Chapter (অধ্যায়): DAKSHINESWAR DAYSPage: 38 of 89
preferred khichuri. Sometimes at odd hours she
had to arrange meals for devotees. But the Holy
Mother was always equal to the occasion. She was
never ruffled, never annoyed. She was sweetness
itself and all motherliness.
With how much care did she attend to the
needs of the Master! She was all attention to him.
In external behaviour Sri Ramakrishna was just
like a child. She had to coax and cajole him to take
food. He would be frightened if the quantity of
rice in his plate looked large. She would therefore
press the heap so carefully that it would look
small. She would thicken the milk by boiling, so
that he could not judge what quantity of milk he
was taking. Sometimes she had to suppress the
truth about the quantity of food he took; she said
that it was not wrong to take the help of a fib as
regards food under such circumstances. Sri Ramakrishna
used to say jokingly that there was this
great need of having a wife: she can cook for the
husband. When the Holy Mother was away, he
would be in difficulty and feel nervous, for
nobody else could take sufficient care of him. The
Holy Mother and Sri Ramakrishna stayed in two
rooms about seventy-five feet apart; but sometimes
they would not meet for months. Still what
a great warmth of feeling existed between them!
The idea of husband and wife was completely
obliterated between the two, but no married love