Sarada Devi and Sara Bull - Some perspectives 3

Interwoven Parallel Threads in the Seemingly Independent Universes

If we follow the lives of Sara and Ma Sarada closely we see that there are many interesting parallels in the lives of them. This could be classified into three distinct themes.

1)      Marriage:

Sara Bull married an extra ordinary musician, who was intellectually perhaps the best of his time. She could only live about ten years with him. He was much older than her, the age difference being about forty years. The Holy Mother on the other hand was the Shakti of the avatara or the divine incarnation for the present age. It is to be noted that Sri Ramakrishna was an artist per excellence. He excelled in painting, music, clay modelling and fine arts. He went into Samadhi by listening to the Veena recital of Mahesh Veenkar in Varanasi. So he would probably have highly appreciated the compositions of Ole Bull. Moreover both shared a distaste for worldliness, although in different ways, Sri Ramakrishna through complete renunciation and Ole Bull through his complete indifference towards financial and social positions.  Both were much older than their wives but respected them for their qualities and the values that they brought to their lives. Like Sara, Sarada Devi too took up the entire responsibility for Sri Ramakrishna, even his financial affairs as the money paid by the temples authorities and the provisions given by the devotees were all deposited with her. Sri Sarada Devi, of her twenty eight years of married life could actually spend about ten years with Sri Ramakrishna, mostly in Dakshineswar, as she used to travel back and stay in Jairambati with her mother and brothers esp. after her father’s death. Both were widowed at the prime of their lives. Both took up the mission of their husbands, Sara for ensuring the preservation of her husband’s work and the Holy Mother for carrying out the mission entrusted to her by none other than Sri Ramakrishna himself

2)      Mission:

Sara Bull was of indefatigable spirit. Once she was sure of her life’s mission, nothing could stop her. She took up a lot of responsibility of Swami Vivekananda and the Vedanta societies and carried a large part of the financial burden in America. She contributed generously towards the growth of the Ramakrishna movement in India. She provided regular contribution to help support the sannyasins of Belur Math and also to the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. Not only that, her largesse went to the extent of supporting some of the householder disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and the families of some of the Sannyasins. Swami Saradananda had said that possibly she was one of the supplier of resources (rasatdar in Bengali) as mentioned by Sri Ramakrishna. She therefore assumed a major role for the spread of Ramakrishna movement in India and in America. It was Sara to whom we owe the credit of getting to agree the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi for a photograph. The Holy Mother agreed to appear for photography when Sara Bull ardently requested her and therefore we have the most beautiful picture of the Holy Mother today that is worshipped in all the shrines across the world. Sara was a very advanced spiritual seeker. That was why she could become the defacto mother of Swami Vivekananda in America, the dheera mata, and also earned the epithet of Saint Sara from the fellow Vedantins. As per revelations of Sister Nivedita, the three of them, Sister Nivedita, Josephene Macleod and Sara Bull went to meditate in Dakshineswar and all three of them had spiritual experiences of varying degree, Sara’s being the highest. Sara probably extended her greatest help to Sister Nivedita in her mission of educating Indian women. She patronized Prof. Jagadish Chandra Bose when he was going through the greatest professional crisis of his life through the racism and discriminatory practices of the British scientific and administrative establishments. Her generous donation laid to the foundation of Bose Institute in 1902. She committed about $20,000. Hostile local British colonial authorities of the education department refused to honour the strong recommendation made by members of the British Royal Society headed by Lord Kelvin for a research laboratory for Professor Bose at the Presidency College, Calcutta. Prof. J.C Bose received this money in four installments from 1906 to 1910. Additional $ 20,000 was committed for the research work which was delivered after the passing away of Sara by her brother Mr. Joseph Thorpe in 1914-1915.[i]  She was a firm supporter of woman’s emancipation and was a vocal supporter for prohibition. She helped her friend Sarah Farmer in organizing the Greenacre Conferences in which Swami Vivekananda was a notable presence in 1895. She was one of the few person to whom Swami Vivekananda confided his mission and plan and shared the story of Sri Ramakrishna. From the days they met in Greenacre and in Cambridge, Sara Bull took up a lot of responsibility of Swami Vivekananda and provided him with necessary pocket money as well as clothing. She also sometimes tried to educate him in following an ideal way of worldly life, sans any conflicts or confrontations. However Swamiji, in a letter to Mary Hale made it very clear that he could not and would not compromise with truth and integrity for the sake of anything as he did not belong to the world and had very limited time available to fulfill his mission. Sara Bull, together with Josephine McLeod and Sister Nivedita, formed the trio who had only one purpose in life, to assist Vivekananda in his mission. Sara, because of her intense practicality, level headedness, intelligence and empathy had been an undisputed leader in this cause. She had worked untiringly during the initial days of the establishment of the Vedanta Society of New York for its success, possibly helped in getting a stenographer (J.J Goodwin) for Swamiji, helped generously many undeserving souls like Kripananda, took the main effort in publishing the four books of Swamiji from America – Karmayoga, Rajayoga, Jnanayoga and Bhaktoyoga. She had a major contribution towards establishing the old temple in Belur Math. She helped Nivedita copiously in her effort to run the girl’s school when it was in dire financial strait. She helped in fund collection, inspired Nivedita in her work and was a continuous source of inspiration for Swami Saradananda who greatly admired her. It is also possibly true that Sara, through her enormous contacts among the intellectual circles in Europe and America, helped in generating a positive image of the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement across the world and thus built a secure foundation for its worldwide acceptability, esp. among the intellectuals and scholars.

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[i] THE VIOLIN AND THE GENESIS OF THE BOSE INSTITUTE IN CALCUTTA, P.K Bandopadhya