Holy Mother Sarada Devi Mata

Sarada Devi Mata was born 22 December 1853 – and departed on 20 July 1920, born as Kshemankari/ Thakurmani/ Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother (Sri Sri Maa) by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.

It is not revealed anywhere about the Ishta Devata of Mother Sharada Devi. But, you can get a clue in Sharada Devi Stotra, written by Swami Abhedananda. Swami Abhedananda says “????????????????? ????????????????????

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“To Her whose life is fused into one with Ramakrishna’s, whose delight consists in absorption in thought and talk of His glory, whose personality is soaked and suffused with His spirit; to Her our salutations!” She is Ramakrishna-gata-prana. Her life forces have entered deeply into Ramakrishna. Ever since her marriage at the age of five, till her maha samadhi at the age of sixty-six, her life was one continuous meditation on Sri Ramakrishna. Hence this epithet. Or, since she had no separate existence apart from him, being his spiritual consort, she is called thus.

This naturally leads to its result that she is tan-nama..Sravana-priya. But, even dear to her heart was the name of Ramakrishna, which she liked to hear over and again. By such uninterrupted, long, and loving adoration of Ramakrishna, she became tad-bhava-Ranjita-akara. Her whole being was colored by that of Ramakrishna. She had become one with him, even like the Gopi's of Vrindavan with Shri Krishna. Her Ishta is none other than Sri Ramakrishna, the incarnation of Krishna and Rama himself.

Sharada Devi is the embodiment of Japa. She was doing 3,00,000 Japa per day by doing Household chores. The last person doing 3 Lakh Japa was Haridas Thakur during Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sharada Devi gave Mantra Diksha, Brahmacharya and Sannyasa to many Spiritual aspirants. She always says Japa is the only way in this Kali Yuga. So she leads by giving her example.

Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna himself guided Holy Mother Sarada Devi on spiritual path. It’s very difficult to tell who was her Ishta Devata. But probably Mother Kali must have been her Ishta. Because Sri Ramakrishna’s Ishta was Mother Kali. Secondly, Sri Ramakrishna worship her as a Sodashi ( another form of Mother Kali). Thirdly, to a devotee he referred her none other than Mother Kali. Sri Ramakrishna once said she is Saraswati came in this form to give knowledge to humanity. There are many such references in his life.

She performed Pancha-Tapa at Nilamabar Mukherjee’s garden house at Belur. We don’t find many references that she did hard austerities but if we read her life carefully we find that her whole life was full of austerity. Ramakrishna Mission is an authentic organisation and operates on Sanatana traditions, there is no reason for anyone to analyse their diksha practice. It is for those who are a part of the organisation to think, not the outsiders. (I say this with no offence, as a general principle; I am not a Ramakrishna Mission member!)

As such, the modes of diksha vary greatly, Order to Order, Guru to Guru, even disciple to disciple. The truth merely begins with diksha, the whole road is afterwards, in one’s own practice. Kabir’s diksha was an inadvertent gentle kick from a Guru who had turned him down several times, but that did not stop him from realising God and he always thanked the Guru for his beneficence. Kabir was exclusive, his mantra or initiation was anything but exclusive.

Nothing is more tricky from the outside than diksha and transactions between a Guru and a shishya. Everything spiritual is actually known only on the inside. The picture outside is almost often misleading. Exclusivity in initiation, mantra etc are superficial entitlements to the external form. Initiation happens inside, a person is changed and transformed, no matter what the mode of initiation is. Mantras are not exclusive, because God Himself is not exclusive. One does not get a special exclusive God.

The power resides in the mantra (no matter how common or uncommon it is), the power resides in the act of diksha (no matter whether it is mass or exclusive), but this power is unleashed by the purity and sincerity of belief and practice which the disciple demonstrates. Shri Ramakrishna gave Naren what he gave others, in the same way, but it was Naren alone who became a Swami Vivekananda. Ramakrishna mission is based on Vedanta philosophy and their translation of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita is very accurate, where as Iskcon doesn't follow vedic philosophy properly,

They are followers Gaudiya vaisanava sampradaya which is based on goswamis philosophy of Vrindaban, example they believe Chaitanya is supreme lord and Nityananda is Balaram, so this is not Bhagavata philosophy composed by Bhagavan Veda Vyas and the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard, they believe Narayana is expansion of Balaram, this is most stupid and moron philosophy one can believe. The vedas, upanisads and Srimad Bhagavatam and puranas clearly written, Narayana is the supreme Brahman and he is the source of all.

The second thing Ramakrishna mission do lot of charity all over india, they have hospitals for poor people with very little fees they charge, they believe in Nara seva is Narayana seva, my aunty was admitted in Ramakrishna hospital in Kolkata, with very little money, she had operation and treatment for 3 weeks, the Sanyasis were very humble and the hospital was spotless clean. At the onset, let me tell you, RKM monks don't believe in any abracadabra, or any hocus pocus. Their life is one of constant service, constant discipline, of Sadhana.

They aim to synchronize all the four Yogas(Gyana,Bhakti,Raja,Karma) in their life in the light of the life of Bhagvan Shri Ramkrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda, and thus mold an ideal life. Now about their routine per se, its a rough idea, not an exact routine. It also varies from place to place.

4:30 AM : Wake up early in the morning , after morning ablutions, go for Mangal arati in Temple and practise Japa, meditation , or practise Japa/Meditation in their own room.

6:00 - 6:30 AM :- Chanting, Reading Scriptures, Singing Bhajans(Usually collectively)

6:30 AM - 7:30 AM - Breakfast time

8:00 AM onwards - Duty. Each and every Sadhu/Brahmachari is assigned some duty which they have to diligently execute , in the spirit of worship. You will see some monks manning the Sales counters, some manning Math office, some attending to sick patients in the dispensary/hospital, some doing pooja, some managing the gardens or the cowsheds, some going out on relief work, some attending to legal/financial matters. A huge diverse organization like RKM has lot of activities going on, nobody, save the old retired monks or the sick ones, can sit idle.

12:00 PM :- Lunch time.

Till 3 PM :- personal time. After a brief nap, many monks use this time for japa, dhyana or studying scriptures.

Post 3 PM :- Duties again. Duties continue till dusk, continues till the time of twilight.

Twilight :- Sandhyarati begins at the main temple. Sadhus, Brahmacharis, devotees congregate here, to perform arati, accompanied to the tunes of the most beautiful uplifting Bhajans. The whole atmosphere seems to get charged with devotion.

Some monks do;nt attend the arati in the temple, they prefer to retire to their rooms, and perform Japa/Dhyana by themselves. The others who attend, either stay back in the temple after the arati ends for the same purpose, or retire to their rooms to continue with their sadhanas.

8:30 PM : Dinner bell

Post Dinner, there are night classes, conducted by senior monks. The classes go on till 10:00 PM or so

After 10:00 PM or max 10:30 PM , its usually lights out.

What I have seen is that, the constant drilling that they receive, plus constant work, doesn't allow their minds to remain idle. Some of them are very lucky to come in the holy company of Enlightened monks, thus the fire to lead a pure and holy life becomes imprinted within them. Sri Ramakrishna used to emphasise on Holy company, and sincerely praying to God. So the novitiates are lucky that way, they are constantly in the midst of holy company. To join Muth as a brahmachari one need to be at least 18 years old and preferably finished their under graduate degree. They’ve their Guru who initiates them as brahmachari and given mantra diksha of their chosen God.

They need wake up early morning. One guy will visit early morning(maybe 4am) while ringing a brass bell in has hand. Then you’ll get ready and join the morning aarati and prayer. Based on your previous skill they’ll be placed in some department or under supervision of one monk for some small work. It could be either pooja, book store, editing, computer related work, gardening, cleaning, medical center, teaching etc.

All brahmacharis are given white cloth to wear which they wash and press themselves. People call them brahmachari maharaj and they get recognized by their white attire. Next come to the classes. After from above mentioned practical works that they attend classes of Sanskrit, English, some regional language, history, scriptures, meditation and music classes. Music is purely devotional many classical devotional songs. Apart from various activities they follow their spiritual practices in the supporting environment of Muth and gets guidance from their Guru regularly for that.

Based on their learning skills they get chances of finishing various levels of a course and move to the next levels. A few brahmachari after finishing their course may return to the worldly life if they want. A few people have quit in the middle also because of home sickness. Once Guru recognizes the person can be a monk then if he wants to take sanyasa diksha then gets initiated by president/vice president of Math as only these two people are eligible to giving sanayasa. Again they get a new name with ochre rob and formally known as Swami name+ananda. Math monks know all people are not same so the duration varies from person to person as a brahmachari. It may vary from 5 years to 15 years and depend on many other factors also.

I would suggest you visit a Sarada math near you and inform them of your intention. They may ask you to stay for a couple of weeks to see if you can live there. If you can live there for a while, then you can talk to the sannyasinis there and you can get some insight about the life in the math. When you go to them, they will ask you what books you have studied about the holy trio. So you should be familiar with their teachings. If your parents are not dependent on you, financially or otherwise, the people of the math will not have any problem to take you in. They have some conditions though of age and health etc.

Usually people wish to join maths when they are facing some difficulties. If this feeling of renunciation has come due to some problems you are currently facing, then it is not a good idea to join a math because of it. Like Swami Brahmananda said, if three-fourths of the mind is consistently occupied with thoughts of god, then it is time to renounce. The purpose of birth is to realize god. If parents are becoming a hindrance to it, then it is not wrong to stand up to them. A person who wants to renounce the world does not wait for anyone. However, it is better to ask for permission. Jay Sarada Mata Ji.