01The Shodashi puja
She was married at five, in 1859, and stayed with her family until 1872, when at eighteen she walked to Dakshineswar to join her husband. He received her kindly and taught her the household and the inner life alike. That year, on the night of Phalaharini Kali Puja, he seated her in the place of the Goddess in his room and worshipped her as Shodashi, offering at her feet the fruits of all his sadhana. She lived in a tiny room in the nahabat, the music tower, cooking for him and his visitors.
02Mother of the order
After 1886 she gave diksha to hundreds, monks and householders, and the young sannyasis, Vivekananda first among them, treated her word as final. She lived simply between Jayrambati and the Udbodhan house in Kolkata, which Swami Saradananda built for her, and she made no difference between a Brahmin pupil, the robber Amjad who worked for her, or Sister Nivedita from Ireland. She died at Udbodhan on 20 July 1920. Her birthplace and the Matri Mandir at Jayrambati draw pilgrims every day.
“If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; this world is your own.”
Sri Sarada Devi, last counsel, July 1920 (Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, Swami Gambhirananda)