Guru as a Baby Sitter

Book Excerpt #5:

One day Nibarandada and his wife went out of their house on some invitation. In their house there were only their son and the grandson of Sri Sri Thakur. Both of them were very naughty boys by nature, who didn’t listen to anybody and did whatever they liked.

Nibarandada’s wife while leaving had prayed at Sri Sri Thakur’s asana[1] and had said, “Baba look after them, they are your sons too.”

While leaving, Nibarandada & his wife had locked the outside door. When they came back late into the night they saw both the boys sitting quietly in a room on the ground floor. On being asked the kids said that whenever they tried to come out of that room they heard a thudding noise on the wooden stair which leads to the Puja[2] room, as if someone was climbing up and down the stairs very fast. So out of fear they were sitting silently in that room holding each others hands. They realized that as long as they were sitting like that there was no noise but the moment they tried to come out of the room, the sound of the feet started again.

After dark, they had also tried to go alone onto the courtyard. But when they came out of that room they saw that somebody was standing on the stairs with a lantern in his hand. The two boys became so afraid that they immediately came inside the room and from that time till 11 o’clock in the night they were inside the room like prisoners. (This story was told to me by Nibarandada.)

[1] Place of workship
[2] Prayer