PREFACE
In the following pages will be found the story
of a life which was lived so silently and unostentatious
that its very simplicity was bewildering.
Yet the depth of its richness seemed unfathomable
even to those who were universally respected
for their spiritual greatness. Indeed such
a life defies analysis, and it is much more difficult
to portray it. We may not comprehend greatness
as a whole, but still does not even a partial
glimpse of it often bring us infinite good? Therein
lies our justification for making the present attempt.
In preparing this work we have got considerable
help from the following books: Sri Ramakrishna
Lilaprasanga, Mayer Katha, Parts I & II, and
Sri Sarada Devi. Of these the first two are in
Bengali, published by the Udbodhan Office,
Calcutta, and the last one is in English, published
by the Ramakrishna Math, Madras.
Advaita Ashrama PUBLISHER
Mayavati, Himalayas
September 2, 1942
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.,
Sunday, December 11, 1910
Beloved Mother,
This morning, early, I went to church—to pray
for Sara. All the people there were thinking of Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, and suddenly I thought of you.
Your dear face, and your loving look and your white
Sari and your bracelets. It was all there. And it seemed
to me that yours was the Presence that was to soothe
and bless poor S. Sara’s sickroom. And—do you
know?—I thought I had been very foolish to sit in your
room, at the evening service to Sri Ramakrishna, trying
to meditate. Why did I not understand that it was
quite enough to be a little child at your dear feet? Dear
Mother! You are full of love! And it is not a flushed
and violent love, like ours, and like the world’s, but a
gentle peace that brings good to everyone and wishes
ill to none. It is a golden radiance, full of play. What a
blessed Sunday that was, a few months ago, when I
ran in to you, the last thing before I went on the
Ganges—ran back to you for a moment—as soon as I
came back! I felt such a wonderful freedom in the blessing
you gave me, and in your welcome home! Dearest
6 THE HOLY MOTHER
Mother! I wish we could send you a wonderful hymn,
or a prayer. But somehow even that would seem too
loud, too full of noise! Surely you are the most wonderful
thing of God—Sri Ramakrishna’s own chalice
of His Love for the world—a token left with His children,
in these lonely days, and we should be very still
and quiet before you—except indeed for a little fun!
Surely the ‘wonderful things of God’ are all quiet—
stealing unnoticed into our lives—the air and the sunlight
and the sweetness of gardens and of the Ganges.
These are the silent things that are like you!
Do send to poor S. Sara the mantle of your peace.
Isn’t your thought, now and then, of the high calm
that neither loves nor hates? Isn’t that a sweet benediction
that trembles in God, like the dewdrop on the
lotus-leaf, and touches not the world?
Ever, my darling Mother, your foolish KHOOKI
(baby),
Nivedita
A LETTER BY SISTER NIVEDITA
TO THE HOLY MOTHER