For the Love of Maa Sharada- 8

If a discussion ever ensues on the motherly love that Maa Sharada showered, a whole day would pass like a blink of an eye! A bhakta would bathe and bathe in that rasa and yet it would be much less. How can an average person like you and me ever begin to talk what Love that Sri Maa Sharada had?

After Thakur left his mortal body, Sri Maa became the head of the Ramakrishna Mission. The average humans could not understand the depth of spirituality and Divinity that was intricately mingled with Maa Sharada’s presence which was so simple, so sweet and ever giving but, poor her was mistreated by the people. Those people are not to be blamed either. They themselves were believers of miracles instead of Divinity and they themselves could not see the Holiness of a simple being who was worshipped by Sri Ramakrishna Thakur himself! And I will say, it is no less than a miracle for a person to recognize Her divinity and bow down to her Divine feet!

Maa Sharada was crushed in the organizational politics of that time which was prevalent in the Mission but it did not make her bitter. Instead, when she saw Thakur’s sadhu/sadhvi devotees begging to make their ends meet, she broke down in front of a temple. She prayed with a sad heart looking at the pitiable condition of her children and the Divine did listen to her pleas as we see, later, Swami Vivekananda had built Belur Math by the grace of Maa Sharada, who was the very Sri Mata walking in human form and no doubt, shelter and food are being showered as blessings to the sannyasis and sanyasinis of Ramakrishna Mission even now.  

One day, little calf was separated from its mother and it was anxiously bellowing non-stop outside Maa Sharada’s residence. Maa Sharada immediately left all her work and ran to the main gate despite her hurtful knees to be with the poor animal who was desperate to see its mother! Her heart used to beat for all children alike from human to animal, she was the mother of all!

When the consciousness is ripped off and the smoke of ignorance grows dense, misfortune then lingers so heavily that the people cannot even sense the Divine walking among them! Was Sri Maa recognized as Divine by all? No. In fact, many just could not see through the curtain of ignorance and once, a man of some serious temper began to chase Maa Sharada to beat her up. The reason- he was a man of rage; a physically strong male and Maa Sharada was a woman. He did not see the Divine in her and mercilessly  chased after her with a sole aim- to beat her up. Maa Sharada was scared and she ran as fast as her hurting legs could take her, clutching her sari in her hand till she suddenly became aware of who she really was! Her inner Divine manifested forth and she stopped, turned around and gave a nice dose of some blows to the man who dared to raise his sinful hands on a woman! Like Maa Durga, Sri Maa beat the Mahishasura in him and walked back to her room, all victorious!

Maa was compassionate, but does being compassionate mean to become a mere spectator of injustice? Does being compassionate mean embracing inaction? No. Maa was loving with overflowing compassion for the entire world but it did not stop her from acting necessarily on some malicious people who would be a threat to her other children.  Some people took her for granted and despite all efforts, they would be unwilling to behave properly, creating a whole atmosphere of tension to make others serve them like with inflexible people, it is a always my way or the highway case and this makes me go back to the date of 14th of April, 1920 of the beautiful book- The Gospel of The Holy Mother, and here I am penning down a little excerpt from the account of Sarajubala Devi-

‘The Mother was so badly ill, and Radhu was abusing her in such a fashion at that time! Radhu, however went on shouting out many more abusive words. Such conduct on her part had become quite frequent. The Mother, who had unbounded patience, would put up with such behaviour on all occasions. But this time, due to her protracted illness she too got annoyed and remarked, “You will realize the consequences of this afterwards! What a sad plight you will be in after my death, you will understand! I do not know how many kicks and thrashings with broom-stick are in store for you!”

Just then Rashbehari Maharaj entered the room and began to fix up the mosquito netting. So I took leave of her and the Mother said by way of bidding farewell, “Come.” This was the last command and the last word that I heard from her.’

Sarajubala Devi was given a command to ‘come’ back to Maa Sharada, but she could not do that as Maa Sharada’s body became weaker and weaker till she evntually left the world! Sarajubala was a bhakta who used to learn so much from her guru, her inspiration, her centre of life and poor Sarajubala could not carry out the last command given to her- COME! And this had stuck with her all through her life: Sarajubala could not make it to the last command of Maa Sharada- “Come”.

Some words indeed ring louder than the rest- COME!

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.