MAA SARADA DEVI(1853-1920)
Sarada Devi born Saradamani Mukhopadhyay was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, a nineteenth-century mystic of Bengal. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother by the followers of the Ramakrishna monastic order. Sarada Devi or Sri Sri Ma is one of the notable woman saints and mystics of the nineteenth century. She paved the way for the future generation women to take up monasticity as the means and end of life. In fact Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sri Sri Ma.Sarada Devi played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.
Sarada Devi was born in Jayrambati. At the age of five she was betrothed to Ramakrishna, whom she joined at Dakshineswar Kali temple when she was in her late teens. According to her traditional biographers, both lived lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals of a householder and of the monastic ways of life. After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi stayed most of the time either at Jayrambati or at the Udbodhan office, Calcutta. The disciples of Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death looked to her for advice and encouragement. The followers of the Ramakrishna movement and a large section of devotees across the world worship Sri Sri Ma Sarada Devi as an incarnation of the Adi Parashakti or the Divine Mother.
Born- Saradamani Devi was born in the quiet village of Jayrambati in present-day West Bengal, India.
Related Places- Jayrambati, Dakshineswar, Maa a Bari (Bagbazar).
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