06-May-2012 (Sunday)
Reminiscences of The Holy Mother!!!

THE HOLY MOTHER : OUR ETERNAL HAVEN - 03
SISTER NIVEDITA

She has always been terribly orthodox, but all this melted away the instant she saw the first two Westerners – Mrs. Bull and Miss MacLeod, and she tasted food with them! Fruit is always presented to us immediately, and this was naturally offered to her, and she, to the surprise of everyone, accepted. This gave us all a dignity and made my future work possible in a way nothing else could possibly have done. [Regarding this incident a joyful Swami Vivekananda wrote to his brother-disciple, Swami Ramakrishnananda, in March 1898: “Sri (Holy) Mother is here, and the European and American ladies went the other day to see her, and what do you think, Mother ate with them even there! Is not that grand?” (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 8, p. 448).]

The best proof I can give you of her greatness is that she is always attended when in Calcutta by 14 or 15 high caste ladies, who would be rebellious and quarrelsome and give infinite trouble to everyone if she by her wonderful tact and winsomeness did not keep perpetual peace. There is no foundation for this statement in the character of these ladies. It is only my inference about women in general.

(REMINISCENCES OF Sri Sarada Devi by Monastics, Devotees, and others -
Compiled and Edited in Bengali by SWAMI PURNATMANANDA - Translated by MALOTI SEN GUPTA : P 107-108)

Location: Bangalore, India