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Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother
Sri Ramakrishna, who had reached the heights of religion, was relatively unknown until he was introduced to Bengali intelligentsia by the Brahmo Samaj leader, Keshav Chandra Sen. Sen's articles and talks about Sri Ramakrishna inspired many groups of people to visit the sage. Aspiring minds for spirituality found a clear cut role model. Though many people came to visit him, few knew about his wife, Sri Sarada Devi.
Almost unnoticed, Sarada Devi, stayed out of sight in Dakshineshwar, in a small building called the Nahabat, cooking and doing all other chores for him. Born in the village of Jayrambati in 1854, a few miles away from Kamarpukur, Sarada Devi was married to Sri Ramakrishna at the tender age of 5. She joined her husband at the Kali temple of Dakshineshwar when she was 18 years of age. With inborn purity, she immediately recognized the divine nature of her husband and was inspired to lead a spiritual life herself. Rejecting the known relationship of husband and wife, they led the pure life of a teacher and a pupil. As for Sri Ramakrishna, he viewed her as the Divine Mother Herself and offered his spiritual fruits to her in the celebrated Shodashi Puja.
Her spiritual Sadhana is relatively less known. On rare occasions, her inborn shyness was breached and she divulged the few bits of information that we do know about her spiritual attainments. We have to rely on her companions and disciples as sources of information who attest to her spiritual heights.
Swami Vivekananda:
You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother's life - none of you. But gradually you will know. without Shakti (Power) there is no regeneration for the world... Mother has been born to revive that wonderful Shakti in India... |
After the Mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna, it was her guiding hand that steadied the rocky nature of a fledgling organization. Her practical wisdom coupled with inherent motherly care guided many of the decisions taken by the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
Her innate spirituality was sought by many people and she initiated many people with the divine names of God. Her ways of initiating people were very simple, a reflection of her own simplicity. Her initiation of a porter on the railway platform itself reveals her informal, motherly way. Though in the midst of her eccentric relatives, the Mother was the personification of unattached work. Sri Sarada Devi, as a spiritual aspirant, wife and mother is the role-model for the woman of our times.
With her loving heart, she immediately appeals to everyone as their very mother, earning for herself the epithet, Holy Mother. Her words "Always remember that you have a mother" rings in the ears of every devotee.
Words of Sri Sarada Devi
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I am the mother of the righteous, I am the mother of the wicked as well. Never fear. Whenever you are in distress, just say to yourself 'I have a mother.
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I tell you one thing. If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.
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God is one's very own. The more intensely a person practices spiritual disciplines, the more quickly he attains to God.
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Never fear. He is ever looking after you. Do His work and practice Sadhana. A little work daily drives away idle thoughts from the mind.
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Call on the Lord who pervades the entire universe. He will shower His blessings upon you.
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The mind is rendered pure as a result of much austerities. God who is purity itself cannot be attained without austerities.
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