The Golden Chains

“The Golden Chains”

SriMata Gayatri Devi
1906-1995

I was visiting the Vedanta Center Ashram in Cohasset, MA for the celebration of the Ramakrishna Puja in the late 1970’s. Sri Mata Gayatri Devi,( Mataji or Ma) always prepared the food for the Puja and had made among other things, her special fish dish. The food is then offered in a special service and is considered blessed and so the partaking of all the dishes is a very special gift. The Ashrama Family and guests were sitting at the long table in what is now the dining room, and the Sisters and Brothers were serving the meal. One of them brought me a plate, and as she began to set it down someone said:

“Oh, no she is a vegetarian”.
Sri Ma Gayatri Devi said, ”Give her the fish”

And the server said, “”But, she is a vegetarian, Ma. “

And Ma said, “”Give her the fish.“

Again someone said, very slowly, clearly and sincerely,(as if explaining to Ma, as if she couldn’t hear or didn’t know what she was doing,)

“But Ma, Katyayani* is a vegetarian. “

By this time I was well aware that Mataji had a very clear purpose, but I was a vegetarian and I had not had any animal food for over 10 years, and I did not want to eat the fish, Prasad (Blessed Food ) or no. But I didn’t say anything ( hope springs eternal…)

So one more time someone said, “Ma she is a vegetarian”, 

and 

Ma said,”Give her the fish.”

So then, finally, I said, ” Ma, I am a vegetarian and I don’t want to eat this fish.”

She looked me straight in the eye and the heart and said, “Ma, even the Golden Chains have to go”.

So I said, “Well if you will take on the karma of me eating this very beautifully cooked, blessed and very dead fish I will eat it .”

Ma said, “Fine. “

and I ate the fish.

It was an amazing lesson, blessing, and transmission of a teaching that has stayed with me for almost 40 years. There are wonderful, powerful things that we learn and practices and beliefs. Things that are good for us and others. But they can still be chains. Just Golden Chains. True freedom has no chains.
So when I look inside and outside in my life I must always ask," Is this a Golden Chain"

and then I eat the fish. Again.

( *Katyayani was the name Mataji gave me after our first meeting. It is a name of Mother Kali.)