Sarada Devi, the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna,
played a significant role in furthering the work which her
husband started i.e, the spiritual regeneration of India.
She was unassuming and simple by nature, but her action, thought
and speech were constantly in consonant with God Consciousness.
Born in 1853, she led a very difficult life
till her last day in 1920. As the eldest child she helped
her poor peasant parents with daily chores of rural life along
with caring the younger siblings. She was married to Sri Ramakrishna
at the age of six, as child marriage was the order of the
day. The husband and wife rarely met till she grew up and
proceeded to Dakshineswar.
On her first visit she was warmly welcomed
by her husband, who it was rumoured in her village had gone
mad. She was the first disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He worshipped
her as the Mother of the Universe. He not only taught her
religion and phlosophy but, carefully moulded her character
for future work. During his lifetime very few people had known
her existence not to speak of gauging her spirituality.
For nine months after the passing away of
Ramakrishna she passed through lonely and tortuous time often
not getting enough to fill her stomach, yet she never spoke
out to any of her husband’s disciples. Unlike her husband
who always kept himself away from the cobwebs of a family
life, she had to spend her days among people, some of whom
were mean, jealous and positively harmful. She showed remarkable
fortitude, courage and gave her love to all without any distinctions.
Yet her total detachment to anything related to physical world
was quite amazing and in the highest traditions of Hinduism.
She was the Mother of all- the wicked, the drunkard, the fallen
one.
She used to say- it was the mother’s duty
to clean the dust and dirt of her child. She tought not by
precepts but by example. She accepted the foreign lady disciples
of Swami Vivekananda without any inhibition when the society
was very conservative regarding this.
In the highest tradition of renunciation
which the world had never witnessed, Sri Ramakrishna and Sarada
Devi lived not as husband and wife but saw the manifestation
of the Universal Mother in each other. She carried out the
roles of daughter, wife, nun, mother and teacher with aplomb.
The resurgence of womanhood was the mission of her life though
in camouflage. Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission
established in her name, are working towards achieving this
goal.
