22-March-2020

Sri Sarada Devi and Her Divine Play! 236

Passages from “Sri Sarada Devi and Her Divine Play” – p: 222 – 223

By Swami Chetanananda

Vedanta Society of St Louis

Chapter 14

HOLY MOTHER AND WESTERN WOMEN – 09

Holy Mother and Sister Nivedita – 04

Holy Mother treasured anything that Nivedita gave her. Once Nivedita gave Holy Mother a small German silver box in which she kept locks of Ramakrishna’s hair. She used to say, “Whenever I look at the box at the time of worship, I am reminded of Nivedita.” In one of her trunks, Holy Mother kept an old tattered silk scarf that her attendant wanted to throw away. “No, child,” she said. “Nivedita gave it to me with great love. Let us preserve it.” She then took the scarf in her hand, scattered black cumin seeds in its folds as a preservative, and laid it carefully back in the trunk. She remarked: “The very sight of the scarf reminds me of Nivedita. What a wonderful girl she was! At first she could not speak to me directly, and the boys acted as interpreters. Later she picked up the Bengali language. She loved my mother very much.”

One day Nivedita said to Shyamasundari: “Grandma, I shall go to your village and cook in your kitchen.” The old lady replied at once: “No, my child, you must not do that. Our people will ostracize me if you enter my kitchen.”24 [Swami Nikhilananda, Holy Mother, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre: New York, 1962, p.: 285; Swami Gambhirananda, Srima Sarada Devi, Udbodhan Office: Calcutta, 2008, p.: 217]

Nivedita had penetrating eyes, a brilliant mind, indomitable energy, and deep spirituality. She observed that although Holy Mother had no formal education, her dealings with people and teachings were beautiful, catholic, practical, and appealing. Holy Mother’s divine love and affection, strong common sense and sweet personality captivated her. Nivedita wrote:

To me it has always appeared that she is Sri Ramakrishna’s final word as to the ideal of Indian womanhood. But is she the last of an old order; or the beginning of a new? In her one sees realized that wisdom and sweetness to which the simplest of women may attain. And yet, to myself the stateliness of her courtesy and her great open mind are almost as wonderful as her sainthood. I have never known her hesitate in giving utterance to large and generous judgement, however new or complex might be the question put before her. Her life is one long stillness of prayer. Her whole experience is of theocratic civilization. Yet she rises to the height of every situation. Is she tortured by the perversity of any about her? The only sign is a strange quiet and intensity that comes upon her. Does one carry to her some perplexity or mortification born of social developments beyond her ken? With unerring intuition she goes straight to the heart of the matter, and sets the questioner in the true attitude to the difficulty.25 (Complete Works of Sister Nivedita, 1:105-06)