A Veiled Enigma

Of the divine trinity Sarada Devi is the most mysterious. Thakur, Sri Ramakrishna we know used to go into samadhi every now and then, sing and dance in ecstasy and talk, talk and talk on God ad infinitum. Swami Vivekananda we have seen as the cyclonic sanyasin circumambulating the globe - going from door to door, town to town, country to country giving expression to Thakur’s thought - reasoning, preaching, lecturing, organizing, philosophizing, writing and on and on. Whereas our Mother Sarada - a simple unlettered village woman, with face covered with a long veil and with a troupe of quarrelling, fighting and struggling family! But behind this façade of ordinary humanness a being whom Thakur worshipped as the mother of the universe! She is to us an eternal enigma.

Who is she then - with that serene luminous face and that mysterious smile and eyes exuding love ? She has deftly wrapped herself up with veils after veils. We can never be sufficiently thankful to Mrs Ole Bull for arranging that unveiled photograph which allows us to worship her. But beyond this, her veil of ordinary humanity is still difficult to cross.  A few word here and an action there from her is all that is, which at times gives herself away. What the blazing lights have revealed are guides to get a glimpse of her divinity.

To Ma, Thakur had said “The same that is in the (Kali) temple, gave birth to this body and now resides at the Nahabat, and she, again, is now massaging my feet. Truly do I see you as a veritable form of the Blissful Mother!” Another time on hearing some disparaging comments he had warned his nephew Hride  ‘If the one that is in this (pointing to his own body) raises its hood you may still be saved; but if the one that is in her raises its hood even Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheswara cannot save you’. Yet again he had openly declared ‘She is Sarada, Saraswati; she has come to impart knowledge.’ The Master not only revered her but it appears was at times, unbelievably, a bit scared of her too! Once when Mother appeared to be peeved by Master’s comment on her supposed extravagance towards her children - the devotes and visitors, he rushed to his nephew Ramlal ‘Hullo Ramlal, go and pacify your aunt. If she gets angry, everything will be undone with this (pointing to his body).’ 

We also know that the world conqueror Vivekananda, the exalted Brahmananda, the imperious Girish Ghosh, the saintly Nag Mahashay all trembled with reverential awe in front of her.

To Swamiji she was the ‘Living Durga’. He avowed ‘Of Ramakrishna Paramahansa you may assert that he was God, man or whatever you like; but fie on him who is not devoted to the Mother’. It is known that Swamiji was in a tumult over whether to go to the west at all. He sought her blessings. When her letter came with her approval, he alternately danced and wept with joy. “Yes, now it is the West, the West ! Now I am ready. Let us go to work in right earnest. The Mother Herself has spoken!”

To the monastic Ramakrishna order she is sangha janani. It was her all embracing love which held them all tightly together.  She was the glue, the restraining hand and the final authority. The work of the order resonates with Yogananda’s advice to Saradananda ‘I tell you one thing Sarat, you cling to Mother; whatever she says will be right’. Her love and authority are the foundation on which today stands the immense edifice, which is the prime conduit of Thakur’s grace on mankind.

Even if we get a feel of her awesome stature, there still remains the final veil. We take recourse to Thakur’s parable of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita. Rama who is God himself was walking just in front of Lakshmana, but Lakshmana could not see him because Sita stood between them. Unless Mahamaya incarnate Sita stepped aside Lakshmana could not see Rama. To reach the supreme it is on us like it was on Lakshmana to cross the veil of Maya by praying to Holy Mother to step aside. Without her grace the veil can never lift for us to be one with reality. This whole world is her work and her veils and her shadows. 

Once, at Benaras, she let it slip. When some women found her busy with her family, one of them blurted out “Mother, I see you terribly entangled in Maya!” The Mother replied in an undertone  “What to do, dear, for I myself am Maya !” It is a command meant for the  whole world that Girish Ghosh gave to Uncle Kali ‘Go, and if you want freedom here and hereafter, take refuge at the Mother’s feet at once. I say, go !’

The veils do not give way so easily especially when they are so mysteriously and deftly arranged. The illumined say that only after intense sadhana does one receive her grace. But there are few we know who were graced unconditionally by her inscrutable enigmatic play. There was the porter at Vishnupur railway station who saw Janaki in her, the robber Bagdi Couple of Telo Bhelo who saw her as Kali, and the pure hearted Aunt Bhanu of Jayarambati who saw Siva and Parvati in Thakur and Ma. Perhaps her veil is not so difficult to cross after all, we are only too bound in this world and in our thoughts to have the sight.

In what way do we comprehend her then? Ma Sarada is veiled and enigmatic as Mahamaya is veiled and enigmatic. In Thakur’s word “Is she of the common run? She is my Sakti (power)”.  If Thakur is the roaring altar fire, Swamiji personifies the embers that spread far and wide, and Ma is the power of the fire that warms, soothes and burns all impurities. Thakur being the word - the idea, Swamiji its expression in reason, logic, philosophy, Mother blooms as its living expression from the mundane to the exalted, in this maddening world exemplifying the motherly love of God - unconditional and unmotivated.

The Holy Mother personifies life in this world with strength, simplicity, freedom, purity, renunciation, service and above all love. In dealing with others she leads us with the common sense view of adaptability according to time, place and person. In her the outer encrustation of religion, all orthodoxy, all rituals are relativised and transcended to enthrone one pure spiritual drive for the supreme.

The life she led has closed all doors for the complainers. If she could live that life with her relatives and still be constantly prayerful, meditative, god centred and god intoxicated then what right have we got to complain? Or perhaps it is a play of a different order. Isn’t her family an embodied metaphor of the household of the mother of the universe? So many types of people populate the world - the quarrelling, fighting, mad, serene, thoughtful, hard working, philosopher, thief, dacoit - and She is the mother of all. In her own words, “I am the mother of all. I am the mother of the good. I am the mother of the bad too.”

She accepted everybody good, bad, scholar, ignorant, illumined or the dacoit, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, sane or mad, foreigner or countrymen. She had emphasized, “As Sarat (the great Swami Saradananda) is my son so is Amjad (the dacoit) my son”. Overwhelmed with emotion Swami Premananda had exclaimed ‘Who has understood the Holy Mother? There’s not a trace of grandeur. ..A poison that we can’t assimilate we pass on to the Mother. She draws everyone to her lap. An infinite power - an incomparable grace! Glory to the Mother! Not to speak of us; we haven’t seen the Master himself doing this. With how much caution and what testing he accepted anyone! And here .. wonderful!! She grants shelter to everyone, eats food from the hands of almost anyone, and all is digested! Mother, Mother, victory unto the Mother!’

According to her forgiveness is an austerity. Her final affirmation of unbounded love and benediction on the world was, “If you want peace, don’t find fault with others, but find fault rather with yourself.  Learn to make the world your own. Nobody is a stranger, my dear; the world is yours.” This declaration of hers’ is both a rebuff to our lamentations, our carp and cants and a promise of her universal all embracing limitless love. She is the primeval power that has descended to inundate the world, contorted with hatred and violence, with selfless love. Despite all her veils and her enigma when one approaches her one palpably realizes her presence bestowing blessings, dispelling fear, protecting and leading. Hasn’t she herself declared “I am your true mother, a mother not by virtue of being your guru’s wife, nor because of any assumed relationship, nor by way of empty talk, but truly the mother”. As the sangha grew on the foundation of mother’s love so may the future oneness of humanity take shape glued by this universal love of the mother of the universe.