Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Om Namo Bhagawate Sri Ramakrishnaya
He was born as Gadadhar in Kamarpukur, a small village in Bankura district of West Bengal on 18 February, 1836. He was an extremely sweet boy, and was lovingly called Gadai by the villagers, who looked upon him as the divine child Krishna of Vrindavan. Such was the extent of joy he spread all around by his childhood pranks and enactment of plays from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas.
Soon he started pining for the vision of the Divine Mother. His spiritual practices grew to such an extent that he gave up sleep altogether. He spent 6 years without sleep completely absorbed in thoughts of Kali Ma!
One day unable to bear the pain of not being able to have the vision of the Mother, he decided to end his life. He grabbed hold of Mother's sword and was about to chop off his head when he finally had the vision of Kali as the Universal Mother, which he described as "... houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether; as if there was nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless sea of light; a sea that was consciousness. However far and in whatever direction I looked, I saw shining waves, one after another, coming towards me."
For some time later, Sri Ramakrishna practised dāsya bhāva, during which he worshiped Lord Rama with the attitude of Hanumanji. He was so deeply engrossed in this practice that he would move around like a monkey. Towards the end of this sadhana, he had a vision of Sita Ma merging into his body.
This period of Nirvikalpa Samadhi came to an end when Sri Ramakrishna received a command from Kali Ma to "remain in Bhavamukha; for the enlightenment of the people". Bhavamukha being a state of existence intermediate between Samādhi and normal consciousness.
In 1881, a young boy with a divine countenance came to meet Sri Ramakrishna. His name was Narendranath Datta, lovingly called Naren. Hence started the most unique and beautiful Guru-Shishya relationship in the history of India. Sri Ramakrishna thoroughly trained Naren, mainly in Advaita Vedanta. He made the skeptical and English-educated Naren experience the glorious state of God-realization in all aspects. This boy would go on to become Swami Vivekananda - the mighty patriot-monk, who would carry the wonderful message of his Master to all the corners of the world and spread a tremendous wave of energy to rouse the ancient Motherland from Her deep anguish.
Mother India was undergoing an extremely depressing phase during the middle of the 19th century. She was severely strained under more than 1,000 years of foreign invasions. Every possible attempt was made by the Mughal, British and many other foreign rulers to somehow destroy the great religion of the ancient land. Hinduism was crumbling and had got reduced to a mass of superstitions. The great religion of the Rishis was in real danger of extinction, as had happened with other ancient cultures all over the world.
The few reformers who tried to set things right were made to believe that Hinduism itself was to be blamed for all the ills plaguing the society. They started opposing various Hindu practices, particularly the concept of various Gods, and of praying to God with form. They were especially against idol worship. In this way they were inadvertently playing into the hands of the marauding conquerors.
At this critical junction in the history of Bharat Mata was born a Yugavatar, carrying with him 5,000 years of spirituality of the most glorious Sanatana Dharma. By his life full of intense spiritual practices and God-visions, he laid the massive foundation upon which his chief disciple, the most illustrious Swami Vivekananda, worked incessantly to build modern India, with a vision of greatness for the next 1,000 years.
This unparalleled saint was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, mainly known as the saint who had a constant vision of and communion with Kali - the Divine Mother.
Gadai had his first spiritual ecstasy at the age of 6 - while walking along the paddy fields, a flock of white cranes flying against a backdrop of dark thunder clouds caught his vision. He reportedly became so absorbed by this scene that he lost outward consciousness and experienced indescribable joy in that state. He reportedly had experiences of similar nature a few other times in his childhood — while worshipping the goddess Vishalakshi, and portraying Lord Shiva in a drama during Shivaratri festival. From his 10th or 11th year of school on, the trances became common.
His elder brother wanted to get him well-educated so that he could earn a good living. But Gadai's heart was elsewhere. He gave a simple answer straight from his heart, which strikes at the very roots of worldliness: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education. I would rather acquire that wisdom which will illumine my heart and getting which one is satisfied forever".
In 1856 he came to Dakshineshwar, Kolkata to assist his elder brother in the ritual worship at the newly built Kali temple. He started looking upon Kali Ma as the living form of the Universal Mother. He used to go through the rituals with great love and affection shown by a child to his mother. All those around would be awe-struck by the extent of Gadadhar's devotion. During this time people started calling him Sri Ramakrishna.
Soon he started pining for the vision of the Divine Mother. His spiritual practices grew to such an extent that he gave up sleep altogether. He spent 6 years without sleep completely absorbed in thoughts of Kali Ma!
One day unable to bear the pain of not being able to have the vision of the Mother, he decided to end his life. He grabbed hold of Mother's sword and was about to chop off his head when he finally had the vision of Kali as the Universal Mother, which he described as "... houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether; as if there was nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless sea of light; a sea that was consciousness. However far and in whatever direction I looked, I saw shining waves, one after another, coming towards me."
For some time later, Sri Ramakrishna practised dāsya bhāva, during which he worshiped Lord Rama with the attitude of Hanumanji. He was so deeply engrossed in this practice that he would move around like a monkey. Towards the end of this sadhana, he had a vision of Sita Ma merging into his body.
In 1861, Bhairavi Brahmani, an orange-robed, middle-aged female ascetic came to Dakshineshwar. She initiated Sri Ramakrishna into Tantra. Tantrism focuses on the worship of Shakti and the objective is to transcend the barriers between the holy and unholy as a means of achieving liberation, and to see all aspects of the natural world as manifestations of the Divine Shakti. Under her guidance, Sri Ramakrishna went through 64 major Tantric sadhanas including Kundalini Yoga, and he saw the Divine Mother, Effulgent in various forms.
About the year 1864 there came to Dakshineswar a wandering Vaishnava monk, Jatadhari, whose Ideal Deity was Lord Rama. He always carried with him a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of Ramlala, the Boy Rama. Toward this little image he displayed the tender affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rama. As a result of lifelong spiritual practice, Ramlala was no longer for him a metal image, but the living God. He devoted himself to nursing and feeding Rama, playing with Rama, taking Rama for a walk, and bathing Rama. And he found that Ramlala responded to his love.
Sri Ramakrishna also started developing motherly love towards Ramlala. Ramlala would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back, insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers from the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy.
One day Sri Ramakrishna was blessed through Ramlala with a vision of Lord Ramachandra, whereby he realized that Rama pervades the whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness; that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
Sri Ramakrishna later engaged in the practice of madhura bhāva, the attitude of the Gopis and Radha towards Lord Krishna. Towards the end of this sadhana, he attained savikalpa samadhi — vision and union with Krishna. Later he visited Nadia, the home of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the 15th-century founders of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Here he had an intense vision of the 2 young boys merging into his body.
Sri Ramakrishna later engaged in the practice of madhura bhāva, the attitude of the Gopis and Radha towards Lord Krishna. Towards the end of this sadhana, he attained savikalpa samadhi — vision and union with Krishna. Later he visited Nadia, the home of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the 15th-century founders of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Here he had an intense vision of the 2 young boys merging into his body.
In 1865, a great wandering monk Totapuri Maharaj came to Dakshineshwar. He was a Naga saint - fully naked. He had spent 40 years on the banks of the holy Narmada river practising Vedantic meditation, and realized his Oneness with the Supreme Consciousness. With the bliss of Self-realization, he started on a pilgrimage along Ganga Mayya, from Gaumukh to Gangasagar. On his return back, he instinctively got pulled towards Dakshineshwar. Here he met Sri Ramakrishna and decided to impart the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta to him. In just 3 days, Sri Ramakrishna experienced the highest state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi! Totapuri Maharaj was stunned that what had taken him 40 years to achieve had been reached by Sri Ramakrishna in just 3 days.
In 1866 Govinda Roy, a Hindu guru who practised Sufism, initiated Sri Ramakrishna into Islam, and he practiced Islam for 3 days. During this period he devoutly repeated the name of Allah, wore a cloth like the Arab Muslims and said their prayer 5 times daily. According to Sri Ramakrishna, he had a vision of a "radiant personage with grave countenance and white beard resembling the Prophet and merging with his body".
At the end of 1873, he started the practice of Christianity, when his devotee Shambhu Charan Mallik read the Bible to him. Sri Ramakrishna was filled with Christian thoughts for 3 days. He described a vision in which a picture of the Madonna and Child became alive and he had a vision in which Jesus merged with his body.
In 1859, upon being asked to get married, he himself gave out the name of Saradamani, a small girl from the village of Jayrambati, 6 Kms from Kamarpukur. She was his divine companion in his spiritual mission, and was known later as Sri Sarada Devi. They maintained absolute purity in their life completely free from lust, and the marriage was never consummated. In 1872, Sri Ramakrishna worshipped Sri Sarada Devi as Adyashakti, the Goddess of the universe through the manifestation of the `Vidya-rupini’, a female human form embodying the transcendent knowledge, and surrendered himself, his rosary and all other aids to his sadhana at Her feet and thus drew an end to his long, historic, and all-encompassing sadhana.
From 1875 onwards, the English-educated elite of Bengal started getting to know Sri Ramakrishna. Following his influence, prominent leaders of Brahmo Samaj like Keshab Chandra Sen, Vijaykrishna Goswami and many others who had developed a Christianised way of thinking started to reorient their socio-religious outlook. Sri Ramakrishna also had interactions with Debendranath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath Tagore, and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a renowned social worker. He had also met Swami Dayananda, the founder of Arya Samaj. His fame started spreading as people started coming to know of his high state of God-realization, and frequent absorptions into deep Samadhi.
Many young boys started coming to him. Some of them became his close disciples and would later go on to become renunciate monks.
During the last days of Sri Ramakrishna, his disciples took care of him at Cossipore garden house. On 1 January 1886, Sri Ramakrishna went into an exalted spiritual mood and said 'I bless you all. Be illumined!' Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power. The Master had become the wish-fulfilling tree (Kalpataru). He fulfilled the wish of each of his disciples for achieving their spiritual ideal by his mere touch! This day is celebrated as Kalpataru divas.
Because of the extraordinary levels of God-realization, Sri Ramakrishna is considered a Paramahamsa - the most exalted spiritual state. His life was a wonderful laboratory demonstrating the harmony of all paths to God. It was this glorious message that Swami Vivekananda carried with tremendous success to the World Parliament of Religions as the sole representative of Hinduism.
Because of the extraordinary levels of God-realization, Sri Ramakrishna is considered a Paramahamsa - the most exalted spiritual state. His life was a wonderful laboratory demonstrating the harmony of all paths to God. It was this glorious message that Swami Vivekananda carried with tremendous success to the World Parliament of Religions as the sole representative of Hinduism.
Sri Ramakrishna entered Mahasamadhi on 16 August 1886. He used to say that if one is able to practice even one-sixteenth of the amount of Sadhana practised by him, the Sadhaka would surely achieve God-realization. May we be blessed by our most loving Guru Maharaj to impart us with that power of Sadhana and to be able to reach his lotus-feet!
Comments