SARADESHWARI 2

A singular feature of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi's life was her contemplativeness amidst a myriad miseries of domesticity which she was subjected to. Her household was large and complex and she had to contend with sickness, lunacy and the meanness of her relatives who spared no means to plague her everyday life with their incessant demands, idiosyncrasies and, oftentimes, violent tendencies. However, Holy Mother took all these in her stride and hardly ever lost her poise as she lovingly nurtured these errant souls towards the spiritual way of living, herself being the living embodiment of the highest spirituality.

From dawn to dusk she worked unwearied and from dusk to midnight she toiled thereon, loving, serving, adoring all. And what rest thereafter in sleep? There was ever the odd drunken devotee who would waken her up from sleep in the depth of the dark night, singing, dancing, rolling on the ground in front of her house, seeking a vision of Mother. And Mother would rush to the casement to see her beloved child weeping in her name to the consternation of Swami Saradananda, for Mother was ailing then. Or, it could be that at Jayrambati she woke up early and set off for the neighbouring village in search of milk and sugar and fish to make some delicacies for her monastic children who had the previous night arrived from Belur Math. Or else, she might wake up at dawn to find that an ailing devotee had failed to control her motions in her sleep and had soiled her clothes and the floor of the veranda. Forthwith she would get to tidying her up and cleaning up the place before it came to the notice of any, to save the unfortunate one from embarrassment.

Such was the Holy Mother, the mother of all, the mother of the saintly disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and the mother of the lowly, the despised, the forsaken of all. She observed the caste restrictions enjoined upon a brahman widow in those days and yet, whenever her mother-heart felt the need to overcome those barriers, she transcended those injunctions to to be a path-breaker, setting up, unconsciously though, the glorious instance of the heart ruling over outdated social mores.

And how did she achieve it all? What was the secret of her hidden depths of spirituality, her lofty sense of honour, her catholicity that transcended linguistic or racial barriers, her overriding motherly love for all and above all, her sagacity as she guided Ramakrishna's fledgling mission towards maturity? Like as the thread that runs through the beads of the rosary, like as the Self that runs through the souls of beings, Mother's loving memory of her lord and master, Sri Ramakrishna, ran through her moments like a subterranean river, sacred and secret, unseen by all save in those rare moments of effusive bliss that broke all bounds or careered her into the inner reaches of Self-consciousness. And this undercurrent of love for her divine husband, in this lay the genesis of her overwhelming love for her children, the people of the world.

Mother --- she is not merely my mother but she is your mother as well. And this we must all remember, brother, that we are Mother's children and we ought to feel fraternal feelings of love for each other. The rest Mother knows, what care I?