EVERYONE in India is aware of the CATHERINE CLEMENTIN-OJHA existence of female or spiritual teachers. It is highly unlikely, for example, that a name like that of would be unknown to someone in this country. I would like to introduce here four female gurus whom I had the opportunity to meet in Varanasi while I was conducting an enquiry into the characteristics of Hindu The Tradition of female ascetics. I shall present here the portraits of these ladies. As far as possible. I shall Female Gurus avoid technical discussions, emphasising rather the human aspect of the question. To begin with, however, some explanatory remarks have to be made. First, I will explain in what sense I use the word female . We need to be aware that this expression does not correspond to any Indian term. The simple reason for this is that the guru’s role having been traditionally a masculine one, the word guru does not accept a feminine form. The closest term to our “female guru” is gurumata but, as anyone acquainted with the classical religious literature of India knows, this means the wife of the guru. In the days of yore depicted in the Upanishads when the young pupils used to receive their education in the home and family of a guru (gurukul), the gurumata was no doubt a highly respected person but never one entitled to impart any kind of philosophical instruction. I found that the disciples of the female guru whom I met in Varanasi usually designated them mataji that is, “mother.” This seems to be the general usage. Essentially, the role of the female guru is not different from that of a guru. What does a guru do then? For our purpose here, it is enough to define a guru as someone who has received knowledge and who is in a position to transmit it. This knowledge is usually of a religious or philosophical nature, but not always, since one finds gurus in spheres such as classical dance and music but it is true that these are not completely profane arts either. Further, this knowledge is held to liberate the disciple and bring about his or her spiritual salvation—a state which is understood

differently by different schools. -Eternal India To receive knowledge means that once Anandamayi Ma with her disciples upon a time a guru was a disciple studying

2 MANUSHI under a guru who earlier had also been studying under a guru. This has been The Woman Who Initiated Sri Ramakrishna going on in India from time immemorial so This is an extract from a biographical sketch of Sri Ramakrishna, the famous that any guru of today is theoretically the nineteenth century philosopher and mystic, written by his most famous disciple, inheritor of an ancient tradition. To Vivekanand. Here, Vivekanand describes how Ramakrishna was initiated by a transmit knowledge means to help pass female guru. Unfortunately, we know very little else about this exceptional woman, on this tradition to another person. The who is briefly mentioned in the various biographies of Ramakrishna. essential ritual involved in the process is “At the time he had no teacher, nobody to tell him anything except that everyone that of diksha or . Another way thought that he was out of his mind. This is the ordinary condition of things. If a man to define the guru is to say that one who is not mad with desire for gold, the men of this world say that he is out of his mind. If gives diksha is a guru. All this implies that one seeks not after lust and wealth and vanity, he is called mad. But such men are the a guru is a link in an uninterrupted chain salt of the earth. Out of such madness came the powers that have moved this world of succession or parampara and that of ours in the past, and out of such madness alone will come the powers of the fuiure, there cannot be such a thing as an that are yet to move it. So days, months and even years passed in a continuous independent or self made guru. struggle of the soul to arrive at Truth. The boy began to see visions, to see wonderful There are many guru paramparas to things, the secrets of his own nature were beginning to open to him. Veil after veil be found today in . Some are for was, as it were, being taken off. God himself, Mother herself, became the teacher, and householders—married gurus -in which initiated the boy into the truths he sought. At this time there came to the place a case the guru is also the father. Some are woman, of beautiful appearance and learned beyond compare. Later on, the saint for ascetics. Most of these paramparas used to say about her that she was not learned, but the embodiment of all learning ; are parts of bigger organisations known she was learning itself, in human form. There, too, you find the peculiarity of the as sampraday. This term, which means Indian nation. In the midst of the ignorance in which the average Hindu woman lives, “transmission” of a particular doctrine, is in the midst of what is called in Western countries, her lack of freedom, there could awkwardly translated into English as sect. arise this woman, of supreme spirituality. She was a sanyasini, for women also give Three of the four ladies presented here up the world, throw away their property, remain unmarried, and devote themselves to belong to ascetic paramparas. They are the worship of the Lord. She came, and when she heard of this boy in the forest, members of three major sects : the Dasnami weeping and wailing, whom people called mad, she offered to go to see him. Hers was Sampraday,the Ramanandi Sampraday, the first help he received. She understood at once what was the matter, and said : and the Nimbark Sampraday. The fourth “Blessed is that man, my son, upon whom such madness comes. Everyone in the one belongs to the Vallabha Sampraday world is mad ; some for wealth, some for pleasure, some for fame, some for a hundred which has only householder lines of other things. Blessed is the man who is mad after God ! They are very few.” succession. This woman took up her abode in the place, and remained there for years, taught If, as I have said earlier, female gurus him the various forms of the , initiated him into the different practices do not have a role different from that of of , and guided and brought into control, as it were, this tremendous river of their male counterparts, why give them spirituality. special attention? Because they have (From Swami Vivekanand, My Master, adopted their career despite considerable second edition, 1911, Calcutta, pages 32-35) odds. Thus, the four sects enumerated above, which are among the most managed to infiltrate the exclusively male However, the fact that these four important in Hinduism, have traditionally guru paramparas ? There will be some women are functioning as gurus today refused women the right to function as answers to that question in the portraits does not suffice to prove that they will gurus. It is true that this attitude has not given below. As we shall see, their fully qualify to belong to the guru characterised all Hindu sects. It has not circumstances and their tremendous parampara of their guru. They have affected those influenced by the personalities were the main ingredients on indeed received a tradition and they are which state explicitly that women can the side of the women themselves. But let transmitting it but to become an integral become gurus. In Bengal, for example, us not forget the role of their own guru part of a guru parampara, they still have there have been many female gurus within who first gave them the possibility by to hand down to one of their disciples the the Shakta school. Ramakrishna initiating them. It was a male guru in all right to succeed them after their death. Out Paramahansa, the great nineteenth century four cases. Does that mean that it requires of the four women presented here, there is Bengali mystic, was himself initiated by a a male authority figure to legitimise some evidence that this could be the case female guru. On the scale of Hinduism as aberrant female behaviour? It certainly with two of them. Yes, it seems possible a whole, however, such phenomena remain indicates that the organisation of these for Shobha Ma of the Nimbark rare. sects may not be as resistant to change as Sampraday and for Sharadvallabha Betiji Then, how have these women they appear to be. of the Vallabha Sampraday that their

No. 31 (November-December 1985) 3 names will be remembered, as those of their and authoritative person. She wears an come regularly to visit her. They share their gurus before them, and will be a link in one orange dress and keeps her thick and long problems with her and she advises them. of the uninterrupted chains of succession black hair loose on her shoulders. At first, Everyone is welcome. This is how Mataji of their sect. This would be a great she was somewhat flattered by our visit understands her role in society—to challenge to the hierarchy of these but in subsequent meetings she grew receive people and give them advice. She traditional and age old sects but, given impatient with our questions and took to wants to be seen as a serious and their loose structure and the fact that none answering them in a diffident way as if she enlightened person who has a certain of their members has the authority to was taking an exam. Her swift way of wisdom and can help others in times of oppose such a development, there will be walking, her volatile face behind her thick crisis. She fulfils this role with a dignified little choice but to accept the new female. black framed glasses and her tone full of bearing, adopting in her dealings with Finally, it remains to be said that the authority, all point to her determination to others a half protective, half authoritarian ladies we are about to meet symbolise an assert herself and do what she wants. attitude which her entourage seems to ideal of life which is extremely prestigious She likes to declare that, right from her appreciate. By all her sayings, Mataji in Hindu society. For this reason, they are teenage years, she always did as she strikes one as a person who wishes to the keepers of a tradition which is not pleased. That is why her parents could not appear extraordinary. Thus, she claims to specific to the sects with which they are prevent her from walking out of their home have an unusual (strength): she associated. A good part of their teaching to wander around and lead the life of a says that for this reason people fear her has, therefore, no sectarian leanings but renunciant. When you have a strong very much. She also wants to be treated is common to all ascetics and all the gurus inclination to do something, she explains, respectfully and, before accepting an who preach in India. none can stop you, it is your karma. invitation, she makes sure that she will be As is well known, the ideal human life She does not wish to speak more about received with all due marks of honour. is divided, according to tradition, into four her past. “My old personality is dead”, As she sees it, her sex is in no way a stages (chaturashram). Theoretically, it is she says. She will not say anything about handicap for the life she has chosen to crowned by the practice of renunciation her caste, her family, whether she was lead. When I told her that Shankaracharya, and the complete giving up of worldly married or not. She denies strongly that who founded her monastic order and made existence. It is on these principles that the her becoming an ascetic had anything to it clear that no woman was to be allowed life of ascetics is based and their function do with widowhood. She insists that she therein, might not have approved, she seems to be to remind those who are caught voluntarily broke all her links with the burst out : “I know this very well. But why up in the world, of the ideal they should world. According to her, this is the purpose should we care about all this, we women ? strive to obtain. Fundamentally, such is of sanyas: it means nash karna, to When our third eye is open we are stronger also the role of these female gurus. They destroy—all former associations. than anybody else. All these teach essentially through their own She met her guru soon after she left Shankaracharyas, these Nimbarkacharyas, example. Their life style, what they do, her home. From him she took the regular they have created gangs to keep us what they say, their everyday ordinary monastic vows to become a sanyasini. subdued. In this society, we are kept under existence and the atmosphere they create Then she stayed in his service for many a lid : don’t do this! don’t do that! It is around themselves, these are their main years. They lived on a barge that navigated unacceptable!” teaching. the Ganga and she recalls this period of Mataji worships that form of Mataji Om Bharati her life with great pleasure. She describes whose lolling out tongue, dishevelled hair, It was quite by chance that my husband in a lively way how she used to spend her naked body and standing on the prone and I one day met Mataji Om Bharati in the time on this floating Ashram where all the is a clear symbolical expression of streets of Varanasi. She lives in the Bengali normal activities of a religious community the domination of the female principle over area and rents one of the old and formerly used to take place: puja, satsang and the male principle. These forms and magnificent mansions overlooking the kirtan (community worship). Despite her symbols are pregnant with meaning for all Ganga. As her name indicates, she is a dedicated service which gave her much and, as she claims, this sanyasini sanyasini or female ascetic, and belongs work, she felt a thrilling sense of freedom seems indeed to scare her neighbours. Any to the Bharati section of the Dasnami on this barge. renunciant once angered is a potentially Sampraday, the ten monastic orders Several years ago, Mataji settled down dangerous character, more so a woman organised in the ninth century by the great in Varanasi. She lives alone with one or who worships Kali the Mother, for one Vedanti theologian Shankaracharya. two Bengali widows who serve her for a never knows what kind of supernatural Mataji hails from Bengal and she has few coins a day. She has no ascetic power she may have derived from it. retained from her province a typical disciples. All her disciples are lay people At the same time, her solid common pronunciation which gives a peculiar who come to see her off and on. They sense has earned her the affection of her accent to her Hindi. Sixtyish, small and bring donations which allow her to live. acquaintances. She is also very orthodox rather hefty, she comes through as an alert Besides her own disciples, others also and defends with all her might the value of

4 MANUSHI the chaturashram dharm. And, if all her disciples are lay people, it is because she does not encourage the practice of renunciation. AS for the other female ascetics, she says that they do not interest her. She is rather suspicious of them for she finds that there are only very few among them who know how to keep their station. Mataji Ram Dulari Dasi We now cross the Ganga river to go to Ram Nagar, the small town facing Varanasi. There we meet Mataji Ram Dulari Dasi, also in her sixties, who is a vairagini of the Ramanandi Sampraday. She is a very genial character. She has a big round shining face, small features, a smooth skin. On her large forehead she wears the mark of her sect—the Ramanandis. Yellow paste applied on its whole surface delimits a two branched fork in the middle of which arises a red flame. Her grey hair is pulled back and reunited at the top of her head in an enormous and conical jata. Once, she opened her ascetic bun and her long matted hair swept the floor as she stood. She wears a white dhoti wrapped

around her body. She also has the Johnston -Virginia Ramanandi Kanthi (necklace) and the Mataji Om Bharti wooden earrings worn by ascetics of her sect. Mataji is originally from UP. She was the custom. Then he died and she started Since she has settled down in Ram born in a family and married at having disciples of her own. When she Nagar, Mataji is independent. There are the age of nine. According to her, it was a grew weary of wandering around, they many female ascetics like her within the most auspicious age for “the Himalaya helped her buy a small house in Ram Nagar. sect which Ramanand founded in the himself gave his daughter in marriage to This is where I met her, for she spends fourteenth century, for he was a reformist Lord Shiva when she was nine.” most of her time there, taking care of the who did not believe in discriminating But her husband died one year later images of Sita and Ram and serving between disciples on grounds of their caste and the young child widow started a life visiting ascetics. She has given up going or sex. However, most of these women live of wandering. At first, she moved around on pilgrimage but she still takes part in the in monastic communities. The situation of with other elderly widows of her family. Kumbha Mela where she can meet many Ram Dulari Dasi is quite different. As; she Then she met female ascetics and became other ascetics and attend their makes clear, she is her own master : a member of their group. She has some conferences. “Everybody must respect a person who difficulty in recalling all the events of those However, it is in Ram Nagar itself that has founded an Ashram. Even if she is a days for she has seen so much and as she the most important event of her life takes very young woman, the other sadhus, must says :”It is difficult to explain how these place. There, for a whole month every year, bow to her (dandavat). But this implies things happen. It is good sanskar which she leaves her sanctuary and its that she is responsible for the good order gives you this possibility and god’s grace preoccupations to follow the different of the place, she must feed all those who puts you on the right path. Everything episodes of the great Ram Lila, a fantastic come to visit her. As you see, it is a very depends upon the will of god.” event which brings into the reality of this great responsibility to be a mahant” (head Later, she met her guru. She went on world the kingdom of Ram. This spiritual of an Ashram). roaming in his company, learning the experience illuminates the rest of the year Mataji is often alone. All her disciples practices of his sect and serving him as is for her. are male ascetics. They have adopted her

No. 31 (November-December 1985) 5 former life style and roam about the renounced everyihing, except .’” daughters. country. They come only to pay her brief What struck me most about this lady, Meanwhile, however, the two girls visits. She remarks with some irony, but who has been practising such severe found the full support of their mother. cheerfully, that the disciples of nowadays austerities for so many years, was her Helped by her, they engaged pandits who don’t like to serve their guru, they prefer simplicity and above all, her joviality. The taught them the philolosophy of their sect. to lead an easy life. Disciples know only fact that she belongs to a sect which has They became very erudite and wise, and one thing today, she adds with a hearty shown some generosity towards women the older girl even conducted a spiritual laugh, and that is to rush back to the has certainly helped her to attain this self campaign in northern India in order to Ashram once their guru has “left the respect. She seems to be constantly in a cleanse the image of the sect, which had body”, and start fighting for the property. good mood, always happy to meet and been tarnished by different scandals. In She does not think that her feminine receive people, has many visitors. Some those days, many members of the sect condition disqualifies her for the spiritual come from long distances to hear her for were distressed by the lifestyle of those life. Quite the contrary. She repeats an she is also a great story teller. Her source who were in charge of Gopal Mandir. Some often heard argument to prove her point : of inspiration is the Ramcharitmanas devotees, who were particularly “We are all on the bhakti marg (path of which she knows by heart and recites or displeased, decided to build a new temple worship), and this is a feminine path. retells with considerable skill. and entrusted it to the pure hands of their Actually, there are no males among us. We Sharadvallabha Betiji mahant’s older daughter. An institution are all women. The only male is our Lord Yet another female guru of Varanasi is was also founded whose aim was to Ram.” Sharadvallabha Betiji. Even though she is provide some instruction to the ladies of Her devotion to Lord Ram is at the not, strictly speaking, an ascetic, she has the sect. But, not long after these events, centre of Mataji’s sadhana. Everything been leading for several years a life the older daughter died and her sister she does, every thought she thinks, she dedicated to religious pursuits. Unlike Om inherited her spiritual work. dedicates to him. Like many other members Bharati and Ram Dulari Dasi, she is well Sharadvallabha Betiji was not a saint of her sect, she has chosen to praise him known in the city, where she is even a kind but already a strong minded woman. by practising austerities. She has been a of celebrity. Thanks to her outstanding personality and tapasvini for many years. In the Sharadvallabha Betiji was born about her quasi aggressive moral integrity, she beginning, she had taken a vow to keep 45 years ago in one of the wealthiest and has wielded ever since a considerable travelling all the time, never staying for most notorious families of Varanasi. Her influence on her sect. more than one day at the same place. Then father, who died recently, was the mahant She answers my questions in a loud she started a cycle of 12 years of ascetic of Gopal Mandir which is in Varanasi, the and clear voice. She is smiling, polite but practices known as jal . During all seat of the sect founded by the brahman to the point. Her face has regular features. the winters of this period, she stood in Vallabha in the fifteenth century. All the She wears no external marks of her sect. cold water at the coldest hours. Then she mahants of this sect are the male Her hair is held in a bun behind her head. did 12 years of dhuni tapas, sitting under descendants of Vallabha and their sons She wears a white sari and several gold the sun and surrounded by a circle of fires become gurus after them. But the mahant bangles. She looks like a very neat person at the hottest months of the year. She has of Gopal Mandir had only two daughters. who means business. But who is she ? also adopted a strict diet of fruits and milk. He got them married early, hoping that a “I am neither a grihasth, (house holder) It is very unusual for women to practise grandson would be born to succeed him. nor a brahmacharini, (one vowed to ascetic austerities of this sort and many His daughters were not to satisfy his celibacy) nor a sanyasini. I am a dasi, I am people have actually scolded Mataji for it. desire, however. his slave. Nothing is in my hand. My whole She took the issue to one of the gatherings Sharadvallabha’s elder sister was a life is dedicated to him.” As she sees it, of ascetics at a Kumbha Mela and there saintly character. She had a contemplative her role is to serve Janardan, Lord , she reminded some of the big mahants of nature which led her to withdraw from the and janta or the people. The first she her sect that herself had world and dedicate herself to the worship worships. She is the priestess of the new undergone a rigorous penance to obtain of god right from her childhood. She was and wealthy looking temple a which her Shiva as her spouse. The mahants gave married when she was 11 but she never sister’s disciples, and later her own, have her their full support. Unlike her illustrious lived with her husband. Sharadvallabha built just opposite Gopal Mandir in the old model, Ram Dulan Dasi does not have a too had a strong personality. She was duly section of the city. She serves the people precise aim in mind. She offers her tapas married in her turn, but after a brief visit to by engaging in all kinds of social work. to Ram as a sign of her devotion to him, of her in-laws, she decided not to pay further She runs a school, a library, and a her complete surrender. She does not want attention to the man whom her father had dispensary. She sees this sense of altruism any reward : “We want neither arth chosen as her husband. Needless to say, which was not a characteristic of the (wealth) nor dharm, (religion) nor kam this situation created some tension original Gopal Mandir as a direct (pleasure) nor moks/i (liberation). We have between the mahant and his two

6 MANUSHI consequence of the philosophy of her sect: of her religious centre. She is not only the female guru of the town since the recent the shuddhadvaita vedanta. pujarini and the philosophy professor but disappearance of Ma Anandamayi. Most According to this doctrine, the world also the administrator of the place. As any of her followers are lay people but she has is real. It is called shuddhadvaita for unlike responsible guru must, she also travels to a dozen or so disciples who have adopted the advaita vedanta it does not conceive raise funds and to meet the leaders of the the lifestyle of the renunciant and who are of the world as illusory. One should never other communities of the sect. She takes now living permanently with her at Sant give up the world. On the contrary, one her role as a purifier very seriously. Her Ashram,, the monastery which she should try to contribute to its prosperity celibacy, interpreted as a total gift of founded in Laxa about 35 years ago. All for it has been created by the divine lila herself, gives her the respect and the these ascetics are women. Sant Ashram (joy of creation) of Krishna. The supreme devotion of a milieu that values the spirit shelters today the best organised feminine aim is to be reunited with him after one’s of renunciation very highly since it monastic community of Varanasi. This death and to contemplate him devotedly practises it, itself, so little. After her father’s monastic community is actually the while taking part in his raslila. death and, as his only surviving child, she nucleus of the whole movement founded Sharadvallabha Betiji teaches this appears to be the most qualified person to by Shobha Ma. The main religious philosophy to her disciples who all hail succeed him officially. Having relinquished activities of the lay disciples are linked to from the wealthiest strata of society and everything, Sharadvallabha Betiji is, thus, its life, while the life style adopted in the most of whom belong to the vaisya varna nevertheless, the most powerful Ashram is the ideal that they are striving (trader caste). She was initiated by her personality of the Vallabha community of to imitate while living in the world. father and is entitled to transmit the diksha Varanasi. Shobha Ma owes a great deal of her of the sect. As soon as her disciples have Shobha Ma notoriety to having been an exceptionally receved the eight syllabled , they Unlike Sharadvallabha Betiji, Shobha Ma gifted teenager. Like many other kayasth have to observe certain food restrictions, families of East Bengal, her family was recite their mantra (incantation) and wear shakta. Her father especially was a their sect’s mark and necklace, all rules devotee of Kali. But, in the first quarter of which their guru herself observes very the century, one of her older relatives became the disciple of the famous scholar strictly. All Betiji’s actions are in fact and ascetic of the Nimbark Sampraday, exemplary and it creates in the community Swami Santdas, also known as Kathiya a kind of emulation. She declares with Baba. The influence of his towering justified pride that there has not been so personality was soon to be felt upon the much discipline in the whole sect for the whole family. last 500 years. In 1935, Shobha, then 14, received a Her erudition is also a subject of deep mantra from the master. However, she was satisfaction. Rightly so, for all too rarely too young then to be initiated into the still are women in a position to study Nimbark Sampraday, a situation which philosophy and theology. Even when they gave birth to some confusion later. At the get initiated into some sect, they are too end of the same year, her guru died without often confined to the domestic work of the ever meeting her again. But, not long after, community. And Sharadvallabha Betiji has the young Shobha started having all kinds decided to share her knowledge. She of mystical experiences. She saw many regularly invites the great religious visions of deities, particularly of Krishna authorities who represent different is not a native of Varanasi. She was born and Kali, and she also claimed that she philosophical tendencies and she chairs in 1921 in the Tripura district of Bengal in was receiving Swami Santdas’s, visits. Her enlightening seminars that draw big a family of petty zamindars belonging to late guru was not only in contact with her, crowds. Hers is the only religious the kayasth caste. In 1947, after the he was teaching her and she was institution in Varanasi which sponsors partition, she and her relatives, like undergoing sadhana under his spiritual such intellectual debates. She also teaches, thousands of other Hindus from the guidance. For many long months, Shobha particularly other women, her disciples, eastern provinces, found refuge in remained in this state. Her family who, at whom she has organised in a Mahila Calcutta. But, after she took her monastic first, was filled with doubts, came to accept Mandal of about 800 members. Together, vows in the sect of Nimbark in 1950, she these unusual events as proof that she they read the Bhagvata Purana, the settled in Varanasi. Within a few years, she was the recipient of a very special grace. Bhagvad Gita and the works of Vallabha. became one of its famous female gurus. Soon, great sensation prevailed in her Thus, with an uncommon energy, this Today, she is the spiritual leader of 1,000 native village. People would flock to have female descendant of Vallabha takes care disciples and certainly the most important the darshan of the enlightened young girl

No. 31 (November-December 1985) 7 who was.said to be divinely inspired. In Nimbark Sampraday. She, all alone, does not necessarily imply that one will May 1933, no less a personality than earned for herself the means to function treat him or her like a divine being. In the Gopinath Kaviraj, who was already a as one of its gurus. She has founded an case of Shobha Ma, however, she is not pandit of great renown, came to examine Ashram, organised a feminine monastic only identified with the goddess but also Shobha and from the vantage point of his community a striking innovation in her worshipped as such. Twice a year, her authority, he declared that she had indeed sect and she has gathered around her a disciples gather in her Ashram to offer her reached some spiritual attainment and was good number of lay disciples. Over the a solemn cult similar to the one done for in a superior state of consciousness last 35 years, she has proved that she the deity. In fact, the cult of the female known as brahmana. knows how to exercise her authority and guru can be perceived as one aspect of By this time, the young and she has made her Ashram one of the most the cult of the goddess in India. uneducated village girl had started respectable in Varanasi. Above all, she has As far as I know, Shobha Ma is the functioning as a guru in her own right. been teaching with considerable skill the only living female guru to receive such a She considered herself not only a disciple theology and spiritual techniques of the cult in Varanasi today. She likes to see this of Swami Santdas but also a member of sect of Nimbark. Because of all this, she aspect of her life as a way to please her the Nimbark Sampraday, the sect stands on firmer ground as a guru than if disciples. It seems as if she is not involved founded by the theologian Nimbark in the she had been free of all sectarian in it. It was my good fortune to be allowed twelfth century. This claim was not easily associations. She can enjoy the respect regularly to visit her Ashram and I would endorsed by the hierarchy of this sect. The granted to an age old religious school and see, time and time again, that she was an other disciples of Swami Santdas, in a large part of her spiritual prestige derives extremely devoted woman who took all particular, could not accept her as a Nimvat from this position. marks of respect with a natural modesty. since, as I have already said, she had not However, another part of her authority We should not ignore, however, that the received the diksha of the sect. This led is linked to her person. It comes from her divinisation of a female guru like her has Shobha to approach one of the disciples own character and nature. Following the also some sociological aspects. In other of her late master and to receive from him supernatural events that marked her words it serves to explain, even to justify the initiation that finally made her a regular teenagehood, she came to be identified her very heterodox behaviour. It is only member of the ascetic section of the with a human manifestation of the goddess because she is not considered an ordinary Nimbark Sampraday. This was indeed Kali, the traditional deity of her family as mortal woman that she can act as she does. most unusual in a sect which had well as of the families of many of her We cannot insist too much on the fact traditionally barred women from leading devotees. Actually, the religious history that Hinduism provides the woman who the ascetic life. But there had been a recent of India is not wanting in saintly women wishes to make a career in the religious precedent when Swami Santdas himself who were identified with the great sphere with a prestigious image of herself had accepted his own niece Ganga among goddess, the most famous contemporary by allowing her to be compared or his renunciant disciples. Had he lived long example being without doubt that of identified with the goddess. Thanks to this enough, it is likely that he would have Anandamayi Ma. This has to be seen as conception, Shobha Ma has been able to granted the same right to Shobha too, in the feminine version of the traditional adopt a life style in agreement with her regard for her most remarkable spiritual belief held by the Hindus that their guru deep aspirations. Not only that, she could achievements. Right from the start of her is divine. The identification of Shobha with do it without antagonising her cultural religious career, Shobha managed to the goddess Kali is thus motivated by her milieu. Having renounced the normal impose herself as a female guru by drawing gender. As one of her disciples put it : “We feminine pattern of life, that is to say the strength from two different sources. In her Hindus, we consider our guru as god, marital condition, she still had this other case, one sees two specific types of Shobha is .” And as a very famous alternative which, could be tolerated by religious powers at work. One is her verse states it : “gurur gurur others. personal charisma, the other is the vishnur gurur devo maheshvarah” that Note institutional charisma derived from her is to say, just as the guru is identified with All the documentation used in, this status as a guru. the divine male type par excellence, so article was collected between 1978 and As a guru, there is no doubt that the female guru, because she is also the 1982. I am very thankful to my husband, Shobha Ma owes a great part of her holder of the supreme authority, must have Sharad Chandra Ojha, for his help, not only prestige to her association with Swami as a model a sovereign feminine deity during the period of enquiry but also while Santdas, one of the most famous ascetics Shobha is identified with Kali because, in I was writing this article, for he gave me of the first three decades of this century. this milieu of former shaktas, Kali is the precious suggestions. Yet another essential factor has been her supreme principle. own remarkable achievement within the To recognise one’s guru’s divinity

8 MANUSHI