Swami Aseshananda at Portland in 1961

26-April-2012 (Thursday)
Reminiscences of The Holy Mother!!!

HOLY MOTHER – A TALK - 11
SWAMI ASESHANANDA

If you were to ask what Holy Mother represented, I would first say the Madonna ideal of the West – the ideal of the eternal virgin of absolute purity. Further, living her silent, holy life in a domestic setting with her relations, Holy Mother represented the householder ideal. Her life exemplifies how the lady devotees can aspire after and realize God. Mother achieved a great domestic harmony and deep spiritual poise while living close to her relatives who were concerned with family matters. They did not think in terms of moksha or liberation; they wanted money and help to solve many problems and difficulties. It is to Holy Mother that householder devotees can especially turn to for guiding light. To me Sri Ramakrishna represents more the monastic ideal, as we see in the training of his young disciples. In Mother’s life we find the ideal of profound simplicity. From mother have I learned these values; simplicity and purity. All great things of life are very simple. The Mother’s love that we enjoy as children is very simple. But despite Holy Mother’s great simplicity, there was a subtlety which made her difficult to understand. We are prone to think in sensational, supernatural and uncommon ways. What seems natural is for us too ordinary. If given a mantra and told to wrap it three times around our head and do this and that, then we would believe it was really something. But if given a simple way, do we understand its worth? Holy Mother was the ideal teacher who gave spiritual instructions in a simple way. Due to her grace, I was able to think in terms of joining this Order and do my part in the work for the devotees. But I have understood very little of her. Sri Ramakrishna truly understood Mother and the grand ideals she represented. That is why he spoke to Golap-ma in the way in which she described to me one incident.

(REMINISCENCES OF Sri Sarada Devi by Monastics, Devotees, and others - Compiled and Edited in Bengali by SWAMI PURNATMANANDA - Translated by MALOTI SEN GUPTA : P 99-100)

Location: Bangalore, India