Glory of Womanhood

Sarada was not known beyond a small circle of her close associates during her husband's lifetime. No male follower of her husband saw her face. She was self-effacing and shy. Moreover, the stringent social norms for a married Brahmin woman did not permit her to mix with others outside her caste. She did not have the minimum access to formal education because of the restrictions in force against women's education then, particularly in rural areas. In this way, she virtually lived an incarcerated life

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Sri Ramakrishna commissioned his spouse Sri Sarada Devi to carry his spiritual legacy forward. He was the prophet of the new age. He first realized and then offered a religion suited to the modern world. Sarada witnessed intimately what that religion was and how he gave it by examples at every movement of his life.

Likewise, Ramakrishna, too, thoroughly scanned her to find out how pure and powerful she was under the guise of an unassuming ordinary woman and how surely capable of bearing the brunt he wished to lay on her. They knew each other like the palms of their hands. Therefore, there was a clear understanding between them regarding their joint responsibility to show The Light towards Peace.

Hence, they peculiarly deemed themselves equal. It was notably more peculiar to Sarada's conduct to have accepted this as correct, being a woman of such a period when a married woman would have imagined it a blasphemy to consider herself of the same status as her husband. To be able to comprehend the true significance and import of the nuances of her husband's spiritual practices and accomplishments spoke of another of Sarada's astonishing peculiarities that established her absolute right to become his spiritual consort to do his work without any hesitation or dithering.