July 3, 2015 Friday: Mother As I Saw Her (Being Reminiscences of Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
03-July-2015 (Friday)
Mother As I Saw Her – Swami Saradeshananda
The Incident of the severed Carpet-seat – 1
Sometimes, even when she was not sick, this attitude of a little girl would be found in the Mother. We have already mentioned about the beautiful carper-seat (Asana) presented to the Mother by the devoted Bhutia girls from Mayavati. The Mother was very much pleased on getting this Asana, and she was all praise for the devotion and skill of these girls from the Himalayas. She was using this presented carpet to sit on while doing her worship. One day a devotee son of the Mother, when he went to her in the morning, found her in great distress, sitting morose, resting her cheek on the palm of her hand. By her side was a ‘Bonti’ (vegetable cutting knife) with two pieces of a carpet seat on the two sides of it. As soon as her eyes fell on the son, she cried out in a sorrowful tone, “See, my boy, what I have done!” she picked up the two pieces of the Asana and throwing them before the son, said in great remorse, “That beautiful Asana presented by the hill girls was too big, and when spread took a great deal of space. I did not require such a big one for sitting. So I folded it inward but found that the needle-work was completely hidden, and besides, it was found rather hard to sit on. So I folded in the reverse way with the two halves of the basket in alignment. Half the needle-work was no doubt visible then, but the other half was in contact with the floor and would be spoilt. But, when thus folded either way, the Asana was found too thick and inconvenient to sit on. Besides, it did not look nice also. Then the thought came to me that if it were cut in two, it would be smaller and could be used by two persons. So I cut it in two with this Bonti. But while doing so, I cut it a little slanting, and have thus spoiled both the pieces, neither of them being rectangular. I am not very sorry for what I have done. There was Sarala. If I had asked her to do it for me, she would have cut it properly. What a fool I have been! Whoever sees this, will laugh at me.”
Seeing the Mother penitent like a little girl, the son picked up the two pieces, looked at them carefully, and then told her, “It is good that you have now two Asanas. They will be of great se. Though they are a little irregular now, they will be alright if the edges are pruned a little and covered with a border. I do not think that any harm has been done. Please have no worry. I shall just call Sarala-Didi and she will make it all right.” Sarala-Didi came and the Mother showed her the two portions and said, “Just see, my child, what I have done! Now do the needful, so that people will not laugh at me.” She too pacified the Mother, took the two pieces of the Asana, cut away a little at the wider end of each, and sewed a border to each with the border of a saree. When she brought them to the Mother, the latter was very much pleased and called the son gleefully and said, “Come, see how Sarala has made these! Now they will serve our purpose very well.”
[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 162 – 164]
