Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - India's Most Well-known Devotee of the Goddess Kali

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is perhaps the best known saint of nineteenth century India. He was born in a poor Brahmin family in 1836, in a small town near Calcutta, West Bengal. As a young man, he was artistic and a popular storyteller and actor. His parents were religious, and prone to visions and spiritual dreams. Ramakrishna's father had a vision of the god Gadadhara (Vishnu) while on a religious pilgrimage. In the vision, the god told him that he would be born into the family as a son.

Rama Krishna Paramahamsa was an illiterate person. But be achieved world wide fame by his pursuit of truth and his realisation of the Divine. Self-realisation is the goal for every human being. This is the message of the Bhagavatha.

Rama Krishna and his wife Sharada Devi were totally illiterate. But Paramahamsa is treated as a Divine Phenomenon even today. What is the reason? He followed the path of Truth. He could realise that Truth alone could lead him to merge with the Divinity. That is what ‘Bhagavatha’ preached, "You should go to the place from where you have come". That is the main of object of life.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa devoted his entire time from sunrise to late in the night on the contemplation of the Divine form of the Lord. Before going to bed he would look here and there and feel that yet another day had gone by without his having the vision of the Lord. Thus every moment of every day he experienced the anguish of lacking the vision of the Divine. The ancient sages experienced similar anguish in their penance seeking realisation of the Divine.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to ecstatically enjoy himself in the worship of the Goddess in the temple built by Rani Rasamani. One night thieves broke into the temple and carried away all the jewels on the idol of Krishna in the temple. With a view to carrying on his regular priestly duties, he went to Rani Rasamani’s nephew, Mathuranath, and told him, "Sir, thieves have stollen all the jewels on the idol." Mathuranath was angry and proceeded with Ramakrishna to the temple. Losing his temper and balance of mind, he burst out anger, "Oh Krishna! Are you not ashamed of yourself? If you are not able to protect your jewels on your own idol, how are you going to protect the whole world? Were you paralysed when the thieves were carrying away the Jewels? Or were you asleep? This is a disgrace to you Divinity."

Hearing these words, Sri Ramakrishna said,

"Mathuranath! Shut your mouth! For the sake of your petty jewels and trinkets, is this the way you should berate God? When the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, is the consort of the Lord, why do you get so agitated over the loss of a few trivial ornaments? The Lord can have no such petty feelings. You are feeling so much for the action of a few thieves who loved some jewels and came to the Lord to get them. It is because of your love for jewels that you are getting distressed so much. But the Lord has no desires. He is ready to give himself away. God is prepared to offer himself. Such a one, will He be worried about this petty loss? Hence, change your vision. Do not comment on God." At these words Mathuranath felt ashamed of himself.

Then Ramakrishna sat near the idol of Sri Krishna and prayed, "Krishna! As long as one is caught up in the coils of the world, he will speak like an intoxicated man. Only when he gets immersed in God will he oblivious to himself. Therefore, do not let ourself get intoxicated. Confer on me the boon of self forgetfulness." This is what is meant by the saying, "The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman himself." When one experiences the Divine, he sees the Divine in everything.

One day, while Ramakrishna was going to Kamarpukur, he was caught in heavy rain right in the center of a burial ground. Of course he was in such an ecstatic mood that the time, place or weather mattered little to him. When he awoke, Ramakrishna called upon God by various names - Rama, Siva, Krishna, Kali, Hanuman. Then he suddenly realised that the names all referred to the One, and he repeated within himself the verse from the Gita that reminded of Sharanagathi (absolute surrender) to the One.

At Dakshineshwar, when Ramakrishna was once asked to go to the temple office to receive his monthly salary, he was very much upset, for he never wanted any wages for being given the chance of worshipping his Mother.

At one point he became frustrated, feeling he could not live any longer without seeing Kali. He demanded that the goddess appear to him. He threatened to take his own life with a ritual dagger (normally held in the hand of the Kali statue). At this point, he explained how the goddess appeared to him as an ocean of light:

......When I jumped up like a madman and seized [a sword], suddenly the blessed Mother revealed herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up. I was caught in the rush and collapsed, unconscious … within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother.

[Mahendranath Gupta, Ramakrsna Kathamrta translated by Swami Nikhilananda as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Mylapore: Sri Ramakrsna Math, 1952), Book 1, p. 15 ]

Yet another story of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says, how he slapped Rani Rasamani on her face when she stood before the shrine at Dakshineshwar with folded hands and half closed eyes, to all appearing as if praying to the Mother. He knew that she was not praying, but actually involving herself with plans for a civil suit in a court of law and so he reminded her of the sanctity of the place and the need to pray for higher objectives, by a slap. The Rani acknowledged the act of service and prevented her servants from admonishing Paramahamsa. He had done her good, she said.

The scriptures convey a living message; the idols of God convey a living lesson. They are not wood or stone. That is why Sri Ramakrishna did not support those who directed that a broken idol be discarded. He asked whether Rani Rasamani would discard Mathur Babu, her son-in-law, if he happened to break his leg. He recommended that the idol be mended and used for worship.

With a view to test Ramakrishna, a disciple called Narendra or Vivekananda kept a few gold coins under the bed of Ramakrishna. Immediately Ramakrishna got up because he felt as if his body was burning. The inner meaning of this story is that Ramakrishna was still seeing the distinction between gold on the one hand and mind on the other hand. He kept on exchanging them from one hand to other hand, till he lost the sense of distinction between them. He then realised the quantity or the oneness of them.
Ramakrishna had the sense of total dedication. He was in great pain as a result of cancer, and his disciples asked him to pray to the Mother for the alleviation of the pain. Vivekananda was desperate when his master refused to ask this little favour from the Mother with whom he was literally on speaking terms. But Ramakrishna replied that as it was the Mother’s will that he must suffer, he was not going to pray for palliative. But his disciples were adamant. They bothered Ramakrishna so much that one day he prayed to the Mother that he may be helped to take a little food in spite of the cancer in his throat. Ramakrishna told his disciples that at that time he heard the mother admonishing him for his ignorance, "Are you not eating through all these billion throats? Why regret that one throat is incapable of taking down food?" This truth was brought home to the disciples by this revelation.

Thothapuri wanted that Ramakrishna must give up even his Ishtadevatha Kalimatha (Goddess Kali), when he sought the highest bliss. He helped Ramakrishna to overcome his deep-rooted attachment to that Name and Form. What then are we to say of the attachment to mere name of these yogis and rishis (sages), of the present time? They will not stir a finger, they will not give up a single desire or habit; they can not miss a meal or sit quiet for an hour; but they expect that God must grant them immortality and men must take them as their examples.

Disciples began to appear at this point in Ramakrishna's life. He embarked on a long period of teaching where he gathered a group of disciples around him. This period of his life is well documented by two sets of books written by his disciples. These references are listed below.

For those with a strong sense of Hindu nationalism, Ramakrishna's chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, entered onto the world stage by doing a keynote address at the World Parliament of Religions meeting in Chicago in 1893, and he electrified his audience. Hindus for generations could point to their indigenous traditions with pride after his exemplary speech.

Vivekananda also promoted a more activist form of Hinduism, which focused on education, feeding the poor, and developing libraries and other institutions. His works were a way of showing Hindus that it was not only the Christian missionaries that could benefit society, but that Hindu religion was also valuable with respect to improving society and combating social ills.

Ramakrishna died of cancer of the throat in 1886, leaving his wife Sarada Devi who was considered a saint in her own right to take charge of his disciples and carry on his message.

Books for Reference:
Courtesy: http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/]

THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA (KATHAMRITA) Slightly edited translation by Swami Nikhilananda published 1944
THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA (KATHAMRITA) Word to word translation by Sri Dharm Pal Gupta
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
VIVEKANANDA A BIOGRAPHY by Swami Nikhilananda (Published 1953)
REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (Third Edition, Published 1983) and other sources.
Short biographies of SRI RAMAKRISHNA (by Swami Tejasananda, published 1940), SRI MAA (by Swami Pavitrananda, published 1942) and SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (by Swami Tejasananda, published 1940).

Books on Ramakrishna: