For the Love of Maa Sharada- 4

(Happy Mother’s Day to the Universal Mother, Maa Sharada. My humble pranaam at the feet of Thakur and Maa.)

1. Girish Babu

Girish Babu, a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna died in 1912 and Sri Maa was in deep sorrow. She loved each one of her devotee children or the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna as her own and all her actions, love, words and everything was always directed for their wellbeing. A mother at heart, she grieved at Girish Babu’s demise remembering the beautiful surrender and faith that Girish Babu had for Sri Ramakrishna, his guru and then the Mother began to recount a lovely incident about him.

Girish Babu loved Thakur dearly, thus, begged Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa to be born as his son and indeed, a son was born to Girish Babu shortly after Sri Ramakrishna left his body. Even at the tender age of four, Girish’s son would not talk at all and all communication was done via gestures and body language. One day he grew extremely restive to meet Sri Sharada Maa. He cried and threw tantrums until when his family members understood that he was constantly pointing at Sri Maa’s picture on the wall and soon he was brought to meet Maa. Girish let him go to meet The Mother but did not dare to accompany him to Maa’s room saying, “I cannot, my darling, see the Holy Mother. I am a great sinner!” But the child kept pulling his cloth and was bent on to take him along and eventually, Girish had to yield. He took the boy up in his arm and with a trembling body and a tearful face, he prostrated on the ground to Maa. He said, “This boy has made me see your holy feet!” So sublime was Girish’s humility and love! However, Girish’s son passed away at the age of four.

2. Sister Nivedita

Like always, the Holy Mother greeted Sarajubala with a warm smile, tender love and on this one day, Sarajubala desired to read something about the life of Sister Nivedita and on Maa’s command, she began to read from a book written by Sarabala. Maa was surrounded by many people and Sarajubala felt a little shy to read out to so many, yet she was eager to do so and obeyed her order. Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda passed away at a young age and as Sarajubala read about her story, everyone present listen to it with an absolute rapt attention. Tears trickled down the cheeks of the Mother and she became emotional remembering the sincere devotion that Nivedita had for Maa. Sister Nivedita was always ready to do everything for Maa. She would often come to see her at night and so sensitive was she for Maa’s comfort that she put a shade of paper around the lamp when she saw Maa’s eyes being struck by sudden light! A humble heart, a sincere devotee, Sister Nivedita despite meeting Maa so many times, hesitated to even touch her feet as she would prostrate herself before Maa, with great tenderness and take the dust-off Maa’s feet with her handkerchief. ‘The thought of Nivedita opened a floodgate of her mind and she suddenly became grave’ because Holy Mother was reminded of yet another child of hers who had died, a lovely child who had nothing but devotion and love in her heart. The Universe’s Mother Sri Maa said at last, “The inner soul feels for a sincere devotee.”

3. Sri Sharada Devi

To be truthful, till now whatever I have read about Sri Sharada Maa, one question never settled nicely into my puny brain- Who really was Maa Sharada? At times, she is depicted as the Mother of the Universe with countless children for whom she feels equally, other times, she is the simple spiritual companion of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. But the most striking quality that looms up large among all is, her roopam of a devotee or a bhakta. Who else could have been a spectacular bhakta other than the Mother herself? Who else knew Sri Ramakrishna other than she? She would offer food to thakur before partaking on it, she would even offer her own devotees whom she had initiated, to thakur. She managed the entire Sri Ramakrishna Mission after Thakur left his body but all the credit was given to thakur and his Leela! She never claimed the credit for her own self, she was just happy to see people showering devotion to Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Such was the level of her surrender which didn’t have any iota of ego or selfishness in it. Once, Maa made a flower garland with her own hands for Thakur and Rash Behari, a brahmachari placed the sweets for puja near that garland which attracted and gathered many ants all over the garland. Mother saw it and without any agitation, irritation or anger, said with a laugh, “See what Rash Behari has done! Sri Ramakrishna will be bitten by ants.” Sri Sharada Maa then proceeded to remove each ant tenderly from the garland. Patiently, she pulled out the ants smeared all over the garland, as if she was the mother of the ants as well! Such was her love towards all. Her surrender was impeccable as did not allow even the image of thakur be hurt by any puny creature like an ant and with a lot of love, care and sincere devotion, Maa, the pinnacle of a bhakta, decorated the image of Thakur with those flowers and later prasad was distributed to all.

No copyright violation or plagiarism intended.

Source:

Devi, Sarayubala. First Series Recorded by Sarayubala Devi. The Gospel of The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. Recorded by her devotee-children. Sri Ramakrishna Math Printing Press, Mylapore, Chennai. 2008.

For the Love of Maa Sharada- 1

For the Love of Maa Sharada- 2

For the Love of Maa Sharada- 3