Holy Mother Sarada Devi’s Life and Ideals – Influence on today’s Women Part 2

Bhagavat Gita, in its essence, talks about two ideals of human life – a complete renunciation of actions or Karma Sannyas, and being in action but renouncing the fruits of action – karma phala tyaga. Sri Krishna advises us, who are in the world, who needs to work, to sacrifice the fruits and in the end surrender to Him completely. Through complete and total surrender comes total renunciation. There are others, great teachers, holy men and saints, who do not need to work. They are the sthita prajnyas, one who is established in Self. Sri Ramakrishna adds in the Gospel that even a person who does not need to work, one who has renounced actions completely, sometimes work for the welfare of all, out of compassion for ignorant mankind, to dispel ignorance and to bring light to masses. It seems Sri Ramakrishna, the avatar varistha, the greatest among all such teachers, belonged to the first type. He had renounced all actions, took external sannyas, and yet, came down to live in the material world for the benefit of all – jagad hitaya. He suffered a terrible bodily pain for the sake of the devotees, to instill in them the divine consciousness, to connect them with a bond of love and common purpose, to establish the seeds of the future Ramakrishna movement which would further carry his immortal ideals and teachings to the mankind. 

It can well be argued that Swami Vivekananda was a worker and a sannyasin and he promoted the ideal of selfless work. But Swamiji Maharaj was the bridge between action and renunciation. He was the master Yogi who could perceive action in inaction and inaction in the midst of intense action and thus could roam freely in both the worlds. With his great abilities he could gulf the chasm between action and inaction with aplomb. Moreover, he was closer to the monastics and was beyond the reach of simple ordinary souls who are ground and crushed under the burden of daily life, who do not have the intellectual ability to comprehend him. Therefore, the holy mother Sri Sarada Devi was entrusted to demonstrate the ideal of selfless action, and she was the one who had power to immerse herself in worldly life and still remain above the mud in order to set example before all and sundry. To set the greatest and grandest ideal in front of householders of all kinds and abilities and esp. to the women of future and to become a living light of Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings on how to remain in the world, she chose to embrace worldly life and yet remained above it. She, being the manifestation of the divine power herself, who binds and frees souls, had the power to do so. She had to live with numerous family members, devotees – householder and sannyasins, relatives, disciples and common people. She was in the midst of life’s battles and vicissitudes. She had to cope with anger, hatred, jealousies, rivalries, love, sincerity, forbearance, kindness, pity, agony, sorrows, miseries, social injustice and all such worldly traits. Yet she was the epitome of peace, like a majestic mountain in the midst of a turbulent ocean, whom the mighty waves around cannot disturb in the least. She was selfless work personified as throughout her life, she never, ever worked for herself, but, like a large banyan tree that provides shades, protection and shelter, she dedicated her life for the others, and primarily for her devotees and disciples who took shelter under her. She was the living example of karma yogin in Gita, who sacrificed the fruits of all her actions, never deluded, never misled by the desires that bind ordinary people to happiness and misery.