“Swami Atmasthananda wasn’t able to speak properly for quite some time, but miraculously, he and Modi spoke fluently in Gujarati today,” said Swami Satyadevananda, a monk at the mission.
Even as Modi touched the feet of the senior monk in respect, asking “Kem cho?” (How are you), the head monk replied: “Saru Che (I’m good).”
“Swamiji, who was surrounded by top monks of the order and other sevaks (volunteers) of RKM, recognised Modi instantly. Throughout their meeting he was lying down on the bed while Modi sat beside him on a chair,” Satyadevananda said.
Despite the monk’s frail health, he managed to touch Modi’s head as a blessing gesture, said Satyadevananda. The prime minister later tweeted a picture showing him receiving Swami Atmasthananda’s blessing.
He said Modi asked for ‘prasad’ from RKM in Belur and was presented a dhoti and shawl by Atmasthananda.
Modi met the ailing chief monk at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan, a hospital run by the Mission in south Kolkata.
Swami Atmasthananda is undergoing treatment at the hospital since February 21.
Their camaradie go back to the early days of Modi when he wanted to enlist RKM as a volunteer but Atmasthananda, who then was posted in Gujarat, suggested Modi to look for an alternative career.
In his youth, Modi had wanted to be a monk of the order founded by Ramakrishna Paramhamsa but was turned away thrice.
During those days, Modi used to regularly meet Athmasthanandaji Maharaj, then deputed to the mission’s Rajkot centre, but the monk told him that his calling lay elsewhere.
In 2013, the then Gujarat chief minister Modi visited the RKM’s global ehadquarters Belur Math (located in Howrah district) and sought blessings from Athmasthananda.
Modi is slated to visit Belur Math on Sunday.