Swamini Kaivalyananda Gurudev lost his mother when he was very small – like 5 years or something like that. And both the sisters – one sister was brought up by another Ammoomma of yours, and your mother and Gurudev were brought up by Kochu Narayani Amma. So, has your mother shared any of the most caring moments that Gurudev had with her?

Jaya Menon My mother was almost blind. As a result, she could not go to school and studied only till grade 4. She could see very little, mostly shadows of everything. My mother if she would even venture out, for getting jackfruit leaves (primarily used as spoon for kanji) which could be used for the day to day affair of the house would get scolded by Swamiji as he was concerned that she would not be able to spot snakes which could coil up near such trees. He used to love her that much. “You don’t go. Just tell me or there are other people in the house who could help you do this”.

Swamini Kaivalyananda After he became sanyasin, what type of relationship did your mother and Gurudev share?

Jaya Menon Since mom could not see, she would go to the front of the house and in the sunlight try to look closely at the Tapovan Prasad, so that she could at least have a glimpse of her brother. “I can’t see anything, my daughter, I can’t see anything. Just can see a shadow”, my mother would say. I used to really feel sad those times as I could really see the love of a sister for her brother and her pining to see her beloved brother.

So I decided to write to Swamiji, since I had heard that video cassettes of his talks had been released, to request him to send a video cassette which could be played on a television, in which at least he could be seen better, bigger and clearer. He communicated back that he had called up Bangalore and that they will send you the cassettes. First he sent around 35 audio cassettes (Geeta Chanting, Geeta speeches, Bhajans) .

So again I wrote back to him saying that I required only 1 video cassette so that I can put it for my mother. He said that “They will send it. I have told them. They will send it immediately”, Swamiji said. First they sent 6 video cassettes, and then they sent 5 more. They stuffed audio cassettes between these video cassettes. There was a bill attached and I picked it up to read as to how much was the amount to be paid. It said “Paid” with 2 lines on top of it. Maybe he instructed them to pay it and “Paid” was written on it. He loved his sister so much that when I asked for one single video cassette, he sent 11 of them.