Sarada Devi, Indian mystic and philosopher (d. 1920)
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. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother (Sri Sri Maa) by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.
Sarada Devi was born in Joyrambati, a village in present-day Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India. She was married to Ramakrishna in 1859 when she was only six years old while Ramakrishna was 23 years old. After the marriage, Sarada mostly stayed at Jayrambati and joined Ramakrishna in Dakshineswar Kali temple at the age of eighteen. According to her biographers, both lived "lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals of a householder and of the monastic ways of life". After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi stayed most of the time either at Joyrambati or at the Udbodhan office, Calcutta. The disciples of Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death looked to her for advice and encouragement. 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.