High above the Susquehanna River, in the hills of Towanda, Pennsylvania, stands Vishwa Gayatri Yogashram. It came into being through the vision and blessings of Swami Alakh Giriji Maharaj of Gujarat. When he was first invited to Towanda many years ago, he was struck by the stillness of the place. In winter, the hills looked strangely like the Himalayas. There was a silence that felt older than the town itself, as if someone had been waiting. Sensing that the Divine Mother wished to be worshipped on that land, he consecrated it and established Gayatri Maa there, allowing her presence to take root far from India.

Years later, a woman from Gujarat would arrive to care for her. Pallavi Dave, or Pallavi Ben as she is known, came to the United States in 1987 and settled in Chicago. She raised a family and built a life like so many others. But something in her never quite settled. There was always a quiet feeling that she was meant for something else, something she could not yet name.

In 2012, that feeling became impossible to ignore. With the blessings of her Guru, Swami Alakh Giriji Maharaj, she left her old life and went to Towanda to serve Gayatri Maa full-time.

From that moment on, her world grew smaller in one way and larger in another. Even now, after all these years, she sometimes pauses for a second before getting out of bed, especially on cold mornings, yet she always gets up by 4 a.m. By five o’clock, Gayatri Devi has been bathed and dressed. She chooses from Mother’s many sarees, holding one for a moment before unfolding it. Some are faded and soft from years of use. Others are new, saved for special days.

Gayatri Maa has five faces, and dressing her properly takes time. Pallavi Ben learned the method from her Guru, and she still follows it exactly. Some days her fingers feel stiff, but she never complains. She just works more gently. Every fold of cloth becomes a quiet offering.

She also cares for the utsava murtis, the smaller deities who are part of Gayatri Maa’s family. She cooks, cleans, lights lamps, and keeps the temple open. Some days no one comes at all. Other days people drive for hours just to sit quietly in front of the altar. The room always feels the same: calm, almost heavy with stillness, as if the Gayatri mantra has soaked into the walls.

When we first visited, the feeling was immediate. The air made you lower your voice without realizing you were doing it. Gayatri Maa did not feel distant. She felt present. Pallavi Ben moved quietly around the shrine, but it was clear that much of her life was there. That day she said she was tired. It wasn’t dramatic, just an honest sharing. Ten years of doing everything alone had begun to show in her body. When Swami Chida gently mentioned that one day Gayatri Maa might be cared for at Bhakti Marga, her answer came quickly. “She is my Mother,” she said. “I’m not ready to give Her up.”

It wasn’t stubbornness. It was fear mixed with love. Months later, when Swami Tulsidas visited, something softened. Even though she still wasn’t ready, the thought no longer felt impossible. The idea of change was in the air, still fragile, when another grace arrived.

Then Satguru Paramahamsa Sri Vishwananda came.

When Guruji visited Towanda in 2025, he spent time with Pallavi Ben and Gayatri Maa. He didn’t say much. He didn’t have to. His presence itself was enough. He saw her years of service, the way she had quietly given her life to the Mother. And somehow, in that being seen, Pallavi Ben felt something shift.

Not long after, she said she was ready. Not because it didn’t hurt—it did—but because she trusted Guruji. She later said she felt Gayatri Maa and Guruji were working together, that the Mother was choosing to move through his grace.

Soon, Gayatri Maa will come to her new home in Elmira. Pallavi Ben will be there to dress her for the first time in the new temple. Before the Mother leaves Towanda, Pallavi Ben will light a lamp in the empty shrine and keep the Gayatri mantra playing. Even without the murti there, she knows the room will not feel empty.

This moment is not really about a temple being moved or a sacred murti changing places. It is about the courage it takes to love something so deeply that you are willing to place it back into God’s hands. Pallavi Ben did not love Gayatri Maa to possess her. She loved her to serve her.

And this is where the grace of Satguru Paramahamsa Sri Vishwananda is quietly felt. His presence did not force anything. It simply revealed what was already waiting. What once felt like loss began to look like something else. It was a widening of what love could be.

True bhakti is not measured by how tightly we hold, but by how deeply we trust. Pallavi Ben’s offering was not giving up Gayatri Maa, but loving her enough to let her go where she was being called. That is not separation. It is love growing larger than fear.

In a world that teaches us to cling and protect, this story offers something gentler. Sometimes the truest form of love is the one that releases. What leaves us in form does not leave us in spirit. And when we place what we love into God’s hands, we are not losing it.

Love, when it is real, always knows how to follow.

Amrita Dasi