A Significant Meeting: Sister Nevedita and Holy Mother

Adapted from a talk given in Calcutta by Pravrajika Ajayaprana of the Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of NSW, Australia on on the occasion of the Nivedita Centenary, November 16, 1998.

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The Holy Mother was Primal Energy Concentrate, the First Principle, or to use the words of the Jesuit philosopher Marcilio Ficino, ” the Unchanging, a Single Stillness” the “Point of Singularity,” to use the terminology of modern science. On that Point was Holy Mother, remaining ever stationed and poised in perfect equilibrium, the point where infinity and eternity coalesce into one homogeneous entity. Our duty today is to tap that energy, get close to that universal heart, become enlivened, rejuvenated, and thus become ready to plunge into life’s whirlpool with renewed zest and vigor. Sister Nivedita did just that. She has shown, through her meeting with the great Mother, her observations, and emergent actions, how we should launch this scheme and work it out.

Ebullient, energetic, beaming with fresh ideas about education and social service, and fired with zeal, inspiration and vision, Miss Margaret Noble was dedicated to spiritual ideas from early in life. Her intellect was keen and clear, sharpened on the battlefields of the debating societies of the Sesame Club in London. The Irish lady, after coming in contact with her Master, Swami Vivekananda, was chastened, chiseled and modeled into “Nivedita, the Dedicated,” ready to be offered at the altar of Universal Energy.

The meeting was not between two women hailing from the two ends of the earth. Neither was it between the ancient and the modern, nor between spirituality and materialism. It was a communion between the infinite, universal heart and the individual heart pulsating within the inside of the common man, of each of us. Language was no barrier in this communication, where heart spoke to heart.

Differences in caste, class, culture, country or color could not place any obstruction in the path of the free flow of unsolicited universal love and energy into the heart of the expectant and fully-prepared recipient.

Sister Nivedita wrote: “In Holy Mother one sees realized that wisdom and sweetness to which the simplest of women can attain. And yet to myself the stateliness of her courtesy and her great open mind are almost as wonderful as her saintliness. I have never known her hesitate in giving utterance to large and generous judgement, however new and complex might be the question put before her…She rises to the height of every situation…With unerring intuition she goes straight to the heart of the matter, and sets the questioner in the true attitude to the difficulty.”

Through her words and example, Sister Nivedita pointed out the uniqueness of Mother’s great power. She had the keenness to penetrate though the veil and get connected to the silent dynamo that the Holy Mother was. Nivedita represents truly and fully the natural temperament in each of us, especially the women of the current age of the West and of the East. Like her, we need to equip ourselves with all the qualities of truth, unselfishness, purity, service-mindedness and a spiritual outlook and plunge into action.

Let us remember the Holy Mother’s assurance that She is always behind us. Our duty is to remember that we have a Mother, that is our part of the contract. Once we do this, She will play her part. Feel her delicate hand placed on our shoulder, say the left, and just try to experience a gentle pressure whenever we feel helpless. Love will flow, solace will flow; succor, strength, courage, vitality and the reassurance of fearlessness will flow steadily and freely and fill us to the brim. Let us plunge forward, drawing inspiration from the mighty Nivedita, and invoking the grace of Holy Mother, to make our life a blessing to ourselves, the whole world and to humanity in general, thus stamp a mark on history, as Swamiji wants us to.

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