4. VISIT TO DAKSHINESWAR
YEARS PASSED. Sri Ramakrishna was away at Dakshineswar performing austerities and experiencing the bliss of God-consciousness. Did he remember the girl whom he had wedded as an infant of five? Probably not. For when one was not aware of one's own body, how could one remember one's worldly relationships?
Meanwhile little Sarada had grown up into a young woman. She was now eighteen, fully mature in body and in mind. Sweet memories of her husband were, no doubt, lingering in her mind. When she was thirteen she had spent a month and a half with him at Kamarpukur. A few months after, when she was fourteen, she could again live for about seven months in his company during his visit to his village home in 1867. She had found him very tender and kind at that time. He was, no doubt, above the ordinary run of men in his love of God and purity of mind, but in other respects she had found him perfectly normal and human. She had noticed an utter selflessness in the care and cordiality he had bestowed on her then, and her mind had been much impressed by the instructions he had given