Sarada Devi (1853 – 1920)
Born Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya, was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal.
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).
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.
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.
Ordinary human love results in misery. Love for God brings blessedness.
To myself, the stateliness of her courtesy and her great open mind are almost as wonderful as her sainthood. — Sister Nivedita
People complain about their griefs and sorrows and how they pray to God but find no relief from pain. But grief itself is a gift from God. It is the symbol of His compassion.
The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream ... What you dreamt last night does not exist now.
Realization of God cannot be achieved without ecstatic love for Him.
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.
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.
The conjunction of the day and the night is the most auspicious time for calling on God. The mind remains pure at this time.
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.
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.
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