Puran Chander Sharma
Sri Sarada Devi the Holy Mother was the Divine consort and first disciple of Sri Ramakrishna thus an integral part of his spiritual self and of the saving massage he delivered unto mankind. Unlike the spiritual counterparts of the past incarnations like Rama, Krishna and Buddha and some others, Sri Sarada Devi was born in a poor but cultured Brahman family of Bengal in the village of Jayrambati in the Bankura district, situated about sixty miles to the West of Calcutta. Born on 22nd December, 1853, as the oldest daughter of Ramchandra Mukherjee and Shyamasundari Devi, her early childhood was spent, as in the case of most girls of rural upbringing, invarious domestic chores.
Marriage
While little Sarada was growing up at Jayrambati assisting her mother in her domestic duties, the great soul whose partner in life she was to become, was passing through a remarkable period of spiritual development in another part of the country.
Born in 1836 as the third son of Khudiram Chatterji of Kamarpukur in the district of Hoogly, Sri Ramakrishna had become the priest of Kali at the temple of Dakshineswar in the year 1855. The strange marriage of Gadadhar (Sri Ramakrishna) of twenty three years of age with Sarada of five was part of a divine dispensation, and took place in a way that can only be described as providential. When Gadadhar, as Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master used to be known in those days, was passing through the early phase of his spiritual adventure, his near and dear ones thought the marriage would have a resettling and stablishing effect on his mind, which had lost all interest in wordly affairs. But their search for a suitable bride met with failure every time they started on it, until Gadadhar himself came to the rescue. The relatives had kept their plans unknown to Gadadhar, as they feared a vehement protest from him, but upsetting all their wordly-wise calculations, Gadadhar himself came to their rescue of his disconcerted relatives. In an ecstatic mood, he declared : “Why are you searching for a bride here and there ? She who is ‘marked’ for me is awaiting at the house of Ramachandra Mukherjee at Jayrambati’’. And that ‘marked one’ they found, was none other than Sarada Devi of Jayrambati.
With Sri Ramakrishna at Dakishniswar
After the marriage, Sri Sarada Devi continued to live with her parents and came to live with Sri Ramakrishna only when she was sixteen. Sri Ramakrishna looked upon her with reverence and she served him whole heartedly. Their marital life was free from all physical passions and they lived a life of holiness and purity. It is known from the Master’s own statement that he had prayed to the Divine Mother to free Sarada from all body passion and make her a suitable mate for him. It was found that this prayer was amply answered when, after Sarada’s arrival at Dakshineswar, the Master pointedly put her a question :”Do you want to drag me down into Maya’’?
Sarada Devi’s answer was equally promit and to the point. She said, “Why should ‘I’ do so ? I have only to help you in the path of religious life’’. A noble answer indeed!
Sri Sarada Devi received from her husband all that a Hindu wife expects. But some may perhaps object, that she had no issue. Her own mother
Shyamasundari Devi once lamented, “My Sarada has been married to an ascetic. She will never know the happiness of being addressed as ‘Mother’. The Master, who happened to hear it remarked, “your daughter will have so many children that she will tired of being addressed day and night as ‘Mother’. And countless indeed were her spiritual ‘sons and daughters’. She was the Sahadharmini, a companion in life, not of an ordinary man, but of the incarnation of the age, who came to generate Bhakti and Jnana among men, and whose main teaching inculcate renunciation of lust and possession. In conformity with his ideal, which was hers too, the children born of her were not physical but spiritual, and of these she had a countless number.
The worship of ‘Shodasi’
Sri Ramakrishna worshiped the Holy Mother Sarada Devi as Shodadi- the third of the ten Mahavidyas known as Kali, Tara, Shodasi, Bhuvnesvari, Bhairvi, Chhinna-masta, Dhumavati, Bagla, Matangi and Kamala.
The Masters’ vow of Sadhana was completed with the worship of Shodasi. The holy fire of passion for God inebriation was burning constantly in his heart for twelve long years, keeping him tirelessly engaged in the practices of various spiritual moods without allowing him any rest even after the completion of the Sadhanas of a particular mood. With the worship of Shodasi, it now ceased to burn, having received the Purnahuti or the completing and final oblation.
Shodasi Puja is a landmark in the life of Sri Sarada Devi. It made her a vital part of Sri Ramakrishna’s mission. In that rite the Master invoked in her the presence of the Divine Mother – the same. Suprme Energy that was manifesting it self through his own personality. Henceforth, just as in the case of the Master, her body and mind became the venue of expression for that Energy. She and Master could henceforth be described as two bodies actuated by the same spirit- the Divine Mother.
Her Teachings
Holy Mother’s life is a bright example of how to live a life of purity and calmness. She illustrated through her life the ideal of love and compassion for all. Indeed, she continues to live amidst us, granting all our sincere prayers and inspiring us towards living a higher life. She told us, “I am the Mother of the viatuous, I am the Mother of the wicked, whenever you are in distress, say to yourself, ‘ I have a mother. Today the human body is, tomorrow it is not, even the shortest span of life is beset with pain and misery. He who is able to renounce all for God’s sake is a living God.
Her Message
Her final message to mankind is, If you want peace, she said, ‘do not see the faults of others. rather see your own faults, learn to make the whole world your own’. These words are an expression of her own innate nature and a summary of the tenor of her whole life. What is more, it is the point at which we get a glean of her Divine nature bursting through the thick veil of her humanity. We are here face to face with ‘Gods’ Motherhood.
(The author is the translator of, “ The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” into Urdu titled as “ Sri Ramakrishna Ke Alwal-e-Zarin,”. The book is available at Rama Krishna Mission, Udheywala, Jammu)
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