Puran Chander Sharma
(The 182 Birthday (tithi Pooja of Sri Ramakrishna is being observed today on 28th of Feb, 2017)
When religion declines and irreligion prevails, I incarnate myself in every age to establish religion, declared Lord Krishna in the Bhagwad Gita. The infinite God takes a finite human form and plays in this world like one of us so that we can feel his presence and get a glimpse of His infinite nature.
Sri Ramakrishna was born on February 18, 1836, in Kamarpukur, a village sixty miles north-west of Kolkata. His father, Khudiram Chattopadhyay, and mother, Chandramani, were very devoted to God. Both had visions about their son before he was born. Sri Ramakrishna grew up in Kamarpukur and was sent to the village school where he learned to read and write but, he soon lost interest in this “bread-earning education”. When he was six or seven years old he had his first super conscious experience.
Khudiram died in 1843. Sri Ramakrishna keenly felt the loss of his father and became more indrawn and meditative. Sometimes he used to go to the nearby cremation ground alone and practice spiritual disciplines there.
Sri Ramakrishna moved to Kolkata in 1852 to assist his elder brother, Ram Kumar, who was conducting a school and performing ritualistic worship in private homes for living. On May 31, 1855, Ram Kumar officiated at the dedication ceremony of the Kali Temple of Dakshineshwar which has been founded by Rani Rasmani, wealthy woman of Kolkata. Sri Ramakrishna was present on that occasion and, soon after he moved to Dakshineshwar. And in time he became a priest in the temple.
Sri Ramakrishna now began his spiritual journey in earnest. While performing the worship of the Divine Mother, he questioned: “Are you true, Mother, or is it all a fabrication of my mind- mere poetry without reality? If you do exist, why can’t I see you?” As days passed Sri Ramakrishna’s yearning for God became more and more intense, and he prayed and meditated almost twenty-four hours a day. One day he became desperate. As he later described it :”In my agony I said to myself, ‘what is the use of this life?’. Suddenly my eyes fell on the sword that hangs in the temple. I decided to end my life with it then and there. Like a mad man I ran to it and seized. And then- I had a marvelous vision of the Mother and fell down unconscious”.
After this it was not possible for Sri Ramakrishna to continue the worship in the temple. His relatives thought that he had become mad, so they brought him back to Kamarpukur and arranged his marriage. In 1859, he was married to Sarada Mukhopadhyay, a young girl from the neighbouring village of Jayramvati. Sri Ramakrishna returned to Dakshineshwar 1860 and was again caught up in a spiritual tempest. He forgot his home, wife, family, body and surroundings. He once described his experiences of that period. “No sooner had I passed through one spiritual crisis than another took place. It was like being in the midst of a whirlwind- even my sacred thread was blown away. I could seldom keep hold of my dhoti (cloth). Sometimes I would open my mouth; it would be as if my jaws reached from heaven to the underworld. “Mother!” I would cry desperately. A prostitute walking the street would appear to be Sita, going to meet her victorious husband, and I lost consciousness. Sometimes I would share my food with a dog. My hair became matted. Birds would perch on my head and peck at the gains of rice, which had lodged there during the worship. Snakes would crawl over my motionless body. I had no sleep at all for six long years. My eyes lost the power of blinking. I stood in front of a mirror and tried to close my eyelids with my fingers. I used to shed tears- but then Mother appeared to me and comforted and freed me from my fear.”
Bhairavi Brahmani, a Tantric nun, initiated Sri Ramakrishna into tantra sadhna. Again, in 1864, he was initiated into sannyasa (monastic vows) by Tota Puri, a Vedanta monk- he attained nirvikalpa Samadhi. In that state the aspirant realizes his oneness with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality. After realizing God in different religions, Sri Ramakrishna proclaimed, “As many faiths, so many paths”. “They worship Me best who worship My worshippers. These are all my children and your privileges is to serve them”- is the teaching of Hindu Scriptures.
The great saints like Buddha, Christ and Sri Ramakrishna are the museums of truths; they are the libraries of true knowledge. They are the spiritual giants. These God-men are the salt of the earth. When they speak, the world is bound to listen. The words they speak have the power behind. They are the commanders; we come as beggars like. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “This world is a huge lunatic asylum where men are mad, some after money, some after women, some after name and fame, and a few after God. I prefer to be mad after God. Again this world is a mixture of sugar and sand where an ant picks up the sugar and leaves the sand. Similarly, we should be able to discriminate between good and bad”.
Sri Ramakrishna was a spiritual phenomenon. His favourite illustration was, “When the lotus opens, the bees come up their accord to seek the honey; so let the lotus of your character be full-blown, and the results will follow”. His message to mankind is :” Be spiritual realize truth for yourself”. He would stand before those women whom society would not touch, and falling at their feet bathed in tears, say, “Mother, in one form through art in the street, and in another form through art the Universe. I salute Thee, Mother, I salute Thee”. This rigorous, unsullied purity came into the life of that man. He condemned no one, but saw the good in all.
Men came in crowds to hear this wonderful man. Every word he spoke was forceful and instinct with light. The words of a man who can put his personality into them take effect, but he must have tremendous personality. Sri Ramakrishna would talk twenty hours in the twenty-four of the day, and that not for one day, but for months and months until at last the body broke down under the pressure of this tremendous strain. His intense love for mankind would not let him refuse to help even the humblest of the thousands who sought his aid. Gradually, there developed vital throat disorder and yet he could not be persuaded to refrain from these exertions. When expostulated with, he replied, “I do not care. I will give up twenty thousand such bodies to help one man. It is glorious to help even one man”.
We may accept him as a sadhu or as an Avatar, it does not matter. He is above every one. His disciples were actors in his divine drama and played their respective roles according to his wishes. Towards the end of his life, Sri Ramakrishna remarked : “God becomes man, an Avatar, and comes to earth with his devotees. And the devotees leave the world with him… a band of minstrels appears, dances, and sings, and it depart in the same sudden manner. They come and they return, but none recognizes them”.
The curtain fell on this great spiritual life on 16th August 1886. The immortal spirit, so long confined in the physical casement, burst through its limitations of name and form, and became one with the infinite spirit. The barriers of time and space were broken, and he who had been the light and guide of a few souls now became a spiritual beacon for the whole universe. His spirit had departed to travel along the path of collective life in the veins of humanity.
(The writer is the translator of, “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” into Urdu titled as “Shri Ramaakrishna ke Akwal-E-Zarin”. )
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