condition of her life. She only said, 'I am now going back to Kamarpukur. Let things shape themselves as God wills.'
That the story of her sufferings remained hidden from the outside world, was as much due to the utter loneliness of her life at Kamarpukur as due to her own silence regarding it. For there was no one else in the house either to keep her company or to share her woes. Ramlal, Sivaram and Lakshmi Devi, the children of Rameswar (Sri Ramakrishna's elder brother) were the other members of her family. Of these, Ramlal, who occupied the post of the chief priest of Kali at Dakshineswar, was the eldest, and it was his duty, according to the Hindu family system, to have taken care of the Holy Mother in her widowhood. But he was hostile to her and was chiefly responsible for the conspiracy that stopped the small pension she used to be given from the Kali temple. Sivaram, though affectionate, was of no practical use. Both of them stayed at Dakshineswar, and Lakshmi Devi, their sister, who often used to keep company with the Holy Mother in her Dakshineswar days, now preferred to live with her brother at Calcutta and thus deserted her in her time of need. Thus the Holy Mother was practically left alone in a hut at Kamarpukur. Mostly she had not even a women companion to keep her company at night, except when kind Prasannamayi sent her maidservant. There was none to give her protection in times of danger, as when the mad devotee Harish attacked her (pp. 222). The atmosphere of the village was becoming increasingly hostile to spiritual pursuit in solitude. There was the