Saraswati Devi, an 85 yr old woman to break 32-year-long maun vrat after Shri Ram Mandir inauguration

Saraswati Devi, an 85-year-old woman from Jharkhand will break her three-decade-long 'maun vrat' after the inauguration of the Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22

PGurus Newsdesk

January 9, 2024

Spiritual odyssey culminates in joy: 85-year-old devotee to break 3 decade long vow of silence at Ram Mandir consecration

Saraswati Devi, an 85-year-old woman from Jharkhand will break her three-decade-long ‘maun vrat‘ after the inauguration of the Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22.

Saraswati Devi is popularly known as ‘Mauni Mata‘ in Ayodhya. She communicated with family members through sign language but wrote down complicated sentences.

She started her vow on the day Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, promising to break it only when the Ram Mandir was inaugurated, her family claimed.

Devi devoted her life to Lord Ram after the death of her husband Devkinandan Agarwal in 1986, spending most of her time on pilgrimages, family members said while neighbours vouched for her.

“The day Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, my mother took a vow to observe silence till the Ram Mandir was constructed in Ayodhya. She has been jubilant ever since the date of consecration of the temple was announced,” 55-year-old Hare Ram Agarwal, Devi’s youngest child, told media.

“She left for Ayodhya on Monday night aboard Ganga-Sutlej Express from Dhanbad Railway Station. She will break her silence on January 22,” Hare Ram, a resident of Bhowra in Baghmara block, said.

He said Devi has been invited by disciples of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das to participate in the Ram Mandir inauguration event.

Though she took a break from ‘maun vrat’ and spoke for an hour at noon every day till 2020, she went completely silent the day the foundation for the temple was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Devi is currently living with her second-eldest son Nand Lal Agarwal, an official with Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), an arm of Coal India, at Dhaiya in Dhanbad.

Nand Lal’s wife Innu Agarwal (53) said that a few months after her marriage, she saw her mother-in-law embracing the vow of silence in devotion to Lord Ram.

“After the demolition of Babri Masjid, my mother-in-law visited Ayodhya and took a pledge of ‘maun vrat’ till Ram Mandir was constructed. She used to remain silent for 23 hours a day, taking an hour-long break only at noon. The rest of the time, she communicated with us through pen and paper,” she said.

“However, when the foundation of the Ram Mandir was laid in 2020 by PM Modi, she went for a 24-hour ‘maun vrat’ and pledged to speak only after the temple was inaugurated,” Innu said.

In 2001, Devi did ‘tapasya’ (penance) for seven months at Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh where Lord Ram is believed to have spent a major part of his exile. She studies religious books such as Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita in the evening after ‘Sandhya Aarti’, Innu claimed.

Devi’s immediate neighbour, Sunita Devi Dalmia (50) said, “We respect Mata Ji. We have never seen her talking…She uses sign language to communicate and most of her time is devoted to either prayers or in upkeep of her plants.” Another neighbour Manikant Pandey, a BCCL employee, who lives in the same apartment said he had never seen Devi talking.

Another neighbour Babita Sharma (55), a resident of Bekarbandh of Dhanbad who has known the family for more than a decade, said Devi has been an inspiration for her.

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