Sister Nivedita - Relationship With Sarada Devi

Relationship With Sarada Devi

Within a few days of arrival in India, on 17 March 1898, Margaret met Sarada Devi, wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna, who, surpassing all language and cultural barriers, embraced her as "khooki" or "bhabi" in Bengali. This, recounted Nivedita, was her "day of days." Till her death in 1911, Nivedita remained one of the closest associates of Sarada Devi. On 13 November 1898 the Holy Mother Sarada Devi came to open the school of Nivedita. After worshiping Ramakrishna she consecrated the school and blessed it, saying: ‘I pray that the blessings of the Divine Mother may be upon the school and the girls; and the girls trained from the school may become ideal girls.’ Nivedita became extremely delighted and recorded her feelings later as ‘I cannot imagine a grander omen than her blessings, spoken over the educated Hindu womanhood of the future.’ The first photograph of Sarada Devi was taken at Nivedita's house.

Nivedita wrote in a letter to Nell Hammond about Sarada Devi after her first few meetings with her, "She really is, under the simplest, most unassuming guise, one of the strongest and greatest of women." An excerpt is taken here from the Gospel of Holy Mother, where Sarada Devi's impressions about Nivedita are captured vividly:

Referring to Nivedita, she said, "What sincere devotion Nivedita had! She never considered anything too much that she might do for me. She would often come to see me at night. Once seeing that light struck my eyes, she put a shade of paper around the lamp. She would prostrate herself before me and, with great tenderness, take the dust of my feet with her handkerchief. I felt that she not even hesitated to touch my feet." The thought of Nivedita opened the floodgate of her mind and she suddenly became grave... The Mother now and then expressed her feelings towards the Sister. She said at last, "The inner soul feels for a sincere devotee."