20-08-2016 Saturday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 207

In a Domestic Setting – 04

In the death of Shyamasundari Holy Mother lost a beloved and intimate relative to whom she had always presented her problems and from whom she received counsel in the discharge of household responsibilities. The villagers also lost a sincere well-wisher and friend. Shyamasundari, strong in body and mind, devotes to God, and resolute and unwavering in the fulfilment of family duties, belonged in the old tradition of sturdy Hindu womanhood. She had gone through many vicissitudes, calmly facing poverty after the death of her husband, and had brought up her children heroically. In her later years the family income increased and she did not feel the pinch of poverty. Swami Virajananda, one of Holy Mother’s disciples, who first met her in 1891, said of her: ‘Grandmother was by nature utterly simple and sweet. Day and night she was busy looking after the cattle, cleaning the cow shed, feeding the workers in the field, cooking for the household, and husking the paddy. But she always kept a smile on her face. Nobody ever saw her lose her temper or reprimand people. Her joy spilled over when we addressed her as “grandmother.” After Sarada Devi’s marriage her mother had been sad because, along with the others, she thought Sri Ramakrishna was insane. But she lived to see her daughter worshipped as a goddess by rich and poor from all parts of the country. When a devotee came to Jayrambati she would exclaim with joy, ‘Ah, one of my grandchildren has come!’ her household, she said, consisted of ‘God and godly people.’ Now and then Shyamasundari had a glimpse of Holy Mother’s divine personality. She once said: ‘Child, who are you? Do I really recognize your true nature?” Holy Mother replied with a show of annoyance: ‘Who else do you think I am? Do you see me with four arms?’1 (1 Many goddesses in Hinduism have four arms.) If I were not a human being, why should I have been born of your womb?’ Another day Shyamasundari said to her: ‘May I have a daughter like you in my next birth. My husband will have plenty of money. It is so painful to bring up children in dire poverty.’ ‘Why do you drag me in?’ Sarada Devi replied. ‘Do you mean to say that I should again bring up your children?’ But the mother insisted that she wanted to have Sarada Devi once more as her daughter. She must have remembered the visions she and her husband had had before their daughter’s birth.

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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: 126 – 127

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