The Holy Mother - A Homage

The Holy Mother’s 150 Birthday falls on 22^nd December

THE HOLY MOTHER – A HOMAGEtc "THE HOLY MOTHER – A HOMAGE"

She is Sri Ramakrishna’s final word on the ideal of Indian womanhood: Sister Nivedita.

Modern man, having acquired all the external necessities has yet to find that one cohesive quality or force of unconditional love without which his life is incomplete or unhappy: Sarah N. David, A. Vedanta student from California.

Invocation: On June 5, 1872 (according to another version it was May 25, 1873), an event of tremendous significance in the annals of spirituality took place at the Kali temple in Dakshineswar in Calcutta. It was a day of special worship of Kali. Sri Ramakrishna asked his wife Sarada  Devi to be seated on the pedestal meant for the deity, offered her worship (called Shodasi Puja) and addressed the following invocation. “O Divine Mother, Thou eternal virgin, the mistress of all powers, and the abode of all beauty, deign to unlock for me the gate of perfection.  Sanctifying the body and mind of this woman, do thou manifest thyself through her and do what is auspicious. O Goddess, I prostrate myself before Thee again and again – before Thee, eternal consort of Siva, the three-eyed, the golden-hued, the indwelling Spirit in all, the giver of refuge, the auspicious among all auspicious objects”.

Parentage and Marriage: Sarada Devi, daughter of Ramachandra Mukherjee and Shyamala Sundari was born on December 22,1853 in the village Jayrambati, Gadadhar (Sri Ramakrishna’s baptismal name) then a temple priest, was subject to moods of trance.  His odd ways puzzled everyone.  The only way to cure him of what was considered “mental derangement” and restore him to “normality” in the accepted sense of the term, was to get him married.  Ramakrishna, instead of resisting the proposal said to his parents, as if divinely inspired “Vain is your search in this place and that.  Go to Jayarambati and there in the house of Ramachandra Mukherjee, you will find her who is marked for me”.  Sharada Devi was five and Sri Ramakrishna twenty three when they were married.

Spiritual Counterpart:  To be hailed and revered as the Holy of Divine Mother is given to one in a million.  By the worship already referred to, Sri Ramakrishna elevated an unlettered village girl to that status and made her his spiritual alter ego or counterpart. Besides, he laid the foundation for her later involvement in his spiritual mission.  Their marriage was a spiritual bond free from sensual disturbance. After their marriage in 1859, Sarada Devi joined Sri Ramakrishna in 1872.  He trained her for spiritual as well as secular work. Her stay with him was punctuated with visits to her village and his birthplace Kamarkapur. From January 1885, she nursed him without break till his death in August 1886.

Disciples:  Her disciple included monks and householders.  She adapted her spiritual instruction and counselling to different temperaments and levels of understanding.  Language was no barrier when she had to communicate with foreign disciples like Sister Nivedita, Mcleod, Mrs. Ole Bull and Sister Deva Mata. They basked in the sunshine of her maternal love.  Sister Nivedita wrote in one of her letters to the Holy Mother “Surely, you are the most wonderful thing of God, Sri Ramakrishna’s chalice of His love for the world.  Surely, the most wonderful things of the world are all quiet, stealing unnoticed into our lives; the air and the sunlight, and the sweetness of the gardens and the Ganges.  These are the silent things like you”.  Sister Deva Mata, an American disciple of the Ramakrishna Order said “Those who had the rare blessing of living with the Holy Mother learnt that religion is a sweet, natural and joyous thing; that purity and holiness were tangible realities, that the odour of sanctity was literally a sweet perfume overlaying and destroying the foulness of material selfishness.  Compassion, devotion, God union were her very nature; one scarcely knew that she possessed them. It was through the soothing benediction of a word or touch that one sensed their presence.  Such lives are like the river or the lake.  The sun may draw up its waters, but they fill again to refresh the earth.  So, these saintly ones in body may be lifted from our sight, but their holy influence falls upon us to revive our fainting hearts, and give us a new spiritual life, a new strength of purpose”.

A Mother to Everyone’s Needs: The Holy Mother had her share of problems and responsibilities.  She had to suffer social taunt and ridicule. The members of her family were uncooperative.  In spite of the hostile social and domestic environment, she did not swerve from her appointed duties, her Swadharma.   She tendered to her domestic chores, like sweeping the house, husking paddy, cleaning the utensils, and clearing the leaves from which visitors (there was no end to their number) had eaten.  She kept an open house, which like that of Goldsmith’s village preacher “was known all the vagrant train”.  Her compassion was boundless and embraced people of all classes and faiths.  Saint or sinner – everyone found in her a mother to their needs. “There may be a bad son, but never is there a bad mother”, says Adi Sankara.  Her reply to the criticism that she was indulgent to those who had fallen from virtue was “If my child gets covered with mud or dust, is it not my duty to cleanse him and taken him on my lap”?  When a woman who had led a bad life went to her in a penitent mood and made a confession, she embraced her with great warmth and spoke reassuring words “Don’t despair for what you have done.  You will get over all your sinful tendencies” She did not judge, but reformed all those who sought her refuge.  Such was her maternal solicitude.  “To restore faith and courage in the wavering, to inspire confidence in the weak, to disperse the clouds of despair and depression, were powers which her personality carried with it”. (Tapasyananda).

The Last Message: The Holy Mother was a personification of purity, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness and wisdom.  She reconciled her spiritual ministration with her ordinary duties.  She exemplified by what she was and what she did that the ordinary can become the extraordinary.  The Holy Mother shed her body on July 20, 1920.  Her last message given to the world through Mother of Annapurna, one of her devotees, was “If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others.  Learn to make the whole world your own.  No one is stranger.  The whole world is your own”.