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Sugandha: Sweet Fragrance
627
the sādhvis to call her "Mahāsaliji" and declined to use a raised stool, sitting herself on the ground with the other sådhvis. This, however, crcated cmbarrassment, for the śrāvakas and śrāvikās who came for the vandana did not know which was the Sādhvi Pramukhã. In short, one day a śrāvaka mentioned the matter to the acārya, who summoned Sadhvi Lādāṁ and enjoined her firmly to receive her visitors seāted upon a low wooden table as was proper. Her biographer quotes a passage from the Sihānānga-sūtra which compares persons to four sorts of fruit: the coconut, the plum, the acreca-nut and the grape. The coconut is hard on the outside and tender inside; the plum, tender on the outside and hard within; the arcca-nut in hard both outside and inside, while the grape is tender both outside and in. She remarks that Sādhvi Pramukhā could be, according to the dissering requirements of people and circumstances, the coconut, the areca-nut or the grape, but certainly never the plum!
To be at the head of four hundred sādhvis, during a time of renewal and under the vigorous leadership of Ācārya Tulasi, was no easy task. Sādhvi Lādām had come to maturity in a family setting and deepened that maturity through the practice of asceticism. She had profound wisdom and great organising ability. She knew how to change and how to direct others intelligently towards the full realisation of their own potential. She attached great-importance to study. Before becoming Prainukhā, she had already pleaded with the ācārya for more advanced study for sādhvis. She encouraged Sanskrit studies and literary composition, having herself "the heart of a poet". Svădhyāya gave her immense joy. She acted as a stimulant to the sādhvis by herself knowing an impressive number of texts and constantly recalling them to mind. Svādhyāya, to her, was tantamount to breathing. She had a horror of idleness and helped the sādhvis to develop certain forms of arts and crafts compatible with their life-aim: the copying of texts, the painting of miniatures, drawing, painting," sewing.
She participated whole-heartedly, with the ācārya, in a great movement of new freedom and of struggle against the narrow and stifling orthodoxy and certain customs in regard to women current in the society of Rājasthāna. She addressed herself straight to the śrāvikās, by taking a personal interest in their spiritual instruction.
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