September 23, 2015 Wednesday: Mother As I Saw Her (Being Reminiscences of Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
23-September-2015 (Wedneday)
Mother As I Saw Her – Second Part
Swami Saradeshananda
4. Her Attitude towards Appeals for public Funds and their Use
After a house was built for the Mother at Jayrambati, they had established a night school and a charitable dispensary here for the sake of the neighbours. We have already mentioned about this before. For the expansion of these, they were thinking of raising some money by bringing out an appeal in the name of the Mother. But the moment the Mother came to know about it, she vehemently protested against it. This nipped the move in the bud. The Mother knew that it was her beloved son Lalit Babu who laboured hard for the above mentioned dispensary and night school, and collected funds and materials with great effort. The Mother always kept a sharp eye on how these were used, so that there was no misuse or wastage. At the time of the First World War, medicines and denatured spirit were very costly and difficult to procure. It was found that if they massaged the Mother’s feet with a little spirit, she had some relief from the rheumatic pain. When a son of hers had thus massaged her knee with spirit for a few days, the Mother said in apathetic voice, “My child, it is with great difficulty that my Lalit collects these things for the poor. On account of the war such things are not available easily. I get much relief if the massage is done woth some warm garlic-oil. I really feel pained when I use such costly things. So please don’t use it any more.” Thus the Mother had the massaging with spirit stopped.
[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 204]
