On this Happy Women’s Day,
I hope it is appropriate to make all know about
Holy Mother SRI SARADA DEVI (1853-1920):
If the motherly love inhabiting the hearts of all the mothers
in the world were to be put together and churned,
the nectar that would issue forth would perhaps
approximate to Sri Sarada Devi. Sri Ramakrishna left her
in this world to uphold the ideal of universal motherhood.
Born of humble and pious parents at the village of Jayarambati
in West Bengal on the 22nd December 1853, Sri Sarada Devi
grew up practically like any other village girl of those days
with little schooling but plenty of work at home and in the fields.
Though united with Sri Ramakrishna in wedlock at the age
of hardly six, she lived with her parents most of the time in
the early years. It was only in the first part of 1872
when she was about eighteen, that she arrived at Dakshineswar
and started living with her saintly husband. It was during this year
that Sri Ramakrishna worshipped her as “Shodasi”, an aspect of the
Divine Mother. With no trace of cupidity in heart and yet
overflowing with the most tender love and concern for each other,
the couple has left to the whole world, the supreme example of conjugal life.
The next fourteen years of her life until the demise of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886
were a veritable saga of self-effacing service to her husband and his disciples.
It was also a period of intensive training for her by her godly husband,
who could well foresee her future role as a spiritual teacher in her own right.
The next phase of her life from 1886 to 1909, when a permanent abode (the Udbodhan House) was built for her at Calcutta, was rather chequered.
She spent much of this time in pilgrimages and spiritual ministry.
The last eleven years until her Mahasamadhi on the 21st July 1920 were more hectic.
Apart from spiritual ministration to the earnest seekers,
she had also to guide the activities of the Ramakrishna organizations.
Her rare insight into the problems of Indian women who were handicapped
by obsolescent social customs on the one side, and
exposure to the modern western culture on the other,
made her recognize the need for their education and
even economic independence.
That is why she was an ardent supporter of Sister Nivedita’s
endeavours in the field of education of Indian women.
Her last message,
`If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others;
rather find out your own fault and rectify them.
No one is a stranger in this world.
The whole world belongs to you!’
is a typical reflection of her own immaculate life.