Dedicated to Sri Sarada Devi

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"Holy Mother" painted by Swami Tadatmananda

Used courtesy of the Vedanta Society of Southern California

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Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 022 Monday 25-01-2016

25-01-2016 Monday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 022

Introduction: Women of India - 19

The paragon of all the women mentioned in the epics is, of course, Sita, whose consort, Rama, is worshipped by the Hindus as an Incarnation of God. Her memory has been cherished by virtuous women in India for the past two thousand years. In her the virtues of her contemporaries found fill expression, without any of their blemishes. Even today, a young woman is blessed by an elder, she is asked to ‘be like Sita’.

According to the Ramayana, Sita, as a newly born baby, was lying in a covered pot under the earth when she was discovered by King Janaka in the course of his ploughing a field. She was at once adopted by Janaka and brought up as a royal princess, and is therefore often referred to as the daughter of Mother Earth. In due course she was married to Prince Rama. They were living happily when a calamity befell Rama. His father, Kind Dasharatha, had arranged a day to declare him, with proper ceremony, as his heir-apparent. His second queen, however, wanted her own son to be his successor and through an evil machination managed to banish Rama to the forest for fourteen years to lead the life of an ascetic. Sita and Lakshmana, one of Rama;s brothers, accompanied Rama in spite of his earnest request that his consort live at the palace performing her religious and household duties.

Rama and his companions settled down to an austere life, often spending their time in the company of hermits. Meanwhile Ravana, the monster1 (1 The monsters and monkeys described in the Ramayana most probably refer to the non-Aryans who lived in Ceylon and southern India. They had developed their own civilization and some of them possessed high moral and spiritual virtues.) king of Ceylon, who was a slave of lust and greed, heard of Sita’s great beauty and wanted her as a concubine. Afraid of Rama’s power and realizing his own inability to take possession of her openly, he resorted to guile. He and his companions could assume, through their magical powers, any form they wanted. One day he sent one of his followers in the guise of a golden deer to wander about before Rama’s hut. Sita, yielding to a woman’s uncontrollable fancy, begged Rama to capture the deer for her, and he followed the strange animal into the deep forest. Ravana, taking this opportunity, knocked at Rama’s hut in the guise of a mendicant. As Sita came out, the monster resumed his real form, seized her, and carried her in his aerial chariot to Ceylon.

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Holy Mother - Being the Life of Sri Sarada Devi Wife of Sri Ramakrishna And Helpmate in his Mission By Swami Nikhilananda p: 13 – 14

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