2. BIRTH AND EDUCATION
SRI SARADA DEVI,
1 the Holy Mother, was born the eldest child of her devoted parents on the 22nd of December, 1853. Born and brought up in the rural atmosphere of Jayrambati, her early training was just like that of any poor village girl of India belonging to the higher castes. Even as a little girl, she helped her mother in cooking, and often when the latter could not attend to it for unavoidable reasons, she used to take her place in the kitchen. Referring to these experiences of her early days, the Holy Mother used to say, 'I cooked and my father helped me to take down the big rice pot from the oven.' As to the other types of work she was accustomed to do, she said, 'In my childhood I sometimes used to go into neck-deep water and cut grass for the cows." I carried tiffin to the labourers in the field. During one season the paddy was destroyed by pests, and I had to collect the grain from one field after another.'
As a girl she was too serious and self-composed to give herself up to childish games like others of her age. Aghormani, a companion and playmate of her girlhood, used to say of her, 'Mother was very simple in her habits. She would never quarrel with anybody, while playing. When others fell out, she would mediate and
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1 It is customary in Bengal to give two names to a baby—one from astrological considerations and the other for calling in daily life. It is said that the astrological name given to the Holy Mother was Thakurmani, and the common name, Kshemankari. At the request of her aunt who had lost a daughter named Sarada, her common name was changed into Sarada, so that the bereaved mother could feel her child's presence in her niece.