Ranu Mukherjee is a resident of Aamar Bari, a shelter for the widows in Vrindavan. She was found crying one afternoon to the madam-in-charge at Aamar Bari, saying that she did not have any money or anyone to care for her. She had four sons and a daughter. All her sons had died when they were very young, she said. Her only daughter is married, but Indian customs dictate that parents shall take nothing from their married daughters’ house. She said that her husband’s family had been very nice, and would have taken care of her willingly. But she did not like the way they lived. “I am a Brahmin widow, I do not eat non-vegetarian food, or anything with garlic and onions in them. At my in-laws’ place, they would eat meat and garlic. My mother-in-law was very good to me, and treated me very well,” she said. But still she left, because she found herself unable to chant Krishna’s name in that sort of environment. Ranu travelled to Vrindavan alone from Calcutta, but she insists that she is not alone, because her God had come with her from Calcutta. She likes to sing the Hare Krishna Mantra. “If you sing the Hare Krishna Mantra, everything becomes out of this world,” she said. “There is no name beyond Lord Krishna, and wherever I go, that is the sweetest name I shall chant.” |
