Who is Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother?
“Whenever you are in distress, say to yourself, 'I have a mother.” Sri Sarada Devi
How the Divine Mother Incarnates on Earth
Divine Consort of Sri Ramakrishna
Sarada Devi is the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna and the incarnation of the Divine Mother. She is lovingly referred to as Holy Mother by her devotees. She was born a simple village girl in Jayrambati, a very rural village in West Bengal on Dec. 22nd, 1853.
In our modern era Jayrambati is only a few hours by car from Kolkata, the nearest major city. But back during Holy Mother’s time they would walk on foot for days to reach Kolkata.
It was a malaria stricken village where people lived in homes with thatched roofs over small mud cottages.
Village Life In Jayrambati, West Bengal
Village life was simple and austere. However, with any Hindu culture, there were always religious festivals, singing, and theatrical plays recounting Divine stories.
She worked hard as a child and all of her life. Often times you read accounts of back-breaking labor, laboring in the paddy fields, using husking machines, and making mounds of chapati over village fires and clay ovens.
And a majority of the year this was done in heat that would bring any Westerner to their knees.
And yet here incarnates the Divine Mother. Tending to family members, settling quarrels, and dispensing peace to all those associated with her.
Off to Dakshineswar
Some years after her marriage ceremony to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadev, she went to Dakshineswar right outside of Calcutta, India.
The travel was long and arduous, completely by foot. She was eagerly going to see her husband, the incarnation of this era, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
From here, her Lila (Divine Play) continues in the most remarkable way as the Divine Incarnations lived together on the bank of the Ganga.
She spent many years at Dakshineswar and also traveled back and forth between Calcutta to her village home, Jayrambati. During Sri Ramakrishna’s lifetime, she lived with him, feed him, and served him as her Divine husband.
And Sri Ramakrishna trained her, he was her guru but he also worshipped her as the Divine Incarnation.
She witnessed this Lila from a tiny room on the bank of the Ganga and recounted many of these stories later in her life. She stood on her feet for long hours watching and listening to the Divine Music and Divine play that happened in Sri Ramakrishna’s room just across the way from her Nahabat. She developed rheumatoid arthritis because of it.
She was extremely bashful and kept to herself except in front of Sri Ramakrishna and her close women attendants. She was very soft spoken and would even have one of her attendants communicate what she whispered to them.
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After Ramakrishna’s passing, she went back and forth between Jayrambati and Calcutta for the rest of her life.
She watched over the village people of Jayrambati and also enjoyed the freedom the village offered her to roam and speak freely that the crowded city of Kolkata did not offer.
You can see my post here where I talk about West Bengal and why you should visit 2 famous Kali Temples that are in association with the Holy Mother.
Her Role as the Guru Manifests
After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, she still had to stay on this Earth and attend to endless duties. People flocked to her in greater number than could be imagined.
There are countless stories of people showing up from all parts of Bengal and all of India to get initiated by Sri Sarada Devi.
She turned no one away! There are many beautiful stories about these events. How she took care of all despite their religion, caste, creed or sex.
When she would go to her village in Jayrambati people unknown to her would show up at her cottage asking for initiation. When she would travel back to Calcutta people would come in hoards.
Before Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, he told her this would be her duty, that she had to stay and take care of the people of Calcutta (and the whole world).
She would have to initiate many…and she did.
Udbodhan House
Towards the end of her life, The Holy Mother lived in the Udbhodan house which Swami Saradananda had constructed for her.
She initiated so many disciples and nurtured the Ramakrishna Order as it developed and began to flourish in its philanthropic activities and service to the destitute and impoverished.
This house can still be visited today as it is left just like it was when she lived there. Her bedroom where she lived and passed away can be viewed from behind the glass window.
Monks attend to Her puja and worship every single day. It is incredibly powerful and overwhelming to go there.
Mother of the Ramakrishna Order
She was the Mother of the Ramakrishna Order and the Mother of the spiritual dynamos such as Swami Vivekananda and Swami Brahmananda. They would fall at her feet and shake with devotion.
They consulted her in many matters, especially important ones where they really needed the Mother of the Universe to make the appropriate call with founding Belur Math.
You can read all about Swami Vivekananda here in the detailed post I wrote on him, from the heart!
This organization they founded, Belur Math, is one of the largest philanthropic monastic organizations in the world.
To this day they have branches all over the world dispensing medicine to the sick, they build hospitals, they provide school for so many children.
They are the first on the scene during times of famine, natural disasters, other catastrophic events, they are there to serve. They provide spiritual lectures and spiritual counsel to millions.
It is this foundation that would not have been possible without Sri Sarada Devi’s Divine guidance at its inception. She played the roll of the CEO but without uttering a single misleading word and founded an organization whose reach in terms of aid for the heart, body, and mind is unbelievable.
Revealing Herself as the Divine Mother
She provided non-stop succor to those who came to her. There are many stories of her providing this solace to the downtrodden householders and monks alike. She would feed, initiate, caress, shed tears, and love for any and all who came to her.
However, she did also reveal her Divine form from time to time. There are many accounts after her passing away by monastics, householders, and whoever was allowed that Grace.
Many begged for her to show her real form and other accounts show that she revealed her form in a flash. All of a sudden the simple village woman would reveal herself as an incarnation of the Divine Mother.
Many would ask her who she really was. Those who pressed for an answer would get it.
She was known to confess as being Kali, Jagadatri, and Saraswati. She remembered her accounts as Sati, Sita, and many other forms of the Divine Mother.
The Robbers Story
There is the story of the robbers in the robber field that Holy Mother had to cross on foot at dusk during one of her travels from Jayrambati to Calcutta. The village is called Telo Bhelo, or robber’s field.
It was getting dark and her companions left her behind. All of the sudden she sees two figures approaching her and it was a scary robber and his wife.
She said to him “father I am lost.” At this, the scary robber completely changed his demeanor and the couple ended up staying with her in a shelter for the night and then sending her off with food in the morning. They shed tears as they departed with one another.
These hard criminals had completely received Mother’s grace and took it upon themselves to see that she was able to continue her journey to Calcutta.
Later the robber was asked what happened and he confessed that he saw Kali when they first approached her in the field and not Sarada Devi.
Her teachings are indispensable, clear, yet with a depth we cannot measure.
She provides all, regardless of belief systems, past actions, and thoughts, and all who have had feelings that are contrary to anything Holy; those are the ones who are provided her refuge.
She saves, she catches with her graceful eye, cradles us during life, and feeds our souls.
Her incidents are told in detail in many books, true treasures. It is an almost impossible task for these great ones to be written about in these epic biographies. Yet, these works do exist by no doubt some divine order to inspire and provide so much help and they give so much joy.
But know this, She is so kind to us, She truly answers prayers and helps us in our spiritual journey.
I encourage you to read books about her and find out for yourself the magical transformation she will make in your life if you just ask her.
May Ma Sarada, Holy Mother, provide us all the Eternal Mother solace. May she give us strength and fearlessness to continue this journey of life.
Some of Mother’s Uplifting and Famous Spiritual Quotes:
“I tell you one thing my child – if you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather, see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.
The mind is everything. It is in the mind alone that one feels pure and impure.
If you want peace, do not see the faults of 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.
One who makes a habit of prayer will easily overcome all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials of life. . .Whatever you yearn for, that you will get.
The mind keeps well when engaged in work. And yet Japa, meditation, prayer also are specially needed. You must at least sit down once in the morning and again in the evening. That acts as a rudder to a boat. When one sits in meditation in the evening, one gets a chance to think of what one has done-good or bad -during the whole day. Next one should compare the states of one’s mind in the preceding day and the present. ... Unless you meditate in the mornings and evenings along with work, how can you know what you are actually doing?
You see, my son, it is not a fact that you will never face dangers. Difficulties always come, but they do not last forever. You will see that they pass away like water under a bridge.
Always try to discriminate. Try to realize that the outside object which is attracting your mind is impermanent, and turn your attention to God.
Everything depends on the mind. Nothing can be achieved without purity of mind. It is said, “the aspirant may have received the grace of the Guru,…but he comes to grief without the grace of ‘one’. That ‘one’ is the mind. The mind of the aspirant should be gracious to him.
The goal of life is God-realization and the way is self-surrender.
Everything is illusory—husband, wife, even this body. These are the great shackles of Maya. Unless you can free yourself from these shackles you will never be able to cross to the other shore of the world. Attachment to the body, this identification of the self with the body, must go. What is this body, after all, my child? It is nothing but three pounds of ashes when it is cremated. However strong or beautiful this body may be, it ends up in those three pounds of ashes. Yet people are attached to it. What Maya!
All teachers are one. The same power of God works through them all.
Love alone is the essential thing.
Whenever you are in distress, say to yourself, 'I have a mother.”
Jai Sri Sarada Devi!!!
Jai Ma Kali, Jai Sri Sarada Devi
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Much Love! Much Light! I’m cheering you on!
Heather Hathaway, M.Ed.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
Peace Peace Peace
