What is Sri Sarada Math?
Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi
Sri Sarada Math was founded on December 2, 1954, in Dakshineswar, Kolkata, India. The leadership of Sri Sarada Math was given to Sarala Devi, the Holy Mother’s disciple and intimate attendant for many years. She was later ordained as Pravrajika Bharatiprana Mataji, the first President of Sri Sarada Math.
In his letters from 1894 to 1901, Swami Vivekananda prophesied that a wave of spiritual influence would inundate the world for many centuries to come due to the advent of Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.
Swamiji wrote to his brothers from America,
“there is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. … Mother has been born to revive …Shakti in India; and making her the nucleus, once more will Gargis and Maitreyis be born into the world. …Hence it is her Math that I want first….Without the grace of Shakti nothing is to accomplished. …Hence we must first build a Math for Mother….In villages and towns they will open centers and strive for the spread of female education. Through such devout preachers of character, there will be the real spread of female education in the country.”
Swami Vivekananda tried to manifest his dream into reality during his lifetime, but there were no competent Indian women to take up this work. Swamiji’s chief Western woman disciple, Margaret Noble, went to India to support his efforts. He named her Sister Nivedita, the dedicated One. She inaugurated the Sister Nivedita Girls’ School in the presence of the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi in November 1898. Many of the early Sannyasinis, including the first President of Sri Sarada Math, were educated in that school.
Sri Sarada Math
The Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission is now the largest independent self-administered women’s monastic order in the world. As Swamiji declared, “women must be put in a position to solve their own problems in their own way. No one can or ought to do this for them.” Swami Vivekananda’s dream has been realized. Young women are provided with the means to attain their own liberation and prepare themselves for the service of humanity.
The Math is located in its own buildings in the village of Dakshineswar on the eastern bank of the Ganges River, a little north of the famous Dakshineswar Kali Temple at which Sri Ramakrishna lived and practiced his spiritual sadhana. The Holy Mother also lived and served him there, and Swami Vivekananda visited regularly. The Math serves as headquarters for the Sri Sarada Math and features a beautiful stone temple. See: https://srisaradamath.org
What is the connection between Sri Sarada Math and the Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti?
Pravrajikas of Sri Sarada Math spoke at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993. This was the centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s first visit to America in 1893. Several Sacramento devotees attended and learned of the Sri Sarada Math. Following the Parliament, three of the representatives, including Revered Amalaprana Mataji, Revered Vivekaprana Mataji, and Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, were welcomed to the Vedanta Society of Sacramento. As Swami Vivekananda foretold, “If an Indian woman in Indian dress preach there the religion which fell from the lips of the Rishis of India- I see a prophetic vision- there will rise a great wave which will inundate the whole Western world.”
Most Revered Amalaprana Mataji
The Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti was initially inspired by Most Revered Amalaprana Mataji, the second General Secretary of the Math. During her 1997 visit to Sacramento, Revered Amalaprana described the hundreds of “mahila samitis” throughout India. “Mahila Samiti” literally means women gathering together for personal spiritual benefit, for service projects, and for the well-being of others. Her presence seeded a longing for a women’s spiritual circle. We became inspired to meet regularly for spiritual discussions and meditation, and established a shrine in the home of Cleo (Satyamayi) Andersen.
Within a few years, we formed a spiritual circle of our own. The Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti of Northern California is an association of women dedicated to the study of the universal teachings of the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi and Sri Ramakrishna as taught by Swami Vivekananda in the West. The Samiti Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were filed with the State of California on November 27, 2001, and are completely in alignment with the work of Sri Sarada Math, although we have no legal or binding relationship with the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. Our relationship is based in love, mutual respect, and cooperation.
“This corporation (the Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti of Northern California) is a Religious Corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit religious Corporation Law exclusively for religious purposes. It shall focus on nurturing the spiritual lives of Samiti members and friends… through the study of universal values and the teachings of the East commonly known as Vedanta. Vedanta is the source of one of the world’s oldest major living religions, Hinduism. Vedanta has produced many great saints and teachers. Sri Sarada Devi (1853-1920) is one of the three most well-known saints in modern history. Her life demonstrated the ideal of the Motherhood of God as expressed and lived through her purity and truth. The specific purposes of this corporation are to provide an educational program related to the ancient spiritual wisdom of India in the United States, and to provide financial support for projects in India and other countries.”
All Samiti donations for the education of girls and young women in India, as well as building funds for schools, have been made through the guidance and oversight of the Sannyasinis of the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission.
See: Pravrajika Jnanadaprana. Swami Vivekananda’s Dream, Sri Sarada Math. Second Edition. Sri Sarada Math, Dakshineswar. June, 2017.
