Finding Divinity in his Consort
Sri Ramakrishna was absent from Kamarpukur for more than eight years. He was all the time absorbed in various spiritual practices at Dakshineswar. He was in poor health; so Mathur thought that a change would be good for him. Therefore, in the summer of 1867 Ramakrishna started for Kamarpukur accompanied by Hriday and Bhairavi Brahmani for a change. Sri Ramakrishna stayed at Kamarpukur for six months. It was a great relaxation for him to enter into the joys and sorrows of the simple village folk after the stormy days of sadhana at Dakshineswar. Sarada, his girl wife, was then staying with her father at Jayrambati.
Shortly after Sri Ramakrishna’s arrival, she was sent for. So Sarada Devi, or the Holy Mother as she came to be be known later to the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, arrived at Kamarpukur.
Here was a chance for Sri Ramakrishna to test his realizations. By allowing the rightful privileges of her position to his wife, who was then a girl of fourteen, he subjected himself to an ordeal from which he emerged brighter than ever. He took special care that she had an all-round training in the discharge of her household duties. Sarada was charmed with the ideal of pure and selfless love that was shown to her by her saintly husband; she was content to worship him as her Ishtadeva and by following in his footsteps to develop her own character. Sri Ramakrishna trained her not only in spiritual things but also in mundane matters that would make her an ideal mistress of the household.
But the Bhairavi Brahmani did not take kindly to the idea of Sri Ramakrishna’s doing his duty towards his wife. Perhaps she feared that this would endanger his celibate life. But the Master would not listen to her remonstrance. He remained unruffled and revered her as much as ever. The Brahmani was seized with a sense of false pride; and despite her attainments, she could not control herself. But subsequently she came to realize her mistakes. One day she approached Sri Ramakrishna with sandal paste and garlands of flowers which she had taken great pains to prepare, and with these adorned him as an Incarnation of Sri Chaitanya. She implored his forgiveness and bade farewell to Kamarpukur.
The holy association of Sarada with her God-intoxicated husband at Kamarpukur filled her pure heart with unspeakable delight. Referring to this joy, she said later on, “I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bliss was placed in my heart, the joy was ineffable”.
Sri Ramakrishna regained his former health as a result of his prolonged stay in the peaceful environs of his native village, and afterwards returned with Hriday to Dakshineswar.
In January 1868, Mathurbabu requested Sri Ramakrishna to join them for a pilgrimage. A group of 125 people set out on the pilgrimage. They visited Deoghar, Varanasi, Allahabad and Vrindavan. At Deoghar, they visited the Shiva temple. After that, while passing through a village, Ramakrishna saw poor people in a wretched condition. He felt great pity for them, and asked Mathurbabu to feed them sumptuously and distribute clothes to all of them. Mathurbabu was reluctant at first, as it would involve considerable expenses, but later yielded, as Ramakrishna refused to go further without doing so.
Then, they proceeded to Varanasi, the city of Shiva. Later, the pilgrimage party visited Mathura and Vrindavan. Ramakrishna was overjoyed because of its association with the childhood days of Sri Krishna.
The years rolled on. Sarada was now a young woman of eighteen. Wild rumours reached her to the effect that her saintly husband had gone mad. After much thought she decided to go to Dakshineswar to see for herself. So, in 1872, few days before Holi festival, she set out for Kolkata with her father. They had to walk all the 70 miles from Jayarambati to Kolkata. On the way Sarada fell ill. She feared she would never reach Dakshineswar. As she was lying with high fever she had a vision of a lovely young girl of dark complexion, but of great beauty, appeared before her and stroked her body gently. Then they both started conversing:
| Sarada | : | “Where do you come from?” |
| Young girl | : | “From Dakshineswar” |
| Sarada | : | “From Dakshineswar! I long to go there, but this fever will upset everything,” |
| Young girl | : | “Do not worry, when you get well, you will reach Dakshineswar and meet Ramakrishna. I have kept him there for you.” |
| Sarada | : | “You are so kind, who are you?” |
| Young girl | : | “I am your sister.” |
After this vision, Sarada fell asleep, and when she awoke, the fever had gone. She was able to proceed and reached Dakshineswar.
Sri Ramakrishna bestowed on her as much love and care as he had done previously. He sent her to live in the concert-room with his mother, who had already come there to spend the last days of her life by the side of the Ganga. Sarada was convinced after a few days stay at Dakshineswar, that Sri Ramakrishna was unchanged in his attitude towards her, she decided to remain there and serve him and her mother-in-law.
Sri Ramakrishna now resumed his old task of teaching his wife, testing at the same time his own realization and discharging his duties as a husband. His teaching covered a wide range of subjects from housekeeping to the knowledge of Brahman. Not content with merely giving instructions, he took particular care to see that she carried them out, lovingly correcting any mistake.
A couple of months after the arrival of Sarada, there arose a curious desire in Ramakrishna’s mind, which he lost no time in fulfilling.
It was the new moon of June 5, 1872, an auspicious night for the worship of Kali. Sri Ramakrishna made special arrangements for special prayers in his room, instructing Sarada to be present. She went there at 9 p.m. Sri Ramakrishna took the seat of the priest. After the preliminaries were over, he beckoned Sarada to the seat that was reserved for the Goddess. Sarada was in a semi-conscious state. Sri Ramakrishna went through the regular form of worship in which Sarada Devi took the place of the deity. During the ceremony she passed into Samadhi. Sri Ramakrishna too, when he had finished the mantras, went into a super-conscious state. The priest and the goddess were joined in a transcendental union of the Self. At dead of night the Master recovered consciousness partially; then, with an appropriate mantra, he surrendered himself and the fruits of his life-long sadhana, together with his rosary, at the feet of Sarada Devi and saluted her. With this sacred ceremony, called in the Tantras the ‘Shodashi-Puja’, or the worship of the Divine Mother Tripurasundari, concluded the long series of Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual practices.
Since that day, Sarada felt that a divine power had entered into her. The simple village girl had transformed into Holy Mother, Sarada Devi!
After the ‘Shodashi Puja’, one day, Sarada Devi, as she was stroking the Master’s feet asked him, “What do you think of me?”. Quick came the answer, “The Mother who is worshipped in the temple is the mother who has given birth to this body and is now living in the Nahabat (concert-room), and she again is stroking my feet at this moment. Verily, I always look upon you as the visible representation of the Blissful Mother.”
The Holy Mother stayed with the Master for about five months after the puja. But not once did the minds of the divine couple come down to the sense-plane. This was possible because, both, the husband and the wife, had their minds attuned to the Infinite. In this period, the Master had Bhava Samadhi night and day. Apprehensive of the uncertainty of the time when such a state might come on him, the Holy Mother could have no sleep at night. Coming to know of this, the Master made arrangements for her to stay at the Nahabat with his mother.
In later days Sri Ramakrishna complimented Sarada Devi in unequivocal terms. He used to say: “After marriage, I anxiously prayed to the Divine Mother to root out all sense of physical enjoyment from her mind. That my prayer had been granted I knew from my contact with her during this period.”
The Holy Mother lived with the Master for about a year and four months at Dakshineswar. She returned to Kamarpukur sometime in October 1873.