30-04-2016 Saturday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 103
In The March of Events – 15
Another woman, Aghormani by name, visited Sri Ramakrishna now and then. Later she came to be known as Gopaler-Ma, or Gopala’s Mother, on account of her intimate relationship with Gopala, the Baby Krishna. Born in 1822, Gopaler-Ma was given in marriage at the age of nine but became a widow immediately after. Soon she moved to a temple near Calcutta where she was provided with her own room for spiritual exercises. In the words of Sister Nivedita1 (1 An Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, formerly known as Margaret E. Noble.): ‘Her room was absolutely without any comforts. Her bed was of stone, and her floor of stone, and the piece of matting she offered her guests to sit on had to be taken down from a shelf and unrolled. The handful of parched rice and sugar candy that formed her only store, and were all she could give in hospitality, were taken from an earthen pot that hung from the roof by a few cords. But the place was spotlessly clean, washed by the Ganges water of her own sturdy carrying. And in a niche near her hand, lay an old copy of the Ramayana, and her great horn spectacles, and a little white bag containing the rosary. On these Gopaler-Ma became a saint. Hour after hour, day after day, for how many years, she had sat, day and night, absorbed in them.’ Gopaler-Ma had many exalted spiritual experiences and often saw the manifestation of Gopala, her spiritual ideal, in Sri Ramakrishna. At Dakshineswar she frequently took her meals with Sarada Devi, whom she loved as her daughter-in-law.
These women devotees were tied to Sarada Devi by bonds of indissoluble love. They were her friends and companions, and while at Dakshineswar they helped her with the cooking and other household duties. This relationship continued throughout their lives.
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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: 68 – 69
