Our Ashram : The Udgama – Initiation

Narmada and Shankar stands tall as the embodiment of spiritual tradition of ancient India. Narmada is the blissful goddess, the daughter of LordShiva, descends to the humanly world to cleanse the worldly sins and sufferings. Mahadev, the Shankara,highest among the divine trinity considered as the greatest repository of spiritual knowledge, four yogas, nine rasas and sixteen kalas. The holy river Narmada flows west ward to the Arabian Sea and it’s both shores are witness of spiritual deeds of greatest rishis and sadhakas.

Our Narmada Shankar Ashram inherits the spiritual treasure of the holy land of Narmada through the ancient tradition of Guru-Sishya parampara. The Ashram is located in an island village Moukhali, within the world’s largest riverine delta, called Sundarban, the confluence of another pious river called Ganga. In this very land our Gurudeb had born and spent his childhood before moving to Kolkata for further education and occupation. Later on he and his wife went to Amarkantak, the birth place of river goddess Narmada to seek life’s real dimension and met their pre-destined master Rita Mata ji or popularly known as ‘Bangali Mata ji’. From whom they got initiated and begin their journey of shadhana and divine seeking. To cut short, our Ashram is a commissure between two birth places – of a boy next door to a sadhak and his river goddess i.e.; Udgama – the origin of Sadhak and Shadhana at the abode of Sadhya.

The Narmada Root

The journey of Narmada Shankar Ashram started its voyage in the late winter of 2015 when Rita mata ji from Narmada Tat, along with her disciples first put her holy feet to the Moukhali village of the Indian Sundarbans. Sundarban is the deltaic land at the confluence of the sacred river Ganges where perhaps calmly even more pious river Narmada came to venture to the birthplace of his beloved son and desired to stay forever. Pilgrims visiting Amarkantak often come across a legend where the perennial river Son and Narmada were heard to be originated nearly from the same landscape and were steadily flowing together towards the west coast. Near a place called Sonmuda the river Son turned its direction and moved towards the east, leaving Narmada to flow alone from there on. Her profound desire to explore the East stayed latent until she found her own Bhagiratha – the spiritual mean to travel down to the Bay of Bengal.

At the very beginning, a temporary establishment was raised; which then became replaced by a built one. In these phases, much financial hardship was presented and by the grace of Shiva and Ma Narmada, the present Mandir was built alongside a room for Ashram dwellers. Later on, the Stone idol of Ma Narmada and Baba Mahakaleswar were then brought from Madhya Pradesh, eventually the puja started in December 2021. The Pratistha (inauguration) was done on 30th December 2021. The pond is adjacent to the Mandir has been transcended from not just a water body but an extension of the holy Narmada after water from the original was mixed with it. Much like Shri Ramakrishna who once bought the holy dust of Brindavan to Panchbati of Dakshineswar – while he told his followers that by this, the soil of Dakshineswar will be synonymous to Brindavan.