Nicola Barker - The Cauliflower

6. After several months of sharing Sri Ramakrishna’s room with him it transpires that Sri Sarada Devi is getting very little sleep because of her husband’s frightening and erratic nighttime activities. Sometimes the saint will descend into nirvikalpa samadhi as he lies next to her in bed and she becomes fearful that he is actually dead. She tries to revive him but is often unable to do so and is forced to call on Hriday for assistance. On discovering how anxious this is making her, Sri Ramakrishna suggests that his wife go and stay with his aged mother in the tiny nahabat , where at least she can be expected to garner herself a few hours of undisturbed sleep.

But not too many, obviously, or he’ll fill a jug in the river and soak her mattress with the contents.

7. The guru ’s niece Lakshmi (who is ten years Sarada’s junior) is the Holy Mother’s constant companion. Lakshmi has learned the basics of reading in her home village, and Sri Ramakrishna (although virtually illiterate himself and a despiser of “knowledge”) encourages her to teach these to the Holy Mother. Once they have been mastered, he hires a student in Calcutta to raise them both to an even higher standard of literacy.

8. Sri Ramakrishna has a devotee called Golap Sundari, generally known as Golap Ma. She is a widow who has also lost her two children (her son as a boy and her daughter as a young woman). When the guru hears Golap Ma’s sad story he cheerfully informs her that she is actually very lucky, because God always helps those who have no one else to turn to. He then instantly cures her of her overwhelming burden of grief with a quick, light touch.

Later on he tells the Holy Mother that in the future, when he’s gone, Golap Ma will be her permanent companion. And so — aside from a difficult year in 1887–88 when the Holy Mother returns to a life of loneliness and penury in Kamarpukur — it eventually transpires. Golap Ma does in fact become the Holy Mother’s ferocious, self-appointed guard dog. The Holy Mother depends on her completely. She nervously holds Golap Ma’s hand climbing in and out of carriages, and when appearing in public makes a habit of always humbly walking several paces behind her.

Golap Ma is tall and stern and very traditional, with a high-pitched voice and a slightly tactless manner. She regularly offends people without really meaning to, and the furious disciples often ask the guru to reprimand her, but he never will — at least, not in person. He finds Golap Ma much easier and more receptive to his discipline in her dreams.

Golap Ma dedicates her entire life to the service of others. The Holy Mother tells a story about a trip they take together to Vrindaban. In Krishna’s temple a stir is caused during the arati when a baby defecates on the tiles. Everyone is horrified, and they shake their heads and tut disapprovingly, but it is Golap Ma who — without a word — tears a strip off her own sari and quietly and uncomplainingly cleans it up.

Of course, there are several women devotees who, over the years, serve Sri Sarada Devi with incredible kindness and humor and devotion, but Golap Ma is her rock. She indignantly protects the Holy Mother from insensitive devotees who sometimes pester her. She runs the Holy Mother’s household with an extraordinary meticulousness and efficiency. Like the guru she loves (although it’s questionable whether she actually loves the Holy Mother still more), she abhors any kind of pointless waste. Every household scrap is carefully disposed of or recycled — food leftovers are given to the cows, bits of orange peel are dried in the sun and then used as fuel. Even the stalks of the betel leaves are neatly put aside and fed to the guinea pigs (who adore them).

9. Sri Sarada Devi is a difficult individual to pin down — so quiet, so unconfident, so obliging, so self-effacing. It’s often easiest to get a sense of her through her relationships with others. Toward the end of her life, on a visit to Varanasi, the Holy Mother is sitting with Golap Ma and a small group of friends when a woman approaches (having heard that the Holy Mother is in situ ) hoping for an introduction. She apprehends the group and is initially unable to tell which of them is Sri Sarada Devi. Because Golap Ma is tall and stern-looking, with an authoritative air, she initially holds out a hand to her. Golap Ma says nothing, merely points, stony-faced, to Sri Sarada Devi. The woman turns, slightly embarrassed, and offers her hand to Sri Sarada Devi. Sri Sarada Devi, not missing a beat, silently points back to Golap Ma. The woman turns, perplexed, to Golap Ma. Golap Ma points, scowling ferociously, to Sri Sarada Devi. Quick as you like, Sarada points, eyes twinkling, to Golap Ma. And so it continues, until Golap Ma eventually snaps, bellowing at the terrified woman, “What’s wrong with you?! Are you completely incapable of telling the difference between a human face and a divine one?!”

10. On their final trip to Varanasi together, talk between Golap Ma and Sri Sarada Devi turns to liberation in death (to die in this ancient city is a promise of liberation) and Golap Ma, after some thought, looks Sri Sarada Devi square in the eye and passionately declares, “Liberation? What’s the point in that? I don’t want liberation. I want you !”

Aw .

Although …

“But what foolishness!”

[ Sri Sarada Devi retorts ,

scandalized — quite ruining

the lovely, sisterly atmosphere ]

“Don’t you know that the Master

is liberation?”

Remember this? From earlier?

“If given the choice,

I love to see God’s lila

As a human being.”

“I sleep, but my heart

is awake;

It is the voice of my beloved!

He knocks, saying,

‘Open for me, my sister, my

love,

My dove, my perfect one;

For my head is covered with dew,

My locks with the drops of the night.’”

—Song of Solomon 5:2

1881, approximately, at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. The Master’s room. The Slacker approaches the Master.

Lazy Truth Seeker ( exasperated ): “My life is so busy. Finding God is so difficult. And prayer and japa take up so much valuable time. Perhaps you might like to give me some experience of God directly?”

Sri Ramakrishna ( closing his eyes with a sigh and entering into samadhi ): “Oh Mother! This person won’t do anything for himself! What now? Am I to be expected to make curd from milk, then butter from curd, then to plop the butter directly into his mouth?!”

15th August 1886

Bring out your hankies. No. Put them away again. No. Bring out your hankies. No. Put them …

Aaaargh!

The is-he-or-isn’t-he death of Sri Ramakrishna

My oh my, what an extraordinary scene …

It is late at night. Let us imagine a beautiful but waning moon hanging loosely upon — almost in danger of falling from — its inky peg of sky. This moon reflects a thin silver path into the mysterious and still-inkier holy river below. The Ganga seems restive. She sighs. The stooping willows try their best to comfort her by lightly dragging the feathery tips of their branches across her sacred, puckering brow. But the river will not be mollified.

It’s a melancholy world! Yet Sri Ramakrishna — mere hours from death — is in a cheerful mood. Earlier that same afternoon he has consulted the almanac to find out if August the 16th, 1886, is an auspicious day.

Ah, yes! Look at that! It is! Good.

He has no voice left, but somehow, miraculously, he has contrived to spend two entire hours in the afternoon talking to a well-to-do visitor about yoga . He even manages to consume half a cup of liquid farina pudding prepared by the anxious, loving hands of the Holy Mother. But he is warm. Very warm. He is hot — feverish.