Vedanta and Holy Mother

VEDANTA AND

HOLY MOTHER

Swami Swahananda

(PUBLICATION HOUSE OF RAMAKRISHNA MATH)

5 DEHI ENTALLY ROAD • KOLKATA 700 014

Published by

The Adhyaksha

Advaita Ashrama

P.O. Mayavati, Dt. Champawat

Uttarakhand - 262524, India

from its Publication Department, Kolkata

Email: mail@advaitaashrama.org

Website: www.advaitaashrama.org

© All Rights Reserved

First Print Edition, April 2013

First Ebook Edition, October 2016

ISBN 978-81-7505-366-3 (Hardbound)

ISBN 978-81-7505-857-6 (epub)

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

THIS BOOK, ‘Vedanta and Holy Mother’, has been compiled mostly from published articles in journals and books. These are a collection of self contained articles and not a planned book. Those who are interested in a particular topic and not its entire philosophy or background may find these separate treatments more useful. These topics had been dealt with separately as lectures, essays, television talks and University lectures. There will be repetitions of ideas and language. They have often been retained for the sake of clarity and completeness of the topic. The articles on Holy Mother had been written for periodicals, needing shorter ones. They will still be useful in this way. But they have been put in a continuous form. Some freedom has been taken in removing too many capitals of familiar Sanskrit words, and even appellations of God, and quotation marks.

We are sure that this book will be welcomed by the readers.

PUBLISHER

01 April 2013

CONTENTS

PART I    HOLY MOTHER

Chapter 1: Twin Ideal and Holy Mother

Chapter 2: Holy Mother and Simple Faith

Chapter 3: Holy Mother: Life and Teachings

Chapter 4: Inspiration of Holy Mother

Chapter 5: As an Ideal

Chapter 6: Character Building

Chapter 7: Teacher

Chapter 8: On Karma

Chapter 9: On Spiritual Expectations

Chapter 10: Holy Mother and Personal Qualities

Chapter 11: Holy Mother and Social Qualities

Chapter 12: Holy Mother as an Ideal for the Nation

Chapter 13: Holy Mother as a Social Model

Chapter 14: Holy Mother in the West

Chapter 15: Convents in the West

Chapter 16: Durga Puja

PART II     IDEAS

Chapter 1: Religious Organizations

Chapter 2: Sudden Conversion

Chapter 3: Social Reform and the Ramakrishna Movement

Chapter 4: What is Super Knowledge?

Chapter 5: Service and Spirituality

Chapter 6: The Social Necessity of Religion

Chapter 7: The Youth and Spiritual Life

Chapter 8: Life and Religion

Chapter 9: In Search of Security

Chapter 10: The Ideal of Saint Making

Chapter 11: ‘I am the Way’

Chapter 12: The Struggle for the Ideal

Chapter 13: Moral and Religious Education

PART III     DISCIPLINES

Chapter 1: Meditation in the Scriptures

Chapter 2: Types of Meditation

Chapter 3: Japa

Chapter 4: Japa in Different Traditions

Chapter 5: The Divine Name

Chapter 6: Prayer

Chapter 7: Ritual

Chapter 8: Image Worship

Chapter 9: Self Negation or Self Expansion

Chapter 10: Nine Means of Devotion

Additional Reading

PART I

HOLY MOTHER

PART I

CHAPTER 1

TWIN IDEAL AND HOLY MOTHER

One must practise spiritual disciplines such as worship. Pray to God with tears in your eyes.

The vision of God one gets only through His Grace, but one must practise meditation and japam. That removes the impurity of the mind.

Meditate everyday. Constant meditation will make the mind one-pointed. Discriminate always between the real and the unreal.

The repetition of the Name must be accompanied by concentration.

It is essential to perform spiritual practices in a secluded space.

Do not bother to know how your mind is reacting to things around.

Be sincere in your practice, words, and deeds.

Offer to God whatever you eat. One must not eat unoffered food.

Unless you practise meditation side by side of your work how will you know whether you are doing the desirable or undesirable thing.

He who can renounce everything for His sake, is a living God.

Spiritual practice means to keep the mind steady at his feet.

Don’t relax practice simply because you do not get his vision.

Holy Mother

‘THE NATIONAL ideals of India are renunciation and service, intensify her in these channels, and the rest will follow’, said Swami Vivekananda. It is India which teaches the powerful king to voluntarily retire. Even the highest enjoyer is enjoined to devote his life to the pursuit of spiritual realization through spiritual practices like japa, meditation, and a God-full life. He has served the society for years but in his retirement he will be more engaged in the moral and spiritual upliftment of the society, by his example and precepts. A householder’s life has been pointed out as full of renunciation and self control, though the average man thinks it is acquisition, enjoyment. The moral standard of a society is decided by the sixty percent of the people of a society, how they think and how they behave. Twenty percent of the people are always good, and twenty percent of the people are always bad whatever may be the condition of the society. That is why it is often argued that the middle class is the backbone of society. It is because people in that class are neither too rich to forget ideals or too poor and engrossed in their life struggles to worry about ideals.

Holy Mother Sarada Devi was born in such a surrounding, in a remote village. She was almost unlettered. But she had the great education of the Spirit through her nature and through her education by her husband who taught her the most mundane things like day-to-day activities from cutting vegetables to travelling by vehicles. Her spiritual training was also enhanced by Shri Ramakrishna but already she was full of the spirit of renunciation. When Shri Ramakrishna asked her whether she had come to drag him down to the body level, she said, ‘ Why, I have come to help you’. In later days, the Master used to say, ‘If she were not so pure I don’t know where I would be, whether body consciousness would come to me or not.’ Spiritual life consists of absorbing certain traits and virtues as part of oneself. She saw her husband who renounced money, felt the bite of a scorpion when he unknowingly came in touch with coins. The ethical philosophers say that in all virtues there should be a conflict, this is good, that is bad and I follow the good. Without that idea of choice, it is not ethical in nature. Swamiji pointed out that highly evolved souls behave the right way naturally without any hesitation or pre-thinking. There is no conflict involved. Then it can be said that a person has been well established in that virtue. Mental conflict is a sign of indecision and struggle, and the virtue has not been as yet absorbed by the nerves. Holy Mother learned this lesson. She never hesitated to give directions for day-to-day life or spiritual advancement.

A great soul is the embodiment of the ideals and aspiration of the national life and thoughts. Shri Ramakrishna represents this, said Romain Rolland. This will be true for Holy Mother also. Did Holy Mother do it, though hers was a quiet life away from public gaze for several decades of her life? Let us see some noticeable traits of both renunciation and service in her life and teachings. Holy Mother herself said that Ramakrishna has left her behind to spiritually regenerate the people of the then capital of India, Calcutta, because they were steeped in worldliness.

The first characteristic for that was her motherly temperament. She was purity personified. For that the most appropriate social institution is the mother; her natural motherly love involved constant service.

In those days raising of the women and masses was the major need in the regeneration of India. According to Swamiji, mother conception can give a great help in that direction. It gives stability and harmony in the family. Day-to-day life brings in friction. To digest it sacrifice is necessary. Voluntary suffering for the members of the family is essential. A mother provides the required patience and tolerance. As it is said, every group requires its Dadhichi and Shiva, the Puranic ideals of sacrifice. Dadhichi gave his bones to Indra and Shiva drank the poison arising from the churning of the ocean. Self-immolation is the antidote of selfishness. There is a great social necessity for such people. Swami Vivekananda exhorted Nivedita with these fiery words, ‘The world is burning, can you sleep?’ A mother unconsciously practises this virtue and the Holy Mother is the ideal–It is based on both the ideals of service and renunciation. She was a mother to all without distinction of caste or creed or status in life. She was also engaged in service to the devotees and members of the family and villagers. She loved work and advocated it for others also. For remedying the injustice done to the masses, penance is necessary for the upper castes. And in what form can penance take but renunciation and service. Shri Ramakrishna’s admiration for her are in his following comments:

Do you see, her name is Sarada. She is Sarasvati. This is why she likes to bedeck herself.

She is Sarada, Sarasvati–she has come to give knowledge. She has descended by covering up her beauty this time lest impure people should come to grief by looking at her with impure minds.

She is the giver of knowledge. Is she an ordinary being? She is my Shakti.’

If she gets angry, everything of this place (meaning himself) will be undone.

The Mother who is in the temple and the Mother who is in the Nahabat (meaning Shri Sarada) are the same.

Holy Mother as a person of illumination looked upon all with an equal eye. How uniquely she exemplified this in her own teachings and in her own life. She said about an immoral man visiting her, ‘If my children smear themselves with dirt it remains for me, their mother, to remove that dirt from their person and take them on my lap.’ Again about a woman of ill repute, ‘You will get over all your sinful tendencies’. She remonstrated one for throwing a broomstick after sweeping saying, ‘It is also part of the family’. She made a woman devotee to salute a cat because she caressed it on its head, for that is the place of the guru. ‘Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger my child; this whole world is your own’. Here is a definitive imperative for world conquest but it is achieved through self mastery and never through self aggrandizement.

Peace is essential for the individual and the world. She was calm and peaceful by nature. Peace can only come peacefully. That requires self criticism and practice in the face of provocation. Humility is a concomitant virtue. She was so humble that she did not consider it though as a wife she had especial claim on Shri Ramakrishna. Not to see others’ fault are her words. ‘Forgiveness is tapasya’, she said. Also, ‘He who has a pure mind sees everything pure’. So all should strive for purity in life. In different contexts she said: ‘How can one achieve anything without efforts?’ ‘What else is a sadhu to do but call upon God?’ She laid great stress on self effort in spiritual life. ‘The more intensely a person practises spiritual disciplines, the more quickly he attains God’. ‘By the practice of japa and meditation the past karma is lessened’ and ‘the powers of the sense organs are subdued’. Her words have a world-wide application. The sanction of democracy and new social order can come through spirituality. ‘It is only through His grace that one gets the vision of God. But one must practise meditation and japa’. She warned that God is not like fish or vegetables, that you can buy Him for a price. ‘As you go on practising spiritual disciplines, you will find that He who is within me, He who is within you, is also in all’.

The open spiritual manifestation of Holy Mother started with initiating Yogananda and Trigunatitananda and later hundreds of people. She transformed their life this way. Giving of spirituality is the highest gift, says the Mahabharata. Shri Ramakrishna asked her to help in his ministrations and said, ‘What have I done? You will have to do much more’. And this is demonstrated in the above way.

The positive aspect of service as part of renunciation was stressed by her love and concern for people in their day-to -day life. The negative aspect, though recognized, was not stressed in the ordinary way. Renunciation was the basis of surrender and absorption in work forgetting the troubles. That is what she often stressed. Of course, Shri Ramakrishna announced that God is both immanent in the real sense and also transcendent in the Shankara sense of Advaita.

Holy Mother considered Shri Ramakrishna as the embodiment of renunciation. When there was a discussion what was the special characteristic of Shri Ramakrishna, and if it were the harmony of religions about. Holy Mother said, ‘No it is his natural tyaga or renunciation’. Holy Mother practised the same virtue in her own life. When Lakshmi Narayan wanted to give Shri Ramakrishna a huge amount of money, he refused. Then the devotee wanted to give the money to Holy Mother but she also refused to take the money. We must remember that the pay of Shri Ramakrishna was seven rupees a month and Lakshmi Narayan was offering him ten thousand rupees!

When Holy Mother went to Rameswaram, the Raja of Ramnad opened his treasury and asked her to take any ornament she liked. Holy Mother said she would not take anything. Because of much importunities of the Raja, she said let Radhu take whatever she wanted. At the same time she was praying to the Lord that she does not choose anything costly and sure enough Radhu said that she did not care for ornaments but wanted a pencil! Holy Mother heaved a sigh of relief. So she not only practised renunciation herself, but also wanted others to practise it.

We often wonder why Holy Mother suffered so much in Kamarpukur after the passing away of Shri Ramakrishna. It is because she was not willing to let anybody else know about her penury. The young disciples of Shri Ramakrishna were engrossed in their sadhana and forgot the world. Gauri Ma visited her in Kamarpukur and after returning to Calcutta told the senior devotees about the poor condition of Holy Mother. They became active and her monetary suffering was over. Earlier when her mother Shyama Sundari asked her to go and live with her, she refused saying that Shri Ramakrishna wanted her to stay on in Kamarpukur. The same thing can be said about the young disciples who also suffered from lack of food and other necessaries. That is, they did not ask anybody for anything, and so lived in hard austerities.

As for service, Holy Mother’s entire life was a saga of service to other people. Even as a young girl of seven, she fanned the hot rice served to hungry people. When their family property was being divided, Holy Mother did not want a share for her. She would always be engaged in work. She would cook, do puja, feed the people, clean the area, and at the same time look after the devotees. If anybody showed sympathy to her that with her rheumatism, she should not do such physical work, she replied, ‘Bless me that I can work till the end of my life.’

Holy Mother lived a quiet life away from public gaze for a long time. But both self-assertion and self-effacement ranked parallel in her. So when the need arose she manifested these qualities. Her self-effacement while serving Shri Ramakrishna was visible. But she showed her self-assertion when she took charge of Baburam and others when Ramakrishna remonstrated about giving much food to Baburam. She also refused to obey the Master who tried to prohibit her to allow anybody to carry the food plate for they were not so pure. She said, ‘If somebody calls me mother, I cannot refuse her.’ Ramakrishna understood her and did not press further. Holy Mother always went to the heart of things.

Holy Mother was very lenient with her devotees. She always tried to impress them to take possession of their own mind. She was the mother of all, good and bad, and so did not dislike any of the condition of her disciples. ‘I am the Mother, if my child is in the dirt, should I not go and clean him up but reject him?’

We noted that she led a very quiet life for a long time primarily serving Shri Ramakrishna and devotees. But her spiritual life was flowering in silence. Gentleness was her natural characteristic; gentleness overcomes hard things but soft also. So her love won people over in spite of her gentle handling of them. But she could be strong when the situation demanded. That was exemplified when she was attacked by a mad man or faced a dacoit. She did not rely on manpower or arms but on her power of love, which does not tolerate any interference from caste prejudices which was prevalent in those days or natural fear.

Her contribution in the growth of the Ramakrishna movement and especially the Ramakrishna Order of monks was immense. It was she who first realised the inadequacy of the traditional ideal of hard austerity, and prayed to the Master to consolidate his disciples to propagate his message providing them with shelter and a modicum of physical conveniences. She prayed, ‘It is my prayer O’ Lord that those who give up the world in your name may not suffer from want of food and coarse clothing. It is also my prayer that my children should live together clinging to you and your teachings and people afflicted by the suffering of the world should come to them for peace of mind by hearing from them your words. That is why you incarnated yourself in human form.’

Holy Mother not only lived in a world of spiritual thought but her compassionate heart felt the suffering of all. She typifies the spiritual heights a woman can reach. Her life is an ideal and an example to all women in the world, showing that when one reaches perfection, one inspires and uplifts all. Expanding influence is the proof of avatarahood. Holy Mother, a village woman who led a quiet life, has been noticed and accepted as an ideal by the world in a very short time, proving that she was not an ordinary woman.

A historian who likes to make an objective study will naturally like to find facts which indicate her greatness, instead of mere sentiments. Vivekananda was the first to point out her greatness in a letter to a brother disciple, ‘You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother’s life–none of you. But gradually you will know. To me, Mother’s grace is a hundred thousand times more valuable than Father’s. Mother’s grace, Mother’s blessings are all paramount to me. ... Please pardon me, I am a little bigoted here, as regards Mother.’

In ‘Shri Sarada Devi, the Great Wonder’, by Swami Budhananda, Swami Premeshananda wrote that the most prominent feature of Shri Ramakrishna’s life is His absolute absorption in God consciousness. One cannot see what ‘practical’ life meant in his case. But the Holy Mother appears near to our personal lives. In the practical life, she moved around in the normal way. Outwardly the Holy Mother’s life is very commonplace. With daily duties she keeps her full inner illumination intact. She did not differentiate between a robber and a devoted caretaker. The relation with the Mother is with the inner reality of the child. This is why the greatest ideal of the work in day-to-day life for the entire humanity has been revealed in the form of the Mother. Shri Ramakrishna used to advise the people to live in the world with the idea of non-duality in their possession. The Holy Mother clearly exemplifies in her life, the practicality of this precept that married life is a stage in the growth of the soul towards perfection was recognized by Holy Mother. That is an earlier stage of Realization.

Once an American student studying ‘family’ asked me why there should be loyalty in marriage? I explained that social institutions are made on the basis of an ideal. India’s conception of man is that he is basically Spirit. Whatever helps in the realization of it is good. A young man marries a young woman for her beauty but after twenty years if she loses her beauty and he still loves her, then he has transcended to a great extent the physical aspect of his love.

Holy Mother was conscious of her divinity and her divine mission as was Shri Ramakrishna. She accepted all. When a woman repented of her evil life, mother asked her not to despair and initiated her. Here is a manifestation of the mighty Mother’s heart, the divine Grace which makes the impure pure.

Vivekananda prophesied that following her, great women like Sita, Savitri, and Damayanti will be produced. These characters manifested various virtues such as devotion to their husbands, purity of character, patience, forbearance, and fearlessness.

There is a common saying that behind every great man is a great woman. It is more true in the case of avatars. Rama had Sita, Krishna had Radha, Buddha had Yashodhara or Gopa and Chaitanya had Vishnupriya. All these wives lived an ideal life and took part in living their devoted life and propagating the message of their husbands. Holy Mother also did so.

Sister Nivedita writes, ‘To me it always appeared that she is 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?’

Dr. Radhakrishnan mentions that there are three important goals that India propagated. God realization, democracy, equality, and fraternity. All these virtues have been advocated and practised by Holy Mother also, he wrote.

Swami Budhananda mentions the uniqueness of Holy Mother among world prophets. When every prophet accepts his ward on his own terms, Holy Mother took up all on our own terms. The onus is on her. Because of that Mother is so popular. The Mother swings, feeds, nurses, nourishes, and saves. Because of this all may rush to the Mother. Of course, Father also guides, chides, lifts, and protects the child, and takes part in the rearing of the child. It is true Shri Ramakrishna chose, selected and discriminated while gathering his flock, and Holy Mother never chose, selected, or discriminated. Of course we must remember Holy Mother’s own assertion, ‘I am not different from the Master. We are the same’.

Shri Ramakrishna left her behind to teach the motherhood of the Divine. Motherhood is renunciation and service. Motherhood sanctifies woman. It is a consummation of her life because her feelings and emotions get more purified than in wifehood. And gradually she becomes free from all body consciousness. Majority of men and women naturally prefer marriage and parenthood, but there are also women who take the path of renunciation. The ultimate goal of life is Self-knowledge which is pure and sexless and this can be attained only through complete renunciation and absolute celibacy.

Vivekananda said, ‘In my opinion a race must first cultivate a great respect for motherhood through a sanctification and inviolability of marriage before it can attain to the idea of perfect chastity. Until that is developed I do not see how there can be great monks and nuns. This has opened my eyes to the necessity of the great sanctification for the vast majority in order that a few lifelong chaste persons may be produced.’ Chastity gives strength and power. Swamiji noticed this and stressed this first. In a letter he wrote to a brother disciple, ‘You have not yet understood the wonderful significance of Mother’s life, none of you. But gradually you will. Without Shakti there is no regeneration of the world. Mother is born to revive the wonderful Shakti in India.’

Swamiji was burning with the idea of the regeneration of the fallen India. That is why Swamiji supported the idea of chastity, restraint, and love for the generality of the people and not its opposite. Many of the followers of Gandhiji remained unmarried till the Independence of India.

In Holy Mother’s life, the spirit of renunciation and the spirit of service got intermingled. She was not an academic philosopher, nor a public speaker. So we have to see the examples of her support for service by studying her life. Her advice for getting peace of mind with complete surrender and by doing japa with other spiritual practices which involves withdrawal from the day-to-day painful living are instances of her advocacy of renunciation.

Really speaking, her life demonstrates her as a social and spiritual reformer, not with a plan but with a spontaneity. Her very touch was enough to change bad persons into good. The instances of disinterestedness and selfless service in many forms and types are plentiful in her. Her patience with members of her family and some devotees have no comparison. She was the peer of Shri Ramakrishna in the point of renunciation. A woman writer once wrote. ‘She served the world