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

THE HOLY MOTHER : OUR ETERNAL HAVEN - 10
SISTER NIVEDITA

Of [the Holy Mother] the head of our little community, it seems almost presumptuous to speak. Her history is well known. How she was wedded at five, and forgotten by her husband till she was eighteen; how she then, with her mother’s permission, made way on foot from her village-home to the temple of Dakshineswar on the Ganges-side, and appeared before him; how he remembered the bond, but spoke of the ideals of the life he had adopted; and how she responded by bidding him Godspeed in that life, and asking only to be taught by him as the Guru – all these things have been told of her many times over. From that time she lived faithfully by his side for many years, in a building in the same garden, at once nun and wife and always chief of his disciples. She was young when her tutelage began, and in hours of quiet talk, she will tell sometimes in how many directions his training extended. He was a great lover of order and taught her even such trifles as where to keep her lamp and its appurtenances during the day. He could not endure squalor, and notwithstanding severe asceticism, he loved grace and beauty and gentle dignity of bearing. One story that is told of this period of her life is of her bringing to him a basket of fruit and vegetables one day, with all the eagerness and pride of a happy child. He looked at it gravely and said, “But why so extravagant?”

“At least it was not for myself!” said the young wife, all her sunshine gone, in sudden disappointment, and she turned away, crying quietly. But this Sri Ramakrishna could not bear to see. “Go, one of you,” he said, turning to the boys beside him, “and bring her back. My very devotion to God will take wings, if I see her weep!”

(REMINISCENCES OF Sri Sarada Devi by Monastics, Devotees, and others -
Compiled and Edited in Bengali by SWAMI PURNATMANANDA - Translated by MALOTI SEN GUPTA : P 110-111)

Location: Bangalore, India