sarada devi -- 150th birthday today

[Guest guest]

An unbelievable existence

 

 

 

 

 

Why are such heavy prices demanded of exemplary lives? Today is the 150th

birthday of a modern Hindu saint. Hark at her tale. One day, Shyamsundari,

the wife of a poor but pious priest, Ramchandra Mukhopadhyay, made her way

back from her father's house to her married home at Jayrambati, a village by

the Amodar stream, in the southeast corner of Bankura district, West Bengal.

Resting under a tree in a wood, she heard the jingle of anklets and looked

up. A little girl clambered down and tenderly hugged her. Shyamsundari

fainted and remained unconscious for a long time. Her relatives took her

home, and when she came to, she felt the little girl was curled up within

her own body.

 

Sarada Devi was born on Thursday, December 22, 1853. Her father, too, had a

portent of an unusual birth. Nodding off after lunch one day, he dreamt that

a beautiful young girl wearing precious ornaments, hugged him

affectionately. When he asked who she was, she said in a soft, musical

voice, "You see, I have come to your family." Sarada was 'married' at the

age of five to Ramakrishna, a 23-year-old from nearby Kamarpukur. At 18, his

elder brother Ramkumar had taken him to Kolkata, where he was appointed

Mother Kali's priest at the famous Dakshineswar temple built by Rani

Rashmoni. It is almost impossible for most people to relate to Sarada Devi's

trials, the denial of every normal womanly comfort: her husband's enforced

celibacy, the stuffy little room at Dakshineswar where she spent years and

years of her life with a door so low that she banged her head each time she

forgot to duck. If too many visitors thronged about, she could not even see

her husband for up to two months, though his room was 75 feet south of hers.

Conditioned by the Hindu ideal of all-sacrificing womanhood, she was happy

listening humbly from afar to Ramakrishna's bhajans.

 

But elders in their 70s and 80s affirm that such was the mindset of those

times that young married couples forswore physical pleasure to concentrate

on serving causes. Gandhiji, Prabhavati-Jayaprakash Narayan (she died, alas,

of uterine cancer). But people who genuinely sublimated their sexual energy

into spiritual energy glowed with 'tejas' (reportedly, the late Bharata

Natyam teacher, Guru Muthukumaran Pillai, a few acharyas and sadhvis). Just

so, Sister Nivedita wrote of the "tremendous dynamic power" that emanated

from Sarada Devi. Sarada Devi advised, "Let me tell you how to love all

equally. Do not demand anything of those you love." And of Sri Ramakrishna

she said, "The chief characteristic of the Master's sadhana is renunciation.

Has anyone ever seen such natural renunciation?" Her legacy, the Ramakrishna

Mission, is such a splendid organisation even in its eighth decade of seva,

that we can only say 'Jai Ma'.

 

 

>From Kamakoti musact group

 

 

 

Ganapathy --- Vijaya

 

" Jai Bhavani " - - - - " Jai Sri Lalitha Maha Maha Tripura Sundari "

 

" Sarvam Shakti Mayam Jagath "

 

 

 

 

New Photos - easier uploading and sharing

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

Recently I came accross the review of the BOOK in Tattvaloka, a

 

monthly magazine published Tattvaloka, Abhinava Centre, New 4

 

(Old 19), Co-operative Colony, Chennai 600 018. The review is about

 

the Book Titled SRI SARADA DEVI- The Holy Mother - Life and

 

Teachings - Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai.

 

It contains 142 Pages and is sold at a heavy discount od Rs 12.00

 

(Rupees Twelve only. The author is Swami TAPASYANANDA. Very lucid

 

writing worth possing.

 

I thought of sharing the details with the members who are interested.

 

A really UNBELIEVABLE EXISTANCE EVERY ONE SHOULD READ ABOUT THE RARE

 

COUPLE.