Disc 135 track 3. Swamiji explains how Mother Sarada Devi cared for and personally served her devotees.

To listen to Swamiji speaking, please fully open the post and then click HERE.

[Swamiji is reading from the the life of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, while sitting with devotees from the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, at the seaside. It warms my heart to hear Mother Radha (pictured below) who made these recordings, chuckling at things Swamiji says. You can hear the ocean waves crashing nearby, but the track remains audible.

Says Swamiji: Nobody ever went to the [Holy] Mother [Sri Sarada Devi] without being lovingly given something to eat and drink, and having their comfort needs taken care of. Although Jagadhatri – divine queen of the multiverses, Mother consistently cared for and served her disciples, devotees and visitors, with overwhelming love and solicitation.

In this story, a woman devotee has arrived on a very hot day and Mother herself is fanning the devotee to cool her down.

[Similarly, in Sri Ramakrishna‘s lifetime, a visitor had one day been abusive to Master. During the singing of devotional songs, the man was sitting with closed eyes and the sun was shining on him. Master got up, opened an umbrella and positioned it to block the the sun, to keep the man comfortable.]

The second part of this recording is about a devotee approaching Mother for initiation. Swamiji explains that when a person is initiated, the Guru [spiritual preceptor] will typically give a mantra [one of God’s infinite names, a sacred word or sound syllable] but for some [not making them special, please note] a bija or ‘seed’ word will be added. Swamiji gives the example of ‘OM Namah Shivaya’ being a mantra to Lord Shiva, but the Guru might add a bija to that same mantra, so the devotee worships a specific aspect of that Deity. An educational and valuable insight for us.

The free-to-read or download, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.