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MADMAN’S JHOLI
(In Dialogue with a God-Intoxicated Soul)
by
SRI SRI SITARAMDAS OMKARNATH
Translated into English by Dr. Nirmal Kumar Panigrahi

EXCERPT FROM THE PREFACE



Two years ago, when Dr. Nirmal Kumar Panigrahi (M.A., LLB., P.R.S., Ph. D., Sankhya-Vedantatirtha, F.R.A.S.) handed over the manuscript of this book (a product of an old typewriter) to me, I was mad with joy. Here was a chronicle of a saint and mystic that people had been looking for. Dr. Panigrahi had rendered it in English with remarkable elegance and it was time for it to reach the seekers.

The title of this book Madman’s Jholi is an amusing one. It raises the obvious questions: who is the madman? What’s in his Jholi (bag)? Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath used to carry a Jholi (bag). On one occasion around 1923, when he visited RamdayalMajumdar, a notable disciple of LahiriMahasaya, the latter said: “Tomarkheparjhulitejaachheamaidao” (give me whatever is there in that madman’s bag of yours). A bouquet of most wonderful essays on spirituality was the result of that request. While KheparJhuli got published in Bengali only on Janmashthami, in August 1951, some of the essays started getting published as early as 1923 in a magazine called ‘Utsav’. Around 1961, Prof. S. C. Sarkar translated some of these pieces and published them in the pages of the magazine The Mother (now revived online at www.themotherdivine.com), but the complete translation was to be inspired by Dr. Panigrahi.
Coming back to madness, the following passages from this book will acquaint us with the nature of madness of the madman in this book.

Sitaram Sitaram. Not only am I mad, but my father and mother are also mad. The Father has gone mad and sings the name of Rama from his five mouths. He plays the damaru and dances. Father had been very calm but went mad only because of the Mother. She too has become mad and dances wildly on the Father’s chest. She feels no shame and has no time to put on her clothes. When will the one who has to give birth to millions of worlds every moment, get time to wear clothes?’

“It is not easy to be mad. A madman, who is rational, cannot find the Mother. You will never find the Mother if you do not go mad for good. A ‘sane’ madman by cunning will never find the real ‘Ma’. Do you not know, this world around is a pure imagined thing? It is the core of Shri Nath’s tale. Open youreyes and see. With detachment at your side set out to seek the Truth chanting the name of ‘Kali’. Go mad in love and dance in defense of accusation you are completely mad!”

Having understood the true nature of this madness, we can hardly dismiss the madman’s dialogues as the raving of a madcap. We have, in fact, a great saint discoursing in the guise of a madman. Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath’s wisdomfinds expression in the utterances of a ‘Madman’, who is mad in love of the Divine. Madman’s replies to visitors’ queries spring spontaneously from the deep state of enlightenment of Sitaramdas and his vast knowledge of scriptures. This text brings unaccountable grace of God and embodies profound truth.
As we know, there are varieties of jivanmuktas, the liberated souls. They are all curious persons. One does not behave in the same way as the other. Jadabharata was like an idiot. He would not talk to anybody; he sat there like a stone. Shuka did not even know that he had a body. He would walk like a raving mad man, and children would pelt stones at him, thinking that he was crazy. Bauls are mad. In Sufi philosophy, a mast (pronounced “must”) is a person who is overcome with love for God, with concomitant external disorientation resembling intoxication. Ramakrishna Paramhamsa was mad from God-intoxication and so were so many others. This is a happy madness— something one can pray for!

The specialty of these ‘mad’ essays is that they are essentially discussions in dialogue forms entailing conversations between Khepa(Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath Himself) and various seekers. The style is dramatic yet simple on topics of high profundity such as Kundalini, Omkar, Atma, and other such subjects, no aspect of spiritual life is left untouched.

Madman argues with the modern man, one unfamiliar with Shastras and unwilling to subscribe to blind faith. He tells us how to approach the Guru, how the mantra is fulfilled, what are the pitfalls in the journey, what is true realization. He proves existence of the soul, maps out the stages of spiritual path and its perfection. He conducts the seeker to the innermost recesses of the heart. He teaches how to meditate on God in the form of the pure Omkara, steady as a lamp. The devotee goes straight into the world of eternal joy, overflowing with waves of light and nectar. Madman makes the truth manifest in the Brahma-conscious heart lotus of the reader. As we read, there is only glorious effulgence on all sides; we almost feel that light of Brahma that is blazing in the higher worlds. He throws open the doors of the subtle Sushumna, light begins to play outside and inside and a tear-filled Samadhi is imminent. Served between the covers of the book, is an ocean of knowledge and spiritual nectar. How much one imbibes is limited only by the size of one’s thirst.
Tears stream from the madman’s eyes, he bathes his Guru’s feet with his tears, he becomes overwhelmed, his body shivers with ecstasy, he begins to dance with abandon and he floats in the sea of joy as he discourses. In this madhouse of the world, one learns from this book what only a super madman can teach!
Raj Supe (Kinkar Vishwashreyananda), Hanuman Jayanti, 2013- Rishikesh.

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(to be continued in the next issue of The Mother)