Person · monastic guide
Sāradā Devī
Also known as Sarada Devi, Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, Saradamani
Married to Rāmakrishna at five and never a wife in any ordinary sense, she became after his death in 1886 the figure the young monastic order actually deferred to — Vivekānanda referred every serious question to her. The Rāmakrishna Sāradā Mission for women descends from her.
- Date
- 1853 – 1920
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Ramakrishna order; recorded conversations
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
She was nearly unlettered and ran a household at Jayrāmbāti for people nobody else would take in, including a woman widely thought dangerous. Her recorded advice is almost entirely practical and domestic, which is why it reads unlike anything else in the order's literature.
Connections (3)
- Life routeJayrambati, Bankura
Sāradā Devī was born at Jayrāmbāti in 1853 and spent much of her life there, running a household for people nobody else would take in. After 1886 the young Rāmakrishna order deferred to her judgement; Vivekānanda sought her sanction before founding Belur Math and before going abroad. She was nearly unlettered, and her recorded advice is almost entirely practical and domestic, which is why it reads unlike anything else in the order's literature.
- Site adjacencyKāmārpukur
Jayrāmbāti and Kāmārpukur are about five kilometres apart in Bankura — her village and Rāmakrishna's. The two are visited together, and the pairing makes the point the order's literature keeps making: the movement had two founders, and only one of them is generally named. The Rāmakrishna Sāradā Mission for women descends from her rather than from him, and is administered separately from the main order to this day.
- Court associationRāmakrishna Paramahamsa
Sāradā Devī was married to Rāmakrishna at five and lived beside him at Dakshineswar without the marriage ever being consummated — he is recorded as worshipping her as the goddess in 1872. After his death the order's disputes came to her, and her rulings settled them. He is recorded as having formally worshipped her as the goddess in 1872 in the Dakshineswar temple, which is the event the order treats as establishing her standing.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sarada Devi”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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