A Teacher
Sarada Devi
The Holy Mother — universal motherhood and the divine in all
The transmission
Sarada Devi (22 December 1853 – 20 July 1920), revered as the “Holy Mother,” was the wife and spiritual counterpart of the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna and a major figure of the modern Hindu renaissance in her own right.
Born into a poor Brahmin family in the village of Jayrambati in West Bengal, she was married to Ramakrishna in childhood, as was the custom of the time; the two led lives of complete continence, and she lived with him at the Dakshineswar Kali temple as both devoted wife and disciple.
Ramakrishna regarded her as a living manifestation of the Divine Mother, and on the night of the Phalaharini-Kali-puja in 1872 he ritually worshipped her as the Goddess — an act understood within the tradition as awakening her latent spiritual motherhood.
After Ramakrishna’s death in 1886, Sarada Devi, though by temperament retiring and outwardly leading the simple life of a village widow, gradually became the spiritual heart of the movement gathered around his memory.
She began to accept disciples in her own right, initiating and guiding hundreds of seekers — householders and monks alike — with a tenderness that drew no line between the worthy and the fallen. Her counsel was practical and maternal rather than doctrinal: she is remembered for sayings such as the teaching that one’s own mind is one’s guru, and that the whole world is one’s own.
She became a cornerstone of the Ramakrishna Order and the inspiration for its women’s monastic wing, the Sri Sarada Math. The Atlas presents her recognition as Divine Mother as the devotional understanding of her tradition.
What they gave
The divine recognised within: Sarada Devi’s teaching that the world is one’s own and that the mind itself can be one’s guru carries the “inner gnosis / the deeper Self” stream in plain, lived form.
- Universal motherhood as nonduality: Her boundless, undiscriminating love embodies “all is one” as a felt relationship rather than an abstraction.
- Realisation through ordinary life: She modelled deep spirituality lived out in humble, everyday duty, showing that the highest states need no special role or renunciation.
- A woman at the centre: As guru and cofounding inspiration of a major modern movement, she widened the place of women in spiritual authority and monastic life.
In their words
The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind.
God is one’s very own. It is the eternal relationship. He is everyone’s own. One realizes Him in proportion to the intensity of one’s feeling for Him.
It is best therefore to surrender all desires at the feet of God. He will do whatever is best for us. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These cannot be classed as desires.
In one word, one should desire of God desirelessness. For desire alone is at the root of all suffering. It is the cause of repeated births and deaths. It is the obstacle in the way of liberation.
Whether you jump into water or are pushed into it, your cloth will get drenched. Is it not so? Meditate every day, as your mind is yet immature. Constant meditation will make the mind one-pointed.
The difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play.
Certainly you will have doubts. There will be questionings and faith will return again. That is how faith is established.
The creation itself is full of griefs. How can one understand joy if there is no sorrow? And how can everyone be happy at the same time?
My son, forbearance is a great virtue; there’s no other like it.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Ramakrishna, her husband and teacher; Shakta devotion to the Divine Mother; Advaita Vedanta and bhakti as fused in Ramakrishna’s example; and the spiritual community around him.
- Influenced: the Ramakrishna Order and Mission, of which she was a cornerstone; the Sri Sarada Math and women’s monasticism in modern Hinduism; and the worldwide spread of Vedanta carried by that movement.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi (conversations)n.d.