14-March-2015 (Saturday) Mother As I Saw Her – Swami Saradeshananda
14-March-2015 (Saturday)
Mother As I Saw Her – Swami Saradeshananda
Some scenes at Jagaddhatri Puja – 03
At the end of the Puja, the Mother made the final offering of flowers and then prostrated herself before the image. The devotees also did likewise. After the Puja of the ‘mid-session’, when the offering of the Bhoga and the Arati were finished, they all put on their foreheads the marks of offered vermillion and sandalwood paste, and sat down to have Prasada. There were many things that had been offered to the Goddess. The Mother watched them eating from behind and asked them to be served with ‘this’ or ‘that’ many a time. When at the end of the Puja the Mother offered flowers at the feet of the Mother Jagaddhatri, prostrated before the image, putting an end of her cloth round the back of her neck (a gesture adopted by a woman o show great reverence), and then stood up facing the image with folded hands, the picture of her face, surcharged with divine fervour, was something that attracted the devotees’ hearts more than the image even. When at the end of the Puja the Mother made Pranam with great devotion to the Guru of her father’s family, who acted as the Tantra Dharak1, (1 One who guides the Puja strictly according to the scriptural text, a copy of which he keeps open before him) he was hesitant to accept it. With folded hands he saluted the Mother in return saying, “That you should be doing this, Mother!”
[Mother As I Saw Her (Being Reminiscences of Holy Mother Sarada Devi) – Swami Saradeshananda. Translated by Prof. J. N. Dey. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore Madras-600004: p 114]
