Sarada Ma's infinite compassion

It is hard for ordinary people to comprehend how one can absorb the result of another person’s karma. Although Holy Mother was without sin, she suffered terribly from taking on the sins of others. She knew the cause of her suffering, yet she continued to give initiation and look after the devotees. One day, when several devotees came for initiation, she told her attendant: “My son, I feel as if I am wrestling all day. The devotees are coming without any break. This body cannot bear any more. I am praying to the Master and keeping my mind in this world by holding onto Radhu”. 

This feeling was momentary. It disappeared, when anybody approached her for initiation. Arupananda said: “Mother, don’t you initiate those, whom you wish to initiate?” 

Holy Mother replied: “No, I initiate people purely out of compassion. They do not leave me alone. They weep. That moves my heart and I give initiation out of kindness. Otherwise, what do I gain? When I initiate devotees, I have to accept their sins”.

Her motherly heart bled, when she saw the pain and agony of her children. Then she forgot her rheumatic pain and malarial fever. She said: “This body will one day surely perish. Let it go now, if it must, but let them realize the Truth through initiation”. On another occasion she remarked: “Now and then I think, if this body, instead of being such a small frame of bones and flesh, were a big one, how many more people l could help?”

(Swami Chetanananda “Sri Sarada Devi and Her Divine Play”, Vedanta Society of St. Louis 2015, Ch. 26 “Holy Mother as a Guru”, p. 470)