Sri Sarada Devi: Love Personified — Swami Bhaskarananda

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 30, 2012.

In this lecture, Swami Bhaskarananda presents Sri Sarada Devi as the embodiment of universal, unselfish love and explains her place within the Vedantic understanding of divine incarnation. Beginning with reflections on the unique nature of maternal love, he describes how a mother’s care seeks no return and is grounded entirely in the well-being of the child. He then extends this idea beyond ordinary human relationships, introducing Sri Sarada Devi as one who regarded all beings—human and non-human alike—as her children. Though outwardly simple, she is presented as a spiritual figure whose life revealed the motherhood of God, complementing Sri Ramakrishna’s mission and giving concrete expression to divine compassion.

Swami Bhaskarananda illustrates her universal love through numerous incidents from her life: her care for devotees of every background, her tenderness toward animals, her refusal to reject those who had erred morally, and her ability to transform lives through acceptance rather than judgment. He emphasizes her humility, her lack of any sense of personal authority as a teacher, and her insistence that God alone is the true guide. The talk concludes by highlighting her enduring message—that peace comes from seeing one’s own faults rather than those of others, and from regarding the whole world as one family—inviting listeners to reflect on love as a spiritual force that reveals awareness of inherent divinity in all.