LIFE OF SRI SARADA DEVI

CHAPTER-V; PART-II

Nahabat

But the remarkable fact about this phase of the Holy Mother's life is that, unlike her sympathisers, she herself never felt aggrieved on this account. In later times it was with a feeling of exaltation that she would refer to those blessed days she had spent with the Master. She used to say: 'The divine state in which the Master used to be absorbed, passes all description. In ecstatic moods he would smile or weep, or at times remain perfectly still in deep Samadhi. This would sometimes continue throughout the night. In that divine presence my whole body would tremble with awe, and I would anxiously await the dawn. For I knew nothing of ecstasy in those days. One night his Samadhi continued for a very long time. Greatly frightened, I sent for Hriday. He came and began to repeat the name of the Lord in the Master's ears. When he had done this for a little while, external consciousness reappeared. After this incident, the Master came to know of my difficulty, and taught me the appropriate divine names that should be uttered in the ear in particular states of Samadhi. Thenceforth my fear was much lessened, as he would invariably come to earthly consciousness on the utterance of the particular divine names. But even after this, I sometimes kept awake whole nights, as there wasno knowing when he would fall into Samadhi. By degrees he came to know of my difficulty. He learnt that, even after the lapse of a considerable length of time, I could not adjust myself to his Samadhi temperament. So he asked me to sleep separately at the Nahabat (see picture).'

   Indeed, the attitude of pity which some feel for the Holy Mother for what they consider her enforced virginhood in married life, is based upon a total ignorance of her exalted spiritual state. If she chose, it was perhaps open to her to have drawn Sri Ramakrishna to the ordinary level of life. But she was constituted otherwise. 'Do you want to drag me down into Maya?' Sri Ramakrishna asked her once in the early days of his association with her at Dakshineswar. 'Why should I do that?' came the prompt reply, 'I have come only to help you in the path of religions life.'(Note: The Holy Mother spoke of this to Yogin-Ma.)

   A noble answer, indeed! Only a woman of immaculate purity of mind could have given it. There was no artifice in it, no hypocritical intention to please anybody. It was the spontaneous expression of her nature, of the lofty ideal of life that had unconsciously become hers as much as her husband's.

   In fact the world at large has not yet recognized the important part played by the Holy Mother in fulfilling this aspect of Sri Ramakrishna's life. Often there is a tendency to attribute this unique feature of their married life entirely to the saintly character of Sri Ramakrishna. But it is forgotten that at least an equal share of the credit for this is due to the Holy Mother. For such an ideal could be translated into life only because she was his match in point of purity and cooperated with him wholeheartedly in the fulfillment of the ideal.

   Sri Ramakrishna himself was the first to appreciate her exalted spiritual state and to recognize the immense value of her contribution to his religious life. 'Had she not been so pure,' he said to his disciples in later times, 'who knows whether I might not have lost my self-control from her inducements? After marriage I prayed to the Divine Mother, "O Mother, remove even the least taint of carnality from the mind of my wife." When I lived with her, I understood that the Mother had really granted my prayer.'

   This admission of Sri Ramakrishna, especially in the light of his conduct towards the Holy Mother soon after her arrival at Dakshineswar, is full of import. It gives us a glimpse of the spiritual evolution of the Holy Mother during the days when the Master was performing austerities at Dakshineswar. Does the above prayer of the Master signify an affirmation of mind by which he made her in spirit the participant of his memorable religious practices? Did it establish an unconscious spiritual link between the two individuals, so that in spite of distance and years of separation, the one could draw the sap of holiness that the other was accumulating in the solitude of the Dakshineswar temple-garden? The spiritual fitness that the Master recognized in the Holy Mother on her unexpected appearance at Dakshineswar justifies such an inference. Besides, the Master's own words reveal the subtle unseen relation that existed between him and his chief disciples. 'The devotees are like Kalmi greens,' he said, 'if one end of it is pulled, the whole group of shoots connected with it must come out'

   The same fact is further confirmed by the remarkable form of worship that Sri Ramakrishna performed as the culmination of his spiritual practices. In that rite he placed the Holy Mother on the pedestal of the Deity and worshipped her as the great Mother of the universe. It looks as if her association with him in this final act of his austerities is the conclusion of a long process of soul culture beginning with the prayer at the time of his marriage, which, strangely enough, coincides approximately with the commencement of his austerities.

   The next chapter will describe in more detail this great act of worship that Sri Ramakrishna performed with the Holy Mother as the symbol of the Deity. 

SOURCE: 'Sri Sarada Devi, The Holy Mother',
                    By Srimat Swami Tapasyanandaji