Where physics ends metaphysics begins; where metaphysics ends religion begins.” This fundamental tenet of Indian philosophy dawns on you as you step inside the tiny, nondescript abode of Swami Bedananda who has spent larger part of his life serving and living among have-nots.
A paradigm of simplicity and candour he never claims what he is not. He would never promise on miracles but they do happen at times, claim his followers who lovingly call this “atypical son of Goddess Kali” by the name Babuji. Those who got healed or for that matter got evaded imminent death --- say for an example, being electrocuted or burnt alive from a naked electric wire --- have come to know about the power of his prayers.
The locals will tell you how easily this septuagenarian bearded monk cloaks his supernatural entity with a child-like exterior. He will laughingly relate to you how once doctors operated upon him without the need of him being anaesthesiatted. “This needs no extra effort. You simply remove yourself from the scene for a while,” he maintains.
Even as the self-effacing sadhu bestows his smile elucidating the most complicated philosophical speculations with supreme ease the fault lines between social classes evaporate in his presence. No wonder why he is mobbed by the who’s who of Kolkata --- from Ministers to bureaucrats to the utter sans-culottes.
A firm believer in Sarva Dharma Samanwaya (religious unity) preached by Ramakrishna Paramahansa and an ardent admirer of karma yoga, “the son of Mother Kaali” as Swami Bedananda is lovingly called by his followers donated his body organs (posthumously) so that “my mundane body is of some good to some people.”
The Sadhu who on Mahalaya Day started a “camp for donation of body parts” at his Matri Mandir Seva Peeth ashrasm in Kolkata says “I was told that our human body can save 12 lives by donating 12 organs. So I decided to lead by example by first offering my own mundane body for the purpose.”
Incidentally the Seva Peeth entered the 37th year of its birth and social service.