'"[1] Sri Sarada Devi (Bengali: সারদা দেবী; Sharodā Debiⓘ; 22 December 1853 – 20 July 1920), born Kshemankari / Thakurmani / Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic.

Sri Sarada Devi was born in Jayrambati, a village in present-day Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India.

The followers of the Ramakrishna movement and a large section of devotees across the world worship Sarada Devi as an incarnation of the Adi Parashakti or the Divine Mother.

Saradamani Devi was born of Brahmin parents as the eldest daughter on 22 December 1853, in the quiet village of Jayrambati in present-day West Bengal, India.

According to traditional accounts, Ramachandra and Syama Sundari had visions and supernatural events foretelling the birth of a divine being as their daughter.

As in the case of most girls of rural upbringing, she did not receive any formal education but learned to serve others as she helped her mother run a large household and looked after her younger brothers.

[2] According to Sarada Devi, she used to see a bevy of eight girls of her age coming from an unknown place and escorting her in her chores during her childhood.

[6] The mother and brother of Ramakrishna thought that a marriage would be a good steadying effect on him, by diverting his attention away from spiritual austerities and visions.

[12] Ramakrishna's frequent bhava samadhi (ecstasy)[13] and unorthodox ways of worship led some onlookers to doubt his mental stability, while others regarded him as a great saint.

[11][17] As a priest, Ramakrishna performed the ritual ceremony—the Shodashi Puja where Sarada Devi was made to sit in the seat of goddess Kali, and worshiped as the divine mother Tripurasundari.

While Sarada Devi remained completely in the background, her unassuming, warm personality attracted some female devotees to become her lifelong companions.

[26] During Ramakrishna's last days, during which he suffered from throat cancer, Sarada Devi played an important role in nursing him and preparing suitable food for him and his disciples.

[30][31] According to her traditional biographers and disciples, to call her "Mother" was no mere expression of respect and all those who met her became aware of a maternal quality in her.

In 1888, when the news reached the lay and monastic disciples of Ramakrishna that she needed their care and attention, they invited her to Calcutta and arranged for her stay.

[34] Other Western women followers of Ramakrishna Order including Sister Nivedita[35] formed close relationship with her.

According to her devotees and traditional biographers, the hospitality of Sarada Devi was unique and was characterised by motherly care and solicitude.

One such example is of Girish Chandra Ghosh, the father of Bengali drama, who reportedly saw Sarada Devi in a dream when he was nineteen years old and received a mantra.

Shortly before her death, she gave the last advice to the grief-stricken devotees, "But I tell you one thing—if you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others.

[42] Though uneducated Sarada Devi's spiritual insight and utterances are highly regarded by scholars like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who writes, "We have bits and pieces of her exquisite remarks as testimony.

"[11] Sarada Devi played an important role as the advisory head of a nascent organisation that became a monastic order devoted to social work—the Ramakrishna Mission.

Swami Nikhilananda, who was a freedom fighter and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi,[46] accepted Sarada Devi as his guru and joined the Ramakrishna Order.