Swami Shivapadananda on the uniqueness of Sri Sarada Devi
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
Day 536
[Pictured: Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi]
Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, does not care about our praises, our offerings and our intelligence. She gives us all this and all she wants from us is to give her love, love, love, in every part of her creation,
I try to put this into practice in my own life but I know I fall far short of her expectations of me. Nevertheless, the hope I have is in trying; the hope I have is that I have accepted her as one of the greatest manifestations of all the deities. She is the manifestation of the motherhood of God, men and creatures whom she herself came to protect in the form of Sri Ramakrishna. If she did not provide the cradle of purity, the cradle of selflessness, the cradle of love, then we would not have a Ramakrishna today to worship.
If Sri Ramakrishna is praised, she is the praise. If Sri Ramakrishna is glorified then she is the glorification. If Sri Ramakrishna is being worshipped today then she is the worshipped. To show this to us the Master, who was supposed to have guarded his spiritual treasures miserly, went to the Holy Mother and said to her, 'O Sarada, you have the rights over me. On my side I am duty bound to satisfy you in any way you say, unconditionally.' (Here I am not talking about the Mother's manifestation in the form of a statue in the temple but the Holy Mother in bone, flesh and marrow.) Can you imagine if the Holy Mother had given in and dragged him down to our level?
We may say, 'Who cares about that Sarada Devi? Who cares about that Ramakrishna?' But it was her awareness and consciousness of Sri Ramakrishna's greatest treasure, his extraordinary spiritual achievement, that prompted Sri Sarada Devi to spare it for us. Sri Ramakrishna was so great that he offered it to the Mother herself. He said, 'Take away this spirituality if you like, it is your right and my duty to satisfy you.'
But how many of us feel like that Sarada Devi? How many of us feel like that Ramakrishna? How many of us lure people into temptation? How many of us, wives, husbands and sons, are the victims of these great temptations of lust, greed, anger and gold? Can you put Holy Mother's forbearance into practice in your daily life when the temptation comes?
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's
words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave
was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in
red in the posting for further explanation
or links.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.