ЁЯМ║ It is hard to understand how the infinite God actually assumes a finite human form and plays with human beings. But this play was in fact enacted in the life of a woman devotee of Sri Ramakrishna. She was known as Gopal-ma, or "Gopala’s mother”. Gopal-ma’s given name was Aghoremani Devi, but she came to be called Gopal-ma, because of her fervent devotion to the infant Krishna. ...
Aghoremani Devi was born of a brahmin family about the year 1822 at Kamarhati, a northern suburb of Calcutta. Following the custom of that time, she was married at the age of nine. Her wedding was the first and last time she saw her husband, for he died before the marriage was consummated, leaving her a widow at the age of fourteen. However, she was initiated into spiritual life by her husband’s family guru and, with the child Krishna as her Chosen Deity, she was given the "Gopala mantra”. Since a Hindu brahmin widow does not remarry, the love and energy that Aghoremani would have given her husband and children were diverted towards her beloved Gopala. It was Providence, that her one-pointed devotion was to make her a saint instead of a faithful wife. ...
By the 1880s Sri Ramakrishna’s name had begun to spread. It was in the fall of 1884 that Gopal-ma first went to Dakshineswar, along with two other women, to seek an audience with the holy man. ... After her first visit, Gopal-ma felt an irresistible attraction for Sri Ramakrishna, and she noticed a change in her life. Off and on she would think about Sri Ramakrishna. ... While she was practising japa, her desire to see him became so intense that she immediately left for Dakshineswar by herself. …
During the next three or four months GopaI-ma visited Dakshineswar several times, always carrying some plain food for the Master.
Invariably he asked her to bring some new food on her next visit. Sometimes she would think in disgust: "O Gopala, is this the outcome of my prayer? You have brought me to a holy man, who only asks for food. I shall not come back again”. But as soon as she returned to Kamarhati, she would again feel that irresistible attraction, and her mind would long to see the Master.
It was the spring of 1885. One morning at 3:00 a.m. Gopal-ma started to practise her Japa as usual. After finishing the Japa she began pranayama and was about to offer the result of the Japa to her Chosen Deity, when she noticed that Sri Ramakrishna was seated at her left with his right fist clenched. Startled, she wondered: "What is this? How did he come here at this odd hour?" As she later described it: "I looked at him in amazement and thought: "How did he come here?”
Meanwhile Gopala [as she called Sri Ramakrishna] kept on smiling sweetly. As I took courage and grasped his left hand, Sri Ramakrishna’s form disappeared and in place of it appeared the real Gopala - a big child ten months old. His beauty and look beggar description! He crawled towards me and, raising one hand, said: "Mother, give me butter”. This overwhelming experience bewildered me. I cried out so loudly, that if there had been men around they would have assembled there. With tearful eyes I said: "My son, I am a poor, helpless widow. What shall I feed you? Where shall I get butter and cream, my child?” But Gopala did not listen to me. "Give me something to eat”, - he kept on saying. What could I do? Sobbing, I got up and brought some dry coconut balls from the hanging basket. Placing them in his hand, I said: "Gopala, my darling, I offer you this wretched thing, but don’t give me such a poor thing in return”.
I could not perform Japa at all that day. Gopala sat on my lap, snatched away my rosary, jumped on my shoulders, and moved around the room. At daybreak I rushed to Dakshineswar like a crazy woman. Gopala also accompanied me, resting his head on my shoulder. I distinctly saw Gopala’s two tiny, rosy feet hanging over my bosom".
When Gopal-ma arrived at Dakshineswar, a woman devotee was present. Her words vividly describe that meeting with the Master:
"I was then cleaning the Master’s room. It was seven or half past seven in the morning. In the meantime I heard somebody calling: "Gopala, Gopala” from outside. The voice was familiar to me. I looked and found it was Gopal-ma. She entered through the eastern door like an intoxicated person, with dishevelled hair, staring eyes, and the end of her cloth trailing on the ground. She was completely oblivious of her surroundings. Sri Ramakrishna was then seated on his small cot.
I was dumbfounded seeing Gopal-ma in that condition. The Master, in the meantime, entered into an ecstatic mood. Gopal-ma sat beside him and he, like a child, sat on her lap. Tears were flowing profusely from her eyes. She fed the Master with cream, butter, and sweets, which she had brought with her. I was astounded, for never before had I seen the Master touching a woman in a state of ecstasy. After some time the Master regained his normal consciousness and went back to his cot. But Gopal-ma could not control her exuberant emotion. In a rapturous mood she began to dance around the room, repeating: "Brahma is dancing and Vishnu is dancing”. Watching her ecstasy the Master said to me with a smile: "Look, she is engulfed in bliss. Her mind is now in the abode of Gopala".
(Swami Chetanananda “They Lived With God”, Gopal-Ma, pp. 359-64)
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