04-05-2016 Wednesday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 107
In The March of Events – 19
Though every Hindu woman is taught to regard her husband almost as God and serve him with body, heart, and soul, Sarada Devi looked upon Sri Ramakrishna as ‘God eternal and absolute,’ to use her own words – both as her husband and also in his own right. To serve him, she felt, was to worship God. This attitude enabled her to face her daily tasks joyfully. She said later: ‘When I thought that I was serving him, no physical discomfort bothered me. The days passed in unmixed bliss.’ But often, when she did not have the privilege of being near him or serving him leans, she had to forgo this bliss. This happened especially when the number of the Master’s men disciples increased and they used to attend him. Sarada Devi was too shy to appear before them, and Sri Ramakrishna did not approve of it. ‘Sometimes,’ she once remarked, ‘I could not see him even once in two months. Naturally I felt depressed. At that time I used to say to myself: “O mind, why should you think yourself so fortunate as to be able to see him everyday?” I would stand for hours behind a small hole in the screen of my porch and listen to his singing. On account of standing long hours on my feet, I got rheumatism.’ Sarada Devi watched him and the devotees singing day and night in his room and often said to herself: ‘Ah, if only I were one of those devotees! Then I could hear him and witness his ecstacies.’ Regarding Sarada Devi’s natural bashfulness and retiring habits, the manager of the temple garden once remarked: ‘Yes, we have heard about her living there, but never seen her.’
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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: 71 – 72
