Shri Vijay Bhaiya Ke Janamotsav Par Unhe Shat Shat Naman

VIJAY JI PAYS SHRADDHANJALI TO BHAKTIMATI USHA BAHENJI

USHA BAHENJI

Shri Vijay had been transferred to Ambala in January 1958. As a matter of chance his office was in the same neighbourhood as Bobo (Bhaktimati Usha Bahenji) and he had rented a room nearby. He had spent four years in Ambala studying till the tenth class. His friend Satya Prakash studied from Bahenji and requested Vijay to continue his studies in the last quarter. However, Vijay had a fixed mindset because a certain friend had foreseen that he would not study any more than the tenth class. Therefore he turned a deaf ear to the suggestion but it evoked a desire.

Vijay's friend approached Usha Bahenji but she refused, not wanting to teach anyone other than Acharyaji's abandoned class. On suggesting again he got the same curt answer. At this end Vijay had lost patience and asserted that if needed he would study from someone else. But destiny had something else in store. A divine force urged his friend Satya Prakash and he entreated Bahenji yet again.

Revered Bobo was moved this time and the future became explicit. She had to go Chandigarh University for some work and Vimla Nevile accompanied her. While singing God's glories Bobo's sight was instantly fixed on the sky outside the bus. She saw a boy posited there and instantly the vision of three boys she had glimpsed earlier flashed across like lightning. Consenting to have the boy brought, she would consider if he was worth being taught.

Several thoughts tugged at that shy innocent boy. Learning weighed against the realm of ignorance and he could not take any decision. Somehow time at his office passed by and the glorious moment arrived.

The class was to be held at Vimla Nevile's residence in the Punjabi Mohalla. Vijay arrived there with his friend. Everyone spread out their mats and sat down with students streaming in one by one. The new entrant Vijay sat on one side and waited for Bobo's arrival.

Soon after, a clicking sound could be heard. The door opened and short statured, frail,  with loose hair, large eyes and a red bindi radiating on her high forehead, Bobo entered with another Bahen. She was clad in a white dhoti and full sleeved white printed blouse of coarse cotton and wore padukas on her feet. She had a lustrous face and a keen eye which could see right through your innards. Her enigmatic person cast a spell on Vijay. Studying with lowered eyes he strived to see her countenance and she occasionally glanced at him. He seemed to have one peculiarity but it did not take her long to identify the third boy. Time got over and the class was dismissed.

On coming home Vijay was sceptical about whether he would be allowed to attend class tomorrow. The next day he went to study, well groomed.

On seeing his shaven beard, Bobo naturally remarked,"You did well. The Lord does not approve of our dressing in a slovenly fashion."

A recipient of Shri Vimla Nevile and her mother's kindness, this boy came to study with an intense affinity.

Gradually the term got over. Two to three other girls enrolled but Vijay was the only boy. The text was needed while teaching and he had the good fortune to sit next to her on the takht (seat made of planks)making us all envious. Boys would come to study but would generally quit after a couple of days. 

Bobo had a great sense of humour.

 "Boys do no stay on ever since you have come," she remarked.

Vijay was irritated but instantly repentant. This was just an amusing remark by one who had showered love on him.

Shri Vijay Bhaiya

Vijay had some interest in bhakti literature. Bobo knew about his attraction, dedication and infatuation with the Divine which was making him circulate mechanically. He fervently looked out for opportunities to visit Bobo.

One day the sky was overcast with clouds. Bobo was enchanted by the madhurya of  blue-hued Krishna on seeing the gathered clouds. Taking along a couple of students she came to the terrace for relishing the dark beauty of Krishna, the colour of the condensed sky. She asked Vijay if he could write some lines on the captivating scene. He penned a write up and she was touched on seeing her sentiments somewhat expressed. Vijay would attend classes at Vimlaji's house but now he had permission to come to Bobo's residence. Bobo's asceticism and simplicity steadily entered his life, with a sublimation of his waywardness. With her divine energy Bobo had become aware of everything.

A routine of going to class everyday had begun. An attraction of Shri Thakurji abiding in Bobo was fabricating a chance. Going to office and an eagerness to visit her soon after was apparent.

Bobo would make Vijay stay back after class. An icon of loving tenderness she would sit for hours with him, drawn by a certain attraction.

She would ask at times if he was bored but invariably got this precise answer, "No, certainly not".

Delighting in a peculiar joy Vijay never found this practice strange. Bobo very well knew the secret of his getting prasad along with her when it was distributed. He had certainly sobered down and had no friend in particular.

All students were charmed and spell-bound by Shri Usha Bahenji’s manner of teaching marked by true friendship. What she had taught for six days Bobo had them write on the same subject on the seventh day of the week. When electricity went off the students were engrossed in giving the examination while she would continue fanning them with a hand fan. Not just a student and teacher relationship this bond is can be shared by great personages steeped in the sweet love of blue-hued Krishna.

Days passed by and the sequence of studying continued. That boy due to her fondness was absorbed in further studies. A test was organized for sending fees to the University. To inspire students, Bahenji declared that she would teach the student who scored the maximum marks for a month by giving extra time.

The results of examination had yet to be declared. The contact which had started as a student turned into affinity along with religious devotion. Now delighting in Krishna's playfull dalliances, Vijay's life which had revolved around the mundane turned towards spiritual evolution because of Bobo.

Bulleh Shah

She often narrated the incident of sufi saint Bulleh Shah. Saint Inayat Shah was his guru. Once Inayat Shat was busy working as a gardener when Bulleh Shah happened to pass by. 

" Bullya Rabb da ki pauna, Aidhron putna audhar launan." Which meant that it is very simple to attain God. Moving away your mind from here(material world), immerse it there (in God), he had promptly replied on Bulleh Shah's asking how to attaint God.

The examination results of her last class were out and everyone had passed with good grades. Some students who were only concerned with studies got busy in their respective jobs. Others attracted by Bobo's lifestyle, considering her as the refuge of their quest or rather Krishna making them relish His madhurya through Bobo, flocked to her at all hours.

Bobo had taken birth for a cause. Conscious of this fact, she distributed the deeper ecstasies of devotion with a free hand and endowed the competence to grasp it. Those steeped in her terrifying rush of love are well aware of the attachment, ardent longing and curiosity which urged them to be by her side, as she filled their lives with inspiration and delight.

“Boboji here refers to Saint Ushaji of Vrindavan and Vijayji was Her student since the age of 16. Born on 19th December 1938, he passed MA in 1965 and got a Govt Officer's job. Thereafter he quit this post to become a denizen of Braj in 1972, renouncing all worldly pleasures to attain spiritual bliss. During this long span of 36 years from 1972 to the date of His Gaulokgaman ( 24th May, 2008) Sadhu Vijayji widely journeyed all over Braj . He wrote the ‘Braj Bhoomi Mohini’. There is something strikingly enchanting about the text as it describes the celestial land of dreams and Lord Krishna's divine play. When Saint Ushaji, His ideal and Guru, wrote the foreword of this deeply moving work, She was actually laying the foundation of a Devotee-writer in Vijayji. Later, he edited several of Her works. Of late, ‘Shri Krishan Leelalok’ was the latest 21^st book to be published while ‘Shri Krishan Karnamrit’ is still in the press.

Madhurya, the Watchword of Shringara Bhakti

Shri Vijay’s greatest work has been ' Braj Vaibhav Ki Apoorv Shri Bhaktimati Usha Bahenji,' the biography of Bahenji. Herein Supreme Lover Krishna is seen as the repository of madhurya and Bobo, as she was fondly called, is equally tender in expressing and experiencing her love for Krishna

 Furthermore, Shri Vijay writes beautifully about her life wherein Bobo becomes a paradigm of the perennial quest of mankind for a divine and transcendental love. As madhurya translates into ananda comes the realization that everyone is ultimately a nayika searching for Krishna and worshippers come to find the god within themselves.