Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa

Introduction

Ramakrishna Paramhansa is one of the foremost Hindu spiritual leaders of India. His teachings are still deeply revered by the people. Sri Ramakrishna represented not only Hinduism but all faiths. He provided spiritual enlightenment to the people of Bengal and played a key role in the social reform movement in Bengal in the 19th century.

Early Life

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s original name was Gadadhar Chattopadhyay. He was born on February 18, 1836 in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. Gadadhar Chattopadhyay’s parents were Khudiram and Chandramani. Ramakrishna was born in a poor family and his parents were hardly able to make both ends meet. Ramakrishna disliked going to school, and was not interested in the pursuit of money. Ramakrishna loved nature and liked meeting monks who stopped at his village on their way to Puri.

Right from childhood Ramakrishna Paramhansa was an iconoclast. At his investiture ceremony (Upanayna) he shocked everyone when he declared that he would have his first alms as a Brahmin from a certain Sudra woman of the village. No argument or appeal was able to budge him from his position. Finally, Ramkumar, his eldest brother and the head of the family after the passing away of their father, gave in.

Ramakrishna’s elder brother Ramkumar ran a Sanskrit school in Calcutta and also served as a priest in some families. During this time, a rich woman of Calcutta, Rani Rashmoni, founded a temple at Dakshineshwar. She approached Ramkumar to serve as priest at the temple of Kali and Ramkumar agreed. Ramakrishna decorated the deity and when Ramkumar retired, Ramakrishna took his place as priest.

When Ramakrishna started worshipping the deity Bhavatarini, he began to question if he was worshipping a piece of stone or a living Goddess. This question disturbed him day and night. He prayed to Goddess Kali to reveal herself to him. One day he was so impatient to see Mother Kali that he decided to end his life. He seized a sword hanging on the wall and was about to strike himself with it, when he is reported to have seen light coming from the deity in waves. He is said to have been soon overwhelmed by the waves and fell unconscious on the floor. Ramakrishna prayed to Goddess Kali for more religious experiences and he is believed to have experienced a number of them.

Soon he became popular; drawn by the magnetism of Sri Ramakrishna’s divine personality, people flocked to him from far and near. People of all ages, caste, and religion visited him. Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s small room in the Dakshineswar temple garden on the outskirts of the city of Calcutta became a veritable parliament of religions.

His Teachings

Ramakrishna emphasized that God-realization is the supreme goal of all living beings. Hence, for him, religion served as a means for the achievement of this goal. Ramakrishna’s mystical realization, classified by Hindu tradition as nirvikalpa samadhi (constant meditation), led him to believe that various religions are various ways to reach the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed in human terms.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa taught ceaselessly for fifteen years the basic truths of religion through parables, metaphors, and songs and by his own life. He developed throat cancer and attained Mahasamadhi on August 16, 1886, leaving behind a devoted band of 16 young disciples headed by the well-known saint-philosopher and orator, Swami Vivekananda.

Books on Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa

1. The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna (Kathamrita) Slightly edited translation by Swami Nikhilananda published 1944
1. The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna (Kathamrita) Word to word translation by Sri Dharma Pal Gupta

Travelling into other faiths

Understanding Islam

As a result of the Advaita realization, the mind of Sri Ramakrishna had acquired a wonderful breadth, accepting all forms of religion as so many ways of reaching perfection. Towards the end of 1866, soon after his recovery from dysentery, Sri Ramakrishna was attracted by the faith and devotion of a Sufi mystic, Govinda Ray by name, who had embraced Islam and lived at Dakshineswar at this time. Gradually it came to the mind of Sri Ramakrishna that, since Islam was also a means to the realization of God, he would see how the Lord blessed the devotees who worshipped that way. He therefore got the necessary initiation from Govinda. Then he used to repeat the name of Allah, wear clothes in the fashion of the Mohammedans and recite the Namaz regularly. All Hindu ideas being wholly banished from his mind, not only did he not salute the Hindu gods, but he had no inclination even to visit them.

Knowing Christianity

In 1874 Sri Ramakrishna came into intimate contact with Shambhu Nath Mallick of Calcutta, who had a garden close to the Dakshineswar Kali temple. Sri Ramakrishna used to spend a good deal of time in this garden-house of Shambhu Mallick, who came to regard the Master with sincere love and esteem. Though not a Christian, he used to read the Bible to Sri Ramakrishna, who thus came to know about Christ and Christianity. He felt a strong desire to realize the Divine Mother by this new method, and it was fulfilled in a strange way. One day Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in the parlor of a neighboring house belonging to Jadulal Mallick, a devotee of the Master. On the walls were many beautiful portraits, one of them being that of Christ. Sri Ramakrishna was looking attentively at the picture of the Madonna with the Divine Child and reflecting on the wonderful life of Christ, when he felt as though the picture had become animated, and that rays of light were emanating from the figures of Mary and Christ and entering into him, altogether changing his mental outlook. Christ filled his heart and opened to his eyes the vision of Christian devotees burning incense and candles before the figure of Jesus in the churches and offering unto him the eager outpourings of their hearts. For three days those ideas held sway in his mind. On the fourth day, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw an extraordinary-looking person of serene aspect approaching him with his gaze intently fixed on him. He knew him at once to be a man of foreign extraction. Sri Ramakrishna was charmed and wondered who he might be. Presently the figure drew near, and from the inmost recesses of Sri Ramakrishna’s heart there went up the note: This is Christ who poured out his heart’s blood for the redemption of mankind and suffered agonies for its sake. It is none else but that Master Yogi Jesus, the embodiment of Love. Then the Son of Man embraced Sri Ramakrishna and became merged in him.

Realization about other faiths

It will be worthwhile to note here Sri Ramakrishna’s opinion of Buddha and other great founders of religion. About Buddha, he shared the general notion of the Hindus that Buddha was an Incarnation of God. He used to offer him his sincere devotion and worship. Once he remarked; there is not the least doubt about Lord Buddha’s being an Incarnation. There is no difference between his doctrines and those of the Vedic Jnanakanda. We have every reason to believe that he spoke thus because of his supernatural insight

About the Tirthankara who founded the Jain religion, and the ten Sikh Gurus, Sri Ramakrishna heard a good deal in his later life from the lips of representatives of those communities and came to entertain a great regard for them. In his room at Dakshineswar there were a small statue of Tirthankara Mahavira and a portrait of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening. Of the Sikh Gurus, he used to say that they were all incarnations of the saintly king Janak.

His Realization of all Faiths

Thus, as a result of his realization through all Forms of discipline, he was firmly convinced that all religions were true. Every doctrinal system represented a path to God. Through the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Monism and Monism-Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita and Advaita, he perceived different stages in Man’s progress towards the goal. He held that they were not contradictory, but complementary, being suited to different mental outlooks.

His message to disciples

I have practiced all religions. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God towards whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. The tank has several ghats. At one Hindus draw water in pitchers and call it jal; at another Mohammedans draw water in leathern bottles and call it pani; at a third Christians call it water.

Can we imagine that the water is not jal, but only pani or water? How absurd! The substance is one under different names, and everyone is seeking the same Substance. Every religion of the world is one such ghat. Go direct with a sincere and earnest heart by any of these ghats, and you will reach the water of Eternal Bliss. But say not that your religion is better than that of another.

Some Sayings of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa

You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man, because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.

God is formless and God is with form too, and He is that which transcends both form and formlessness. He alone can say what else He is.

God with form is visible; nay we can touch Him, as one does his dearest friend.

So long as the sound of a bell is audible, it exists in the region of form; but when it is no longer heard, it has become formless. Similarly God is both with form and formless.

The watchman can see with a dark lantern (bull’s-eye) everyone on whom he throws its rays, but no one can see him so long as he does not turn the light upon himself. So does God see everyone but no one sees Him until the Lord reveals Himself to him in His mercy.

The sun lights up the earth, but a small cloud will hide it from our view. Similarly, the insignificant veil of Maya prevents us from seeing the omnipresent and all-witnessing Sat-chit-ananda. Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.

If I hold this cloth before me, you cannot see me anymore, though I am still as near to you as ever. So also, though God is nearer to you than anything else, yet by reason of the screen of egoism you cannot see Him.

When shall I be free? When that ‘I’ has vanished. ‘I and mine’ is ignorance; ‘Thou and Thine’ is knowledge.

By acquiring the conviction that all is done by the will of God, one becomes only a tool in His hand. Then one is free, even in this life.