“Amjad is my son, exactly in the sense that Sarat (Swami Saradananda) is.”

And just as mothers do, the Holy Mother often stood, in rain and shine, on the banks of the Ganges or at the doorway of her home in Jayrambati to get a last glimpse of a devotee who had taken leave of her.

That her compassion extended to anyone who came to her was obvious. She said: “I cannot refuse anyone who calls on me as mother.”

So much so, Swami Premananda said she would initiate people regardless of the physical difficulties they caused her to bear:

‘We are sending 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.”

But, this did not mean she would overlook or accept any laxity on the part of devotees when it came to their spiritual practices.

As the Universal Mother, she stressed in no uncertain terms, the need for japa and meditation on a regular and sustained basis:

“Have your mind fixed on God.”

“Don’t relax, practice.”

“You must at least sit down once in the morning and again in the evening.”

“Repeat the mantra at least 10,000 to 15,000 times a day… it is only through struggle that you will get what you seek.”

Though she was divinity herself, the Holy Mother’s own spiritual practices were intense and rigorous. When asked why she got up as early as 2 am, she said:

“All these children come to me with great longing and take initiation but most do not practice japa regularly… I do japa for their sake.”

“What a lot of work I did when I was your age,” she once told her niece, Nalini, “ yet I could find the time to repeat the mantra a hundred thousand times a day.”

As Sister Nivedita said: “Her life was one long stillness of prayer.”

After Sri Ramakrishna passed away in 1886, she was grief-stricken and spent the next few months on pilgrimages. Then proceeded to Kamarpukur where she lived in near poverty.

But, remembering Sri Ramakrishna’s advice to her to not ‘stretch’ her hand out and ask for help, the Holy Mother kept quiet about her circumstances, showing, once again, her renunciation and adaptability to circumstances.

News, however, did reach the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who brought her to Kolkata. Hereafter, she divided her time between Calcutta and Jayrambati.

These years saw the growth in the numbers of her disciples and at the same time she became the Sangha-janani – the mother of the Ramakrishna movement.

Though her needs were looked after by Swami Yogananda and after his passing away by Swami Saradananda and Sarala Devi (the future Pravarajika Bharatiprana) and was seen by both monastic and householder devotees as the Mother of the Universe, she continued to live simply, washing clothes, sweeping the floor, dressing vegetables, cooking and serving food.

But under the strain of constant physical work, self-denial, intense spiritual practices and repeated attacks of malaria, her health deteriorated and she left the mortal world on the 21st July 1920.

Even as she lay ill, the Holy Mother continued to guide her devotees. Just five days before the end, she put in immortal words what she had always practiced:

“If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger.”