Moral Courage
Buddha Bose – A Peek into the Past
April 1983 saw the passing away of a great yoga pioneer of Calcutta, maybe of India. Buddha Bose passed away quietly in a Calcutta hospital at the ripe
age of beyond seventy years. He had cured
many an illness through yoga and quietly tried to make it a popular choice for
cure among the ordinary citizens of India for more than forty decades
before he closed his eyes.
I knew him from 1973 to 1982 and had the good fortune to be
quite close to him because I was his eldest daughter-in-law. I am in the evening of my life, maybe even
twilight and felt this urge to write some memoirs of people who influenced me
in some ways – Buddha Bose (Baba) was one of them. Whatever is written here is what I can
remember from his narration of his life in small snippets and at that time I
had decided to write about his childhood and emergence as yoga expert. He had been quite excited about the prospect,
but unfortunately, life had more in store for me before I could put pen to
paper seriously.
He was born to an English mother and an Indian, Bengali
father. His mother was a niece to the
then archbishop of Canterbury;
her maiden name was Amy Johnson. His father’s
name was Raja Bose, a resident of north Calcutta,
who had gone to England
to study. Raja Bose became enthralled by
Houdini and his magic tricks and worked as an assistant on the stage for
sometime. Amy Johnson fell in love with
the dashing Raja Bose on one such magic show.
Raja Bose had been married at home to a Bengali girl before
he departed for England;
obviously he was not happy with the arranged alliance and the marriage was not
consummated or so it seems. Where and
how Amy Johnson and Raja Bose got married was never revealed by Baba but before
sailing back to India
the couple became proud parents to a daughter and a son. The daughter, Poppy was the first child and Baba
was the second child born to Raja and Amy Bose.
Baba had said that on reaching Calcutta port his English mother, his sister
and he were put up at the Great Eastern Hotel by his father before he went
home. Every morning from the next day on
Raja Bose would take the hackney carriage to come to the hotel and spend time
with his family. Evenings he would
return to his home duly. These daily
excursions aroused suspicion in Buddha Bose’s grandfather, who made it a point
to follow his son one day. After
discovering that he was already a grandfather to two beautiful grandchildren,
he brought the mother and two kids to live with the family in the family
home.
Soon a younger brother David was born and on the same day a
boy, Ambar was born to the Bengali wife of Raja Bose. Apparently, Baba’s English mother could not
digest this fact and insisted on returning to England. She wrote to her father, who sent a two penny
coin and expressed his feelings with the sentence – “I care tuppence for you.”
As Amy Bose was determined to go back to England her Indian father-in-law
arranged the fare but requested for one of the grandchildren to be left behind
with him – Buddha Bose was chosen to remain with his grandfather. His mother refused to keep her daughter with
the Indian family as she did not expect them to bring up a girl properly and
David was too small to be separated from his mother. Baba said he was only three and a half years
old at that time when he was left behind by his mother.
Baba said he was distraught and upset at the departure of
his mother but the Bengali mother took him under her wing and looked after him
as her own. He was British fair and his
skin pigmentation stood out among the darker Indians wherever he went. The color became a stigma as in those days most
Hindu Indians considered anyone outside their particular caste as rejects or
‘mlechhas’. So when young Buddha Bose
went to friends’ place he was made to stand outside the house; if he requested
for water he would be served in a copper tumbler which would be thrown in the
dustbin after he drank. Events took a
nasty turn when he with his half-brother, Ambar, went to the Bengali mother’s
parental home on some invitation. As is
usual in such occasions, the children were made to sit down to dinner before
the adults were served; Baba sat down to eat with the other kids. The Bengali mother’s elder brother came to
check on the serving and found young Buddha sitting among the children; he got
furious and pulled him by his ears and shouted how he dare sit with the rest at
the same table. Baba said this incident
brought out the ferocious maternal instincts in his Bengali mother who took
hold of both the kids and rushed out, never to go back to her parents’ place
again.
Baba was growing up in the family home but some things
disturbed him to the extent he decided to leave home. He said he would feel terribly frustrated to
witness his father’s violent eruptions on his Bengali mother at nights when he
would come home drunk. Baba felt
helpless as he could not intervene or stop the daily madness. By this time Baba
had become acquainted with Bishnu Charan Ghosh and his body building and yoga
culture. He found a place to stay at the
Ghosh’s College
of Physical Education and
excelled in the physical expositions. It
is here he also came to know Swami Yogananda, elder brother of Bishnu Charan
Ghosh.
Baba’s life took a turn for the better from here. He joined the Calcutta Corporation and received a salary of
one rupee and soon even managed to start a business named “Amerind”. His sanitary ware business took him to America and England quite often and in one of these
trips he had gone to meet his English mother.
It must have been an intensely emotional moment in his life because Baba
stopped relating anything further that day to me; he was choked with
emotions.
Later Baba told me how his mother survived with his sister
and brother in an England
where she was rejected by the church as well.
Amy Bose found shelter in an attic room above a shop where she worked
for the owners. As the children were
still small she had to lock them up in the room while she went to work. Baba never told me if and when Poppy and
David became Christians, neither am I aware of other details of their lives,
except they were married with children. I
met David’s son Geoffrey when he came to Calcutta
on his way to England from Zambia, he
resembled my husband Ashok strongly.
Meanwhile, Bishnu Charan Ghosh’s eldest daughter, Ava Rani
was in her early teens and the family was looking for a proper match for the
budding youngster. After looking high
and low for the perfect groom, it dawned on Ava Rani’s grandfather that the
ideal match was right under their nose – Buddha Bose. There was a good gap of fifteen years between
the prospective bride and groom but the alliance was made with everyone’s
blessings. Baba and Mamoni (Ava Rani
Bose) lived their entire married life at the same house, where they also had
three children – two boys and one girl.
Baba continued doing his business and in one of his flights
back to India, the Panam
Airlines plane crashed into the Beirut
desert and burst into flames. The horror
was still evident in his eyes while he related the accident. He said when he came to he realized he was
immobilized and quite sunken into the hot desert sand; he looked around to see
his co-passenger Mr.Goenka was also in a similar state. Fire was raging, people were screaming, he
could hear the painful cries of small kids who were also traveling in the
plane. All of a sudden he saw the
notorious Beirut
bandits emerge from nowhere on horses and start looting the completely helpless
passengers. He still remembered how the
bandits snatched the earrings off a woman’s ears while she was burning and
crying out for help. He also remembered
how a pregnant woman’s stomach burst and threw out the unborn baby.
The accident damaged Baba’s spine and Mr.Goenka’s leg. The airlines managed to rescue the surviving
passengers and did everything possible to heal the injured. Ultimately, the American doctors provided
Baba with a belt to support his spine and to be worn for the rest of his life.
On his return to India and home, Baba was
constrained and could not continue with his work as before. He said at this point he felt the urge to go
to Kailas Mansarovar; a dangerous mission in those days, both as a route and
also because it was in Chinese territory.
He managed to reach Kailas Parvat.
His said one day he sat in meditation for hours without wearing the belt
and as usual went to bathe in the freezing water. He finished his bath and just walked on to
his tent and did not realize he was not wearing the belt until his helper and
guide pointed it out. Baba said ever
since then he did not need to wear the belt and stored it carefully.
Baba went back to Kailash and Mansarovar many times after that
and even filmed one of his pilgrim trips.
He even held private shows in the city on his return for many of the Calcutta residents, who
were awed to see the holy place in reels.
Rumors were abounding in those days that some foreigner had filmed it
and this Bengali was taking the credit.
Unfortunately, people were not aware of Baba’s English blood line and
his skin color, so in a scene where his hand came in front of the camera, it
was naturally deduced it was the work of a ‘foreign hand’.
I came to know Baba when he had already established Yoga
Cure Institute and was always dressed in either ‘dhoti’ and ‘panjabi’ or saffron
colored ‘lungi’ and a white kurta. I
remember his sparkling white feet either barefoot or slipped into a pair of black
leather sandal. The feet were worthy of
doing ‘pranam’ to receive his blessings.
I used to sit in the consulting room where he would question the
members/patients and listen carefully to his detailed mode of queries. I learnt what, how and when to ask and find
out the problem with the person. I
learnt every individual had an individual constitution and the same ailment in
two people needed different asana. I
learnt by watching and listening how to make a chart and how to teach asana and
pranayam. This learning gave me the
knowledge necessary to help many ladies later in life, by God’s grace. One other ting I received from Baba was the
Bhagvad Gita – he gave it to me and asked me to start by reading the third
chapter. I did so for many years and
then went on to read the Gita in full. I
have continued reading ten stanzas from this rich book of knowledge to this
day.
Baba never advertised or promoted his Yoga Cure Institute;
people came in through word of mouth.
That itself explains his expertise in the field and the sincerity with
which he pursued this healing process to help others in pain. Everyone called him “Guruji” and he initiated
many into ‘kriya yoga’, that he had learnt from Swami Yogananda.
I remember Baba’s twinkling black eyes and his quirky sense
of humour. During the period I was there
he had picked up the ‘f’ word from somewhere and kept laughing at the funny
sound of the word. Yes, one could
discuss anything and everything with him, irrespective of one’s age. He made you feel comfortable and secure to
open your heart to him easily.
Chitralekha Shalom
D/o Late Gyanendra Chandra & Bela Deb (Sharma)
