Universal Mother, Ma Sarada Devi

Dec 16, 2003, 12.00am IST
SEEMA BURMAN.


 
Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna Paramhansa's spouse and spiritual companion, showered endless love on all. Ramakrishna called her "My Shakti" and worshipped her as the Divine Mother. He said that she was the incarnation of Goddess Saraswati.


Sarada Devi's mission was to uplift all without bias of caste or religion. Among her devotees was Amzad, who went to jail for thieving. When Amzad came to see her after a long stint in jail, the Mother simply said: "Amzad, I have been really worried."

Sarada Ma was a reformer. She blessed all even though at times she felt extreme pain when people of impure minds touched her. Yet she stopped none from touching her and gave initiation readily.

A man leading an immoral life visited her, which displeased others. When asked to prevent this disciple from coming, she said: "If my child gets covered with mud, is it not my duty to cleanse him and take him on my lap?"

A woman of ill-repute came to see the Mother and brought her some food. The devotees who were present there refused to eat it but when they saw that the Mother was accepting food from her, they had to follow her example.

She protected all who took refuge in her. She would often say: "To err is human; but few know how to lead an erring man".

She had no rules for giving diksha. At a railway station a porter wished to get spiritual initiation but said that he could not come to her village. Mother just put three straws as asana on the platform and making him sit on it, gave him diksha.

During her last days none was allowed to meet her due to her illness.

Actor-director Sohrab Modi, a Parsi, came for diksha but was denied permission. The Mother sensed his arrival, had him called inside and initiated him. Even when ill she did japa continuously explaining that it was her mission to free all from the bonds of Maya.

With her power of introspection she saw the spiritual side of all and refused to see their faults. Ma Sarada's many relatives and an unstable niece were a source of annoyance to her yet she did not swerve from her responsibilities.

She cooked for all and looked after their comforts despite suffering from painful rheumatism. Her kitchen was much more than a place where food was cooked — it was where she simul-taneously worked out solutions to the worldly and spiritual problems of the devotees and monks.

Sarada Devi had a cosmic vision, yet she cried her heart out when a widow's only son died. The Universal Mother identified with the bereaved mother's pain.

Once a doctor's wife asked the Mother to bless her husband so that he could hope to expand his practice. The Mother, however, refused. It would mean people falling sick, she said. Sarada Devi could neither read nor write — yet, Ramakrishna would refer to her as Jnanadayani, the giver of knowledge.

She was the giver of that Supreme Knowledge which leads to Supreme Reality. The Spiritual teacher in her was hidden in her Mother form. Rather than others serving her, she served all. For her the world was one, none was a stranger.

She often said, "It is in the mind alone one feels pure and impure. A man must make his own mind guilty and then alone he can see another man's guilt". Refusing to see another person's faults she made forgiveness her spiritual code.

Her last instruction to a disciple was to make the entire world one's own and never to see the fault of another.

( Today is Sarada Devi's 150th birth anniversary )