Holy Trio
FROM to BOOK Bulletin of the
Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture
(December 2006)
IN FOCUS: HOLY MOTHER SARADA DEVI
Mother – Known and Unknown
PRAVRAJIKA
She was born to Shyamasundari Devi and Ramachandra Mukhopadhyay of Jayrambati. They named her Sarada. She trod this earth for sixty-seven years. She was childless. But before she left this world, hundreds called her 'Mother'. Now, millions all over the world worship her as 'the Holy Mother'.
What was she? Who is she?
She was known to her childhood companions as a sweet girl, loved by all. Later, one of them reminisced, 'The Mother was very simple by nature... Nobody had any altercation with her during childhood sports and games... When other girls fell out, she would mediate, settle their quarrels and reestablish cordial relations.' Her friends had noticed that though she played with dolls— she preferred worshipping Goddess Kali and Lakshmi in images fashioned by herself.
The elders of the village knew young Sarada to be a quiet, well-behaved and intelligent girl, diligent in her work. Unasked, of her own accord, with great resourcefulness she would perform all her duties meticulously.
Her brothers saw, in her a unique sister. ‘Our sister is Lakshmi incarnate. She spared no pains to keep us alive. Husking paddy, spinning sacred threads, supplying cattle with fodder, cooking—in short, most of the household work was done single- handed by our sister.'
The famine-stricken people who came to Ramachandra’s home to be served khichuri saw Sarada, an eleven-year-old fanning the hot khichuri so that they could quickly eat and appease their hunger. Perhaps they were too hungry and too engrossed in eating to notice her face full of compassion and loving concern combined with extraordinary motherliness rare in such a young girl.
Ramhriday Ghoshal of a neighbouring village was awed to find her in meditation in front of the image of Goddess Jagaddhatri. He could not make out who was the real Jagaddhatri. So total was Sarada's self-identification with the deity.
Bhanupisi, a poor woman of Jayrambati, looked upon Sarada as Uma or Parvati and her husband Sri Ramakrishna as Shiva Himself.
When rumour reached Jayrambati that Sri Ramakrishna had lost his mental balance, the villagers pitied her as the unfortunate wife of a madman.
To the dacoit and his wife in Telo Bhelo, she was their own affectionate daughter in whom they saw their chosen deity—Mother Kali.
At Dakshineswar, Sarada Devi was the dutiful wife and the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna serving him heart and soul. And he, the husband and Guru looked upon her as the everblissful Divine Mother. He worshipped her ritually as Goddess Shodashi, offered the fruits of all his sādhanā his rosary at her feet.
She had no formal education. She could not even write her own name. And yet Sri Ramakrishna proclaimed, 'She is Sarada, Saraswati; has come to impart knowledge.'
But Hriday, Sri Ramakrishna's nephew, though he lived constantly with him, had
not an inkling of Mother's greatness. He behaved rudely towards her more than once upon which Sri Ramakrishna warned him not to talk slightingly to her for, '...if the one in her raises its hood even Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswar eannot save you.' But who could or can fathom the depth of this statement?
When Sarada Devi went to live in Kamarpukur after Thakur’s Mahasamadhi, villagers criticized her for wearing sari with a thin red border and a pair of golden bangles against the prevalent dress code of a widow. She would have been thrown out of her caste but for the intervention of Prasannamayi of the Laha family who was highly respected by the local people. She declared that Sarada and Gadai (Ramakrishna) were divine beings.
Still later, at Jayrambati, the local Brahmins extracted from her a fine of twenty-five rupees. During Jagaddhatri Puja, while Mother's brother Kali was serving prasād to these Brahmins, a non-brahmin put a homa tilak on his forehead. This touch defiled him and the prasād Hence this fine Mother had to pay, as she was the head of the family conducting the puja.
'I am myself Maya'
Once when she was in Benares, some local women visitors found her busy with Radhu and Bhudev and in addition asking Golap-ma to mend her cloth. Finding such a common household scene, one of them blurted out, 'I see, you are deeply engrossed in Maya.' 'What to do my good girl' answered the Mother, 'I am myself Maya', a hint too elusive to be caught by the visitor.
That is why Gita says:
Avajananti mam mudha manushim tanum ashritam I
Param bhavam ajananto
mama bhutamaheshvaram II (Ch. IX, V. 11)
But the simple village people and the ____ devotees recognized in her the all-embracing Mother's love. And those with spiritual in- sight had a glimpse of her divinity. We are reminded of Sri Ramakrishna's parable of a zamindar's curiosity to know how different people assess the value of a precious jewel in his possession. The vegetable vendor of- fered nine seers of brinjal and nothing more. The cloth merchant consented to give nine hundred rupees and when a jeweller saw it, he unhesitatingly offered a lakh.
Swami Vivekananda had never seen her face. But he knew she was the Divine Mother of the Universe who came to revive Shakti in this land and, having her as the nucleus, Gargis and, Maitreyis would be born. To him, she was greater than even Thakur.
She led a householder's life. But Swamiji proclaimed her the 'Sangha Janani’ — informally the highest authority of the Ramakrishna Order of monks. She even gave sannyasa to some young aspirants and guided them in their monastic life.
She gave mantra-diksha (ie initiation) to hundreds. Instead of accepting ‘Guru-seva’ from them, she performed ‘Shishya-seva’ as a mother serves her children.
It was impossible to understand her true nature unless she revealed herself. Her mother Shyamasundari, the one closest to her, exclaimed, 'My child, wonder who you really may be, my dear! How can rec- ognize you, my daughter!'
Swami Saradananda, who served her years together, expressed his inability to understand her through a song in which he says,
'...I was near her so long
Followed her wherever she went
But unable to understand anything
(about her)
I accept defeat.'
Again, the sddhaka poet Premik sang: Ma tumi ke keu jane na—Mother, nobody
knows who you really are. A few lines of this song, if rendered into English read like this:
'Different people describe you
variously, Scriptures... fail to come to a
conclusion. The ultimate Truth is there in the
Vedanta
But it can never be known.
Whatever appears in the space of one's
consciousness
That is the limit of one's understanding.
Premik says, what all have managed is
only a confusion.
As for seeing Her true Form
Even Brahma, Vishnu, Maheswar are all
blind.'
The statement that Vedanta contains the ultimate Truth, but it can never be known, is significant. The ultimate Truth is the one Reality behind all manifestations. Mother is Shakti, the Primordial Energy. Sri Ramakrishna says, Brahman and Shakti are the same. He declared that she was his 'Shakti'. Shakti and Brahman are the same Reality. That is her ultimate identity. As such, Sri Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi were the One and the same Reality manifested through two separate physical forms.
So Mother is the One without a second. She is the Soul of our soul. As Brahmaswarupini, She is ever the unknown and unknowable. How can she be objectified and known? Knower gets merged in the 'object' of his enquiry.
A salt doll went to fathom the ocean. When it stepped into the water it got dissolved and merged and became one with the ocean.
Says Holy Mother:
People come to me and say, "I have no peace in life, I never feel the presence of God, tell me how to find peace", and so on. Then I look at them and at myself and wonder why they talk in this manner. Is everything about me beyond the common run? I have never known unrest. And as far as the presence of God, it's mine for the taking. I can see Him whenever I like.’
When a disciple asked why she wept like an ordinary person at the death of her young
nephew, Mother replied, 'I live as a householder I must taste the fruit of the tree of the world. That is why I weep’. Sri Ramakrishna once remarked, "When God is incarnated in a human body, He acts exactly like a man. He feels the same hunger, thirst, sickness, grief and fear as others do. Even Brahman weeps when caught in the trap of the five elements."
‘‘The easiest and best way of solving the problems of life is to take the Name of God, of Sri Ramakrishna, in silence.’’
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