Shihar Joyrambati

Shihar village is 3 km away from Joyrambati. Shri Hridayram Mukhopadhyaya, the dearest nephew of Shri Shri Thakur lived here and a manuscript of Shri Chandi by Shri Ramakrishna is preserved here till now.

This village is about six miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur. Hridayram Mukhopadhyay, a nephew of Sri Ramakrishna, was born in this village, Sri Ramakrishna used to go there very often to see his nephew. Hriday once earnestly requested Sri Ramakrishna to be present in his house during the worship of the Goddess Durga. Though he was not able to be physically present there for some unavoidable reasons, he fulfilled the desire of Hriday by appearing daily there during the worship in his subtle body, and Hriday was mightily glad to see the Master every day during the evening worship and Sandhi-puja. Now-a-days only the remnants of this place of worship (Chandimandap) exist.

Once when Shyamasundari Devi was living with her father in the northern part of Shihar, she had occasion to sit in the dark beside a potter’s oven under a bel (Bilva) tree. There suddenly issued a jingling sound from the direction of the oven, and a beautiful little girl dressed in a red cloth, came down from the tree. She laid her soft hands round Shyamasundari’s neck from behind and said, ‘Mother, I have come to your house’, whereupon she fell unconscious. Her relatives came searching for her and carried her home. On regaining consciousness she felt as though the little girl had entered her womb.

Joyrambati, the small village is twenty-seven miles distant from Bishnupur in Bankura District. The place is two miles to the east of Shihar and three miles to the west of Kamarpukur, the holy birthplace of Shri Shri Thakur.

The humble vibes of this holy place convey the message of Dharma, Karma and Moksha. Shri Shri Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, was born in Joyrambati in 1853. Outwardly, she presented herself as an ordinary woman to the World for hiding her divine essence of nature. The veiling figure of the motherhood of God was truly an incarnation of wisdom, welfare and forgiveness. A true prophet of the modern age, Shri Shri Thakur was survived 34 years by the Holy Mother. The birthplace of the Mother and Guru of all disciples of Shri Shri Thakur has become a sacred place of pilgrimage for the people seeking eternal peace and self-purification. .