- Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church
- Better to Marry Than to Burn – Sri Ramakrishna
- Your Ideal is Shiva
- I Want to See God in All Beings
- Sign of Narrowness
- Meditation and Posture – Sri Ramakrishna
- Shall I Draw Him? – Sri Ramakrishna
- When Death is Certain….
- Testing Sri Ramakrishna
- Train Your Mind – Swami Saradananda
- The Master chooses… – Swami Saradananda
- During Lecture One Should Remove One’s Ego
- Evenmindedness of Swami Saradananda
- “Is She Just Your Mother?”
- “Who Can Insult Me?” – Swami Saradananda
- Read and Meditate – Swami Saradananda
- Secrets of Swami Saradananda’s Great Success
- Like Guru Like Disciple
- Selfless Work Purifies Mind
- Inner Realization Gives Greater Conviction
- Swami Saradananda’s Love and Forgiveness
Sharat was born with a warm, loving, and unselfish heart. He was extremely courteous and was incapable of using harsh words or of hurting anybody’s feelings. His generosity was such that he saved his pocket money to help his poor classmates buy books, paper, pencils, and so on. Sometimes he would give his used clothes, sweaters, and shoes to his poor friends. Once he discovered that one of his neighbour’s maidservants had been stricken with cholera and that her master, fearing contagion, had moved her up to the roof and left her to her fate. Sharat rushed to the dying woman and did what he could for her. When she died, he made all the necessary arrangements for her last rites.
Sharat could not bear a casual, haphazard way of doing things; he was quite alert and methodical about everything, traits which he learned from the Master.
Luxury and comforts are obstacles to spiritual life, because they invariably prevent the aspirant from moving forward. Poverty and struggle act as friends. The disciples of the Master faced dire poverty in the monastery. They had very little food to eat and sometimes they starved. However, the Master had given them a taste of divine bliss, which helped them to transcend physical sufferings. In the monastery everybody carried out their respective responsibilities; Saradananda would help with the household duties, such as cleaning the rooms, washing the dishes, and so on.
A person becomes great through his actions, dedication, unselfishness, and self-control. One day Saradananda saw muddy footprints on the floor of the shrine at Alambazar Monastery. He learned that the cook had made them, and he called for him loudly, as if he were going to burst with fury. As soon as the cook appeared, Saradananda controlled his temper and calmly said, “You can go.”
Saradananda was a born leader. He always considered the youngest member of the Order his equal and was perfectly just and democratic in his dealings. Whenever there was a lack of servants in the monastery, he would offer to share the menial and domestic chores along with the younger members. He never judged anyone or anything without considering all sides. Hasty judgements or decisions were foreign to his nature. This of course stood him in good stead as the executive head of the Order. Everyone was sure to get a hearing from him. He never listened to slander: He followed Swamiji’s instruction “to allow slander to enter one ear only to throw it out by the other.”
On another occasion, when the Mother was ill, a devotee came to her and prayed for initiation. She asked him to come a few days later. But as he insisted she asked him to speak to Saradananda about it. “I do not know anybody else,” he insisted again. “I have come to you; please initiate me.” “What do you mean?” the Mother replied. “Sharat is the jewel of my head. What he says will be done.” The devotee went to the swami, who fixed a day for his initiation.
Once Holy Mother said to one of her disciples: “Look at Sharat! He works so much, he faces so many problems, yet he remains calm and never complains. He is a sadhu [holy man]. Why does he undergo all these things? If he wishes he can remain absorbed in God day and night. It is only for your good that he is living on this earthly plane.” Another time Swamiji said, “The Master brought Sharat for his work.”
To Saradananda, work was worship. Once he said: “All through my life I worked, envisioning the faces of the Master and Swamiji. I had no time to pay any attention to others’ opinions.”
It is said that during her last illness, Mother once remarked: “I am tired of this life. I shall now depart with Sharat in my arms and take him wherever I go.”
After lunch Saradananda rested a little, and in the afternoon he answered his mail, dictating letters to his attendant and then signing them. The last sentence of his last letter was: “He who surrenders, the Master will definitely protect him, protect him, protect him.”