Sarada Devi, the universal mother

Sri Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna, was popularly known as the Holy Mother amongst her devotees. Sri Ramakrishna slowly but steadily groomed her forspiritual ministration even while he was alive. She was so self-concealing that it took quite some time for the devotees to discover her spiritual luminosity. But, her ministration was of a unique nature.

During the last three decades of her life she spent a considerable time in her native place Jayrambati in West Bengal which is even now a village. A large number of devotees would come to visit her. Her day would begin at 3:00 am and she would retire to bed only at around 11:00 pm with a small respite for about an hour in the afternoon. During the entire day she would be constantly busy cooking and feeding the devotees. But, through her loving care and service she would slowly uplift the minds of the devotees to a spiritual realm.

Once, Shri Girish Chandra Ghosh, the famous dramatist of Bengal, had come to Jayrambati. He found that everyday his bedcover was being changed and it was always sparkling white and clean. He was wondering who was washing them. Casually when he went for a stroll to the bank of the tank late in the morning, he saw the Holy Mother herself washing his linen. Overwhelmed and surprised he asked the Holy Mother, what kind of a mother she was. In reply she made an extraordinary revelation. She said, “I am not your mother in the sense that I am the consort of your Guru, neither am I a mother due to an assumed relationship nor a mother for the sake of calling one so. I am your true mother who literally gave birth to you.” In fact, a large number of devotees who could get close to herslowly understood this stature of the universal motherhood of the Holy Mother.