June 10, 2015 Wednesday: Mother As I Saw Her (Being Reminiscences of Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
10-June-2015 (Wednesday)
Mother As I Saw Her – Swami Saradeshananda
Love as the sustaining Principle in Life – 4
Again, a long time back, I saw on the roadside a wonderful sight which is still fresh before my mind’s eye. A dark, tall man of a rather frightening appearance, clad in dirty clothes, his face covered with beard and moustache, picked up a baby in dirtier rags, hugged it tightly to his breast and bending down his head, kissed it with all the love that his heart could muster. Then putting it in the lap of a girl standing by his side, in equally dirty and threadbare dress, he hurried behind the running buffaloes. As he did so, he turned again and again his tear-filled eyes towards the spot where the baby was! It was indeed with the idea of keeping this little one free from want that he had taken up this job of guarding a herd of buffaloes, running after then through jungles and meadows. Wonder of wonders! Even in this seemingly hard and dry heart, Thou, O Mahamaya, art hiding as the fountain of parental love and affection! Thou are the great Goddess residing in all beings as the Mother. Even in the udder of the mother tiger, drinking the fresh blood of the ‘kill’, Thou art present as the loving flow of the life-giving milk. The Mother sacrifices herself for the sake of the child, and the robber robs, driven by the same love.
[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 149]
