Advice to Women - 2

Sri Sarada Devi

My child, you have been extremely fortunate in getting this human birth. Have intense devotion to God. One must work hard. How can one achieve anything without effort? You must devote some time for prayer even in the midst of the busiest hours of the day. I used to be very busy during my stay at Dakshineswar; yet I did my prayer and meditation…. Let my sister-in-law, who complains of mental worry, do likewise. Let her get up from bed at 3o’clock in the morning and sit for meditation. Let me see whether she can still have any worry of mind. She will not, however, do that, but only talk about her troubles! What is her suffering? I never knew, my child, what mental worry was.

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The husband, so and the body- all are Maya (illusory). These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from them, you will not attain salvation. Even the attachment to the body, the identification of the self with the body, must ultimately go. What is this body, my child? It is nothing but three pounds of ashes (after it is burnt). Why then so much vanity about it? However big the body may be, its culmination is those three pounds of ashes only. And still people are so attached to it.

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To a woman who was accusing the Holy Mother for encouraging someone to become a Sadhu and saying, “to marry and settle down in life is also a form of religion”:

“Look here M-, these are all divine children. They will live in the world immaculate like un-smelt flowers. What can be nicer than that? You have seen for yourself what kind of happiness worldly life can give! What have you learnt all these days from me? Why is one attracted to the worldly life? Why so much animal propensity? What sort of happiness do you derive from it? Can you not conceive even in a dream the pure ideal of life? Can’t you live with your husband even now as brother and sister? Why this desire to live a piggish life? This misery of the world has been gnawing into my bones.