in my hometown of Matale Sri Lanka. When he moved to India , the land of our ancestors, in 1984, I joined him. He built up the Ashram in Fatimanagar. Swamiji believes that women have great power to develop themselves spiritually. He initiated seven ladies into sannyas, the life of renunciation and service. He appointed a lady as President of our Ashram. We are called Matajis (reverend Mothers). Most of the responsible work in the Ashram was given to us and to other service-minded ladies.
The Ashram was developing very well as a renowned spiritual and service centre when the newspapers published many fabricated and false stories about Swamiji. He was arrested and jailed. All this gave a very bad name to the Ashram and the media made the public believe it is true. The Ashram was under police control for some months and they sent out workers and other devotees doing service. They said they would close the Ashram.
There were hundreds of destitute children here (there still are). Our funds to run this big institution were frozen and rice rations were stopped. With great difficulty we ladies used all our resources to get supplies for all in the Ashram and to see that the children had necessities such as vegetables, soap, oil, etc. We used to go on the buses to bring these things for them and the people hinted at us in a very low manner. They recognized us because of our sannyas dress and because we were earlier well known for our spiritual service. We put a brave face and continued our service knowing that Swamiji is innocent and that we are sincere and true. We gained much solace and determination from the daily abishekams we do without fail in our Pooja Hall. Here ladies run the religious side of things unlike most other Ashrams in India . Every aspect of running this spiritual centre is done by us women.
There are 70 buildings in the Ashram premises. Even though I had no earlier knowledge of this I undertook total supervision of repairs. In the same way we ladies undertook agriculture, running our school for 1 st to 10 th standard children, all cooking and purchasing, official matters of all kinds, spiritual publications, taking care of the small children and even running a large cowshed as well as many, many other tasks. Our foreign lady devotees learned Indian classical arts to encourage the children and they perform beautiful poojas with great devotion.
We run this Ashram in the same way when Swamiji was here. We have many meetings and interact a lot with each other. We often change our work so that we have a good, all-round management team. In this way we learn more new skills an can cope under all situations. We all join together to conduct religious festivals in traditional ways. We celebrate Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim festivals. Our ways are universal. We learned patience and forbearance. Because of our own suffering we were more able to help others in need.
Our inspiration is our guru and our hearts that are dedicated to spirituality and service. Our motivation lies in helping our 450 children in need and devotees in search of solace. Although we have faced many hurdles and obstacles in our path of service and devotion, we have come through it all stronger and more determined.
As the great Bharatiyar said, "Ladies should be equal to men" and I am proud to say that this unique place, Sri Premananda Ashram, made his dream come true.