Sharada Devi (22 December 1853 –
20 July 1920), born Kshemankari/ Thakurmani/ Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the
wife and spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, a nineteenth-century Hindu
mystic and saint. Sharada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy
Mother (Sri Sri Maa) by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order.
Sri Sharada Devi is one of the notable woman saints and mystics of the
nineteenth century. She paved the way for the future generation of women to
take up monasticity as the means and end of life. In fact the Sri Sharada Mutt
and Ramakrishna Sharada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the
ideals and life of her. Sri Sharada Devi played an important role in the growth
of the Ramakrishna Movement.
Sri Sharada Devi was born in
Joyrambati. At the age of five she was betrothed to Sri Ramakrishna. According
to her biographers, both lived lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals
of a householder and of the monastic ways of life. The disciples of Sri
Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death
looked to her for advice and encouragement. The followers of the Ramakrishna
movement worship her as an incarnation of the Adi Parashakti or the Divine Mother.
At Dakshineswar Kali Temple
At Dakshineswar, Sharada Devi
stayed in a tiny room in the nahabat
(music tower). She stayed at Dakshineswar until 1885, except for short periods
when she visited Jayrambati. By this time Ramakrishna had already embraced the
monastic life of a sannyasin; as a result, the marriage was never consummated.
Last days
Sharada Devi spent her final years moving back and forth between Jayrambati and Calcutta. In January 1919, Sharada Devi went to Jayrambati and stayed there for over a year. She died at 1.30 am on Tuesday the 21 July 1920 at Mayer Badi (in the first floor of the Shrine Room), Kolkata.
Quotes
- Practise meditation, and by and by your mind will be so calm and fixed that you will find it hard to keep away from meditation.
- The mind is everything. It is in the mind alone that one feels pure and impure. A man, first of all, must make his own mind guilty and then alone can he see another man's guilt.
- "I tell you one thing. If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own."
- One must have devotion towards one's own guru. Whatever may be the nature of the guru, the disciple gets salvation by dint of his unflinching devotion towards his guru.
Impact and Legacy
Sharada Devi played an important
role as the advisory head of a nascent organization that became a monastic
order devoted to social work—the Ramakrishna Mission.