Birth At exactly 6:07 a.m. Arun was born, in 1921, in Jamalpur, India, on the Full Moon of May, also called the 'Buddha Purn'ima'. He was called Arun because of the reddish and white shining complexion of his body. His beautiful countenance was very special and the events that followed after His birth came to show that Arun was not an ordinary child. Later on his name was changed to Prabhat Rainjan which means 'that which colours the dawn'. There was great joy in the lives of Shrii Laksmi Narayan and Shrimati Abharani Sarkar with the birth of their long-awaited son. It is the custom of the towns people to come to visit whenever there is a new born child. Among the visitors there was a very prominent lady, Indumati Mitra, the wife of Haridas Mitra, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. It is the local custom that whenever there is a newly born, he should be given the first meal by pouring milk in his mouth. For this purpose Indumati Mitra brought a little milk in a silver pod and a cotton wick with which she would soak with milk and pour it in the child's mouth. Everyone was present standing around Arun's crib. Then Mrs. Mitra came closer with the cotton wick steeped in milk, and was about to drip the milk in the child's mouth. But to everyone's surprise, Arun sat up and grabbed the wick from the hand of Mrs. Mitra and started to drink the milk by himself. All the people present were amazed. One of the ladies present, Grandmother Binapani Sarkar, exclaimed: "A'rre! He is not a baby. He is a grown-up boy. He is 'Burho' (the Old one)!" From then on he was nicknamed 'Burho', and later on it was changed by the shorter name 'Bubu'. So all those who knew Baba used to call Him affectionately by 'Bubu', and everyone who witnessed this extraordinary incident never tired of retelling the story. Therefore, all devotees around the world, all those of us who had the fortune to have met Him, and even those who may have not met Him in the physical level, but have a personal relationship through their spiritual practices, celebrate this auspicious event on every First Full Moon of May every year to commemorate the Advent of our beloved Lord, who took physical form in order to guide us along the path of Supreme Beatitude. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The infant, Prabhat Rainjan, started to grow like the waxing moon nourished by the overflow of love and affection from His siblings and parents. When Baba (Prabhat) was one and a half years old, his brother Sudhanshu Ranjan was born, and his mother could not handle both young children, so Prabhat went to stay during the day with a couple who did not have children. With that couple Baba acquired the ability to speak Bhojpuri to such a level that it sounded as if it was His mother tongue. Baba's first language was Bengali, but even Baba used to say, in later years, that He felt more comfortable speaking Bhojpuri than Bengali. From the age of four, Prabhat's life started to be surrounded by many mysterious events. This incident was told directly by His mother, in the late '70s, Shrimati Abharani Sarkar, to a group of acaryas in Calcutta, India: "I remember clearly those dreams Bubu (Baba) had as a boy. He was hardly five years old at that time. The two brothers, Bubu and Kanai slept on either side of me. Bubu often had His dreams at midnight. After such a dream, he would wake me up saying, 'Mother, just look at all the ferocious reptiles and animals entering in through one of my ears and going out of the other'. He didn't even know their names, but he tried to describe them, telling me about their size, eyes, face, legs, and tails. Another night, he said, 'Mother, see! A big sadhu (holy man) is coming towards me with a trident in his hand. He is beckoning me to go with him'. And on other occasion, he said, ' Mother, I saw a peculiar country with big houses and the colour of the people's skin was very fair and brilliant white'. Bubu wanted an explanation for those dreams but I could give no reply. His father faired no better. We felt apprehensive. Perhaps he was possessed by ghosts or had a nervous disorder. We consulted different doctors and physicians but got no satisfactory answer. Also another interesting incident happened when Baba was still four years old. It was Shiva Ratri night. The Sarkars were with young Arun (Baba) and they came across a Shiva temple. When the three of them came to the head priest to offer worship, small Arun started reciting the Prayer of Shiva with accurate Vaedik intonation: Dhyayenityam' mahesham' rajatagirinibham' carucandravatam' sam Ratnakslpojjvalam' gam' parashu-mrga-varabhithastam' prasunam Padmasiinam' samanatam' stutamamaragan' aer vyaghrakrttim' vasanam Vishvadyam vishvaviijam' nikilabhayam' paincavaktram' trinertram (One should constantly meditate in Maheshvara, who is like a silver mountain, whose ornament is the lovely moon, whose limbs are brightened with the splendour of jewels, with axe in hand, holding animals, bestowing boons ever blissful, seated in lotus posture, wearing a tiger skin, worshiped by all the gods, the seed, the cause of this world, who removes the boundless fears of the entire universe, the one with the five faces and three eyes). The head priest was amazed to hear such a beautiful and accurate recitation from such a young boy. This verse of praise to Shiva which had taken the priest so many days to memorize, could be recited so rapidly and precisely by a little boy. After a few minutes he said to Laksmi Narayan: "You might have taught the verse to the boy?" Father Laksmi Naralyan was equally amazed: "How is it possible? He had never taught his son this verse, neither had he ever heard Arun recite this verse. Then, who had taught it to him? All we can say is that, many things happen in this universe that cannot be explained by reasoning.
