Holy Mother Sarada Ma's Divine Compassion

“The power of the Guru is transmitted through the Mantra to the disciple”, the Holy Mother said once: “that is why the Guru at the time of initiation takes on himself the sins of the disciple and suffers so much from physical maladies. It is extremely difficult to be a Guru - for he has to take the responsibilities for the disciple’s sins. He is affected by them. A good disciple, however, helps the teacher. Some disciples make quick progress, and some do it slowly. It depends on the tendencies of the mind acquired by one’s past deeds. That is why Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda) hesitates about giving initiation. He said to me: “Mother, as soon as I initiate a disciple, I feel physically ill. The very mention of the Mantra makes me feel feverish””. 

Probably for the above reason, Swami Brahmananda used to be very sparing in the matter of giving initiation. Hence the vast majority of devotees, who sought initiation, were sent to the Holy Mother. 

For, as far as she was concerned, her motherly love and tenderness for all never allowed any such consideration of personal suffering to stand in the way of giving refuge to those, who went to her. Referring to this quality of the Holy Mother, Swami Premananda once said: “We are sending to the Holy Mother the “poison” we could not ourselves take. She is giving refuge to everybody, accepting the sins of all, and digesting the same”.

It was her conviction that the great physical sufferings that she had to undergo in life due to illness, were of a vicarious nature, being the effects of the sins she had taken from her disciples. … 

Often her disciples saw how she suffered from a burning sensation due to the indiscriminate touch of people. In 1916, when she attended the Durga Puja at the Belur Math, people without number prostrated themselves before her and touched her feet. A little later, Yogin-Ma saw her washing her feet again and again with the Ganges water. She remonstrated with her, saying: “Mother, what is it that you are doing? You will catch cold”. To this the Holy Mother replied: “Well, Yogin, how can I explain it to you? Some people touch my feet, and that refreshes me wonderfully. Again there are others, whose touch gives me a terrible burning sensation. I feel it like the sting of a wasp. Only by applying the Ganges water do I get some relief”. Another disciple records a striking example of this phenomenon at Jayrambati. The disciple, who was then attending on her, had gone out. On returning, he found the Mother lying on a straw mat in the verandah. Seeing the disciple, she said to him: “A rather elderly man came here with L. Seeing him from a distance, I entered my room and sat on my bed. He was very anxious to salute me by touching the feet. Though I protested and shrank back, he touched my feet by force, as it were. From that time I am almost at the point of death through an unbearable pain in the feet and the stomach. I washed my feet three or four times; still I cannot get rid of this burning sensation. Had you been here, you would have understood it by a sign from me and forbidden him to touch my feet”. 

(Swami Tapasyananda “Sri Sarada Devi – The Holy Mother: Her Life and Conversations”, Book I, Ch. XIV, “Her Spiritual Ministry”, pp. 165-8)