Sarada Devi (1853 – 1920)
Born Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya, was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal.
Give up this dry discussion, this hodge-podge of philosophy. Who has been able to know God by reasoning? Even sages like Suka and Vyasa are at best like big ants trying to carry away a few grains of sugar from a large hea
You see, my son, it is not a fact that you will never face dangers. Difficulties always come, but they do not last forever. You will see that they pass away like water under a bridge.
One must be patient like the earth. What iniquities are being perpetrated on her! Yet she quietly endures them all. Man, too, should be like that.
The conjunction of the day and the night is the most auspicious time for calling on God. The mind remains pure at this time.
Practise meditation, and by and by your mind will be so calm and fixed that you will find it hard to keep away from meditation.
As clouds are blown away by the wind, the thirst for material pleasures will be driven away by the utterance of the Lord's name.
Realization of God cannot be achieved without ecstatic love for Him.
The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream ... What you dreamt last night does not exist now.
Even the impossible becomes possible through devotion.
To myself, the stateliness of her courtesy and her great open mind are almost as wonderful as her sainthood. — Sister Nivedita
Ordinary human love results in misery. Love for God brings blessedness.
One suffers as a result of one's own actions. So, instead of blaming others for such sufferings, one should pray to the Lord and depending entirely on His grace, try to bear them patiently and with forbearance under all circumstances.
Such is life, here today, gone tomorrow! Nothing goes with one, except one's merit and demerit; good and evil deeds follow one even after death.
First offer to God whatever you eat. One must not eat unoffered food. As your food is, so will be your blood. From pure food you get pure blood, pure mind, and strength. Pure mind begets ecstatic love (prema-bhakti).
As long as a man has desires there is no end to his transmigration. It is the desires alone that make him take one body after another. There will be rebirth for a man if he has even the desire to eat a piece of candy.
We have to surrender ourselves completely to the Lord with faith and devotion in Him, serve others to the best of our capacity, and never be a source of sorrow to anybody.
Desire may be compared to a minute seed. It is like a big banyan tree growing out of a seed, which is no bigger than a dot.
Certainly you will have doubts. There will be questionings and faith will return again. That is how faith is established.
The body means the existence of desire, otherwise it would not have existed. It all ends when one no longer has any desires. C84 In the Company of the Holy Mother. By Her Direct Disciples. Calcutta : Advaita Ashrama, 1980
He who has really prayed to the Master, even once, has nothing to fear. By, praying to him constantly one gets ecstatic love (Prema Bhakti) through his grace.