by Tara Yoga Centre: Sarada Devi was today Mother Theresa. She was filled with compassion and love and lived to ease the suffering and pain of people around her. Leading a strict life in austerity, she learned to love all.
Teachings of the sacred mother:
“After his death, Sri Ramakrishna let me manifest the aspect of the divine Mother in the world.”
“I will not be able to turn my back on no one who will call me “Mother”.”
“If my son plays in the dirt or in mud, I am the one who has to clean all the dirt from his body and keep him into my arms.”
“The purpose in life is the achievement of the divine state as remained absorbed in the contemplation of the Divine.”
“Only God is real, and everything else is false.”
“How can people be divided in castes? Children are all equal.”
“Man should desire only the lack of desires, because desire itself is the root of all sufferings. But you can pray for abnegation and detachment. These cannot be seen as desires.”
“Love is our force. Through love, the family of the Master took shape.”
“If you desire peace, do not look for the mistakes of the others. Look for your own mistakes instead. Learn to manifest yourself, for the world to be yours. No one is a stranger, my child. The whole world is yours.”
“The purpose of a person is reached only when she/he can offer joy to someone else.”
An unusual childhood
The sacred mother was born on the 22nd of December 1853, in a village from West Bengal, called Jayrambati. Her name was Thakurmani but later she was known as Saradamani. Her first years were filled with simplicity spent in meditation and pray. Born in a family of humble and very pious people, she was raised as a simple girl from the countryside, only attending school for a short time, because she had lot of housework to do as well as helping at the field work.
Sarada had the belief that her destiny was to serve humanity. As a child she helped her mother to cook and took care of her sister and younger brothers. One year, in the reaping season, the rice field was destroyed by locusts. She went on the whole field and gathered the remaining grains and offered them to the farmers for food. Many beggars came to her door, and together with her father she would offer them boiled rice.
Even as a child Sarada displayed real skills for meditation. Also, instead of dolls or any other specific toys for children of her age, the girl preferred representations from clay of some gods, like Lakshmi or Kali, to whom she would consecrate flowers and leaves.
Sent by the Divine Providence
According to the prevailing custom in India, Saradamani was engaged ever since she was just a child. She barely was six years old, when her parents took her to the man who will be her husband. It was Sri Ramakrishna who was to reach the age of 23. Passing through a phase of divine “madness”, he was completely detached from food, sleep and any other physical necessities, being absorbed day and night in meditation and praying.
Because people around him labeled him as crazy, his relatives suggested to get him a wife, for him to get back to the normal mental state. Because the parents of Ramakrishna were poor, the only possible bride was Sarada, which was only six. After the wedding, she returned to her parents, being too young to live with her husband.
Sarada has spent the following years in Jayrambaty. Meantime, the rumor that her husband had gone mad was spread, and the villagers started to consider her as the wife of the “mad man”. She decided to visit Dakshineswar (where Sri Ramakrishna was found as a priest in the temple of Kali) to see the situation with her own eyes. Until that moment, Ramakrishna had dedicated his whole life to the spiritual search and lived as a monk. Still he received Sarada with much love feeling that she was sent to him by the Divine Providence.
After helping her to recover from the disease she caught on the road, Sri Ramakrishna asked her to come to stimulate him towards an earthly life. In no hesitation she answered: “No, I am here to help you reach the goal you chose”, which – as she well knew – meant the road of complete renunciation at all earthly connections for the love of God. Because of that, instead of looking for conjugal fulfillment, she became the first disciple of her husband, who adored her back as Shodashi (an aspect of the Divine Mother).
The privilege of having Ramakrishna as a Master … More