Sri Narayan Guru – the well reputed great Indian saint, Advaita Vedantist and social reformer from Kerala was once asked about a century back by one senior monk of our Sri Ramakrishna Order, after showing him a photograph of Thakur Sri Ramakrishna ‘What do you think of this person?’ After intently looking at the picture for a while being totally unaware of whose picture it was, the Guru replied, ‘If Brahman be given a form, it would be like this.’ He was immensely pleased later after knowing that the picture was of the guru of Swami Vivekananda. (Sri Ramakrishna: The New Man of this Age by Swami Bhajanananda, PB: Jan 2011). Only a true Yogi can recognize God in human form – which indeed Sri Ramakrishna was.
Each and every object in this Universe – whether animate or inanimate – reveals Brahman. But there are variations in Shakti i.e. the capacity of revelation. Man being the most intelligent being in the world it is believed that Brahman or God or Shakti whatever you call reveals Him with more power in the human beings than in any other beings. In some human beings in which God or Brahman manifests Him best on earth – we call Him the Incarnation of God or Avatar. Leaving aside the stories of Purana where we find God incarnated as Fish or Tortoise or Boar or a half lion-half man form (Nrisingha), generally the Avatars are all human beings like Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, Buddhadev, Jesus Christ, Hazrat Muhammad, Sri Chaitanya and lastly in the modern time our Thakur Sri Ramakrishna.
As an Avatar, Sri Ramakrishna had some unique characteristics. Primarily He came to earth and lived in such a time when modern science and technology started developing at a rapidly accelerating pace. Ancient and traditional philosophies, faiths, beliefs, religions were being pushed to back seat. Experimentally verified and logically explained facts started replacing blind faiths and superstitions. The cultures and lifestyles of scientifically, technologically and industrially advanced Western countries started influencing easily the educated mass of our country which at that time was under colonial rule of British. So as an Avatar of the modern age Sri Ramakrishna had to develop himself and his philosophical guidelines for the future mankind most appropriate of the time.
Sri Ramakrishna is the only Avatar whose images are not imagined and sketched but real photographs taken by latest camera of that period and by expert photographers. Since it is only about hundred and twenty-five years He left his mortal body, all His teachings, sayings, life-stories are available duly and critically recorded as first-hand information in His life time free from time-gossip-oriented distortion, misinterpretation and myths as it now has been happened for other Avatars.
No Avatar has ever established a new religion – they only from time to time re-established the eternal truth and helped and guided mankind to live life with virtues and values free from any dogmatic views and to realize God. Unfortunately, it is some of their disciples, followers and devotees who in later period due to their dogmatic and secessional views created different religions and even different doctrines in the same religion leading many a times to inter- and sometimes intra-religious clashes and even large scale wars. Sri Ramakrishna in His unique way of practical sadhana established the indifference between different religious paths of realization of God.
Our senior monk of Sri Ramakrishna Order Swami Bhajananandaji Maharaj in one of his articles analyzed the three-dimensional personality of Thakur Sri Ramakrishna as the individual, the universal and the divine, In other words Sri Ramakrishna is
- the ideal man of the present age,
- the prophet of the present age,
- the deity of the present age.
Any aspect of Sri Ramakrishna his life, his teachings, his messages or his mission has the most realistic relevancies in present day’s context in the life of any modern individual.
Sri Ramakrishna was born hundred and seventy-five years ago in an extremely remote village Kamarpukur of the present State of West Bengal of British dominated India in a poor pious Hindu Brahmin family. At the age of five-six he had his first experience of cosmic consciousness while watching flying white cranes in the backdrop of black rainy clouds and this probably led him to feel that his human birth had some purpose, some definite mission to accomplish. He had sharp memory and intellect, keen observation power, logical mind, pragmatic and liberal views and capability to take decision and all these attributes made him very different from the likes of other village boys. He had only the single scope in front of him for earning livelihood by profession of priesthood in his native place but he abandoned his formal education in village school considering it as only a bread-earning education and instead he started educating himself by learning from nature and worldly life by observation, experience, thinking and judgement – a true sign of practical and scientific mind. He realized the futility of materialistic life and that the real purpose of human birth was to seek for ultimate truth.
In his youth he accepted the appointment of priesthood in the Bhavatarini temple of Dakshineswar near Kolkata and he utilized this scope for visualizing God single-handed in his own way of sadhana by intense devotion and prayer. The success of his endeavour after his vision of Mother Goddess Kali one day encouraged him to carry out an elaborate intense and most rare kind of spiritual practice or Sadhana for almost twelve years. His intention was to experimentally verify the truth of different religious paths in vogue as well as mentioned in different scriptures for realization of God, although He never read any scriptures. After getting full success in each one of His endeavours, He concluded that:
God alone is existent (the material) rest all in the universe are non-existent (non-material). The Ultimate Reality is one; but it is personal as well as impersonal, and is indicated by different names (such as God, Ishvar, Allah etc) in different religions.
The goal of human life is to realize God or the Ultimate Reality which alone can give man supreme fulfilment and everlasting peace. This is the essence of all religions. He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realize God in this very life.
The Ultimate Reality can be realized through various paths taught in world religions. All religions are true in so far as they lead to the same ultimate Goal. One must not be fanatic or dogmatic (must not possess Matuar Buddhi) for his own religion.
Here lies the practicality of Sri Ramakrishna – whatever Sri Ramakrishna later advised and preached to his disciples, devotees and admirers was fully based on his own practical experience and realization whereas mostly the religious Gurus, advisors and pundits of scriptures preach having either partial experience or no experience at all in realization of God. Sri Ramakrishna compared such attempt of them in his unique style of down-to-earth narration as ‘the almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But not a drop of water will you get by squeezing the almanac. No, not even one drop.’
After passing so long years in continuous devotion and spiritual practices and ascending the highest pinnacle of spiritual realization, Sri Ramakrishna developed a habit of dwelling in God-intoxicated state. He could not live for a single moment without the thought of God. God was in His dream, in His awakened state, in His every breadth, in His every talk or discussion, in His pain, in His ecstasy. Although He was married in the meantime, He was not so to say a family man – He renounced His materialistic worldly life for God. Although He formally took Sannyas before His Vedanta Sadhana – He never looked like a typical red ochre clad monk rather He looked in appearance like a plain living rustic gentleman. In fact, He remained ever as an innocent divine child fully dependent on Supreme Being whom He looked upon as His own real Mother. Whatever and whenever He required anything He insisted childishly from His Mother who fulfilled His demands. Whenever He wished He got the vision of his Mother – He talked with Her, cried to Her and always got Her responses. Very frequently He remained in trance state (Bhav-samadhi) and at one time He remained in that state for six months at a stretch. Any ordinary man if ever succeeds to attain such state can never return to survive. But Sri Ramakrishna had to survive as He came on earth as a God incarnation with a definite mission for the benefit of mankind – so in His such condition He was commanded by Supreme Being to remain in Bhavamukh.
The success of Advaita Vedanta sadhana led Thakur Sri Ramakrishna to attain Nirbikalpa Samadhi state the highest spiritual experience one can perceive when one indistinguishes own self with the Supreme Self. As per Advaita Vedanta a person attaining such state is a Brahma-Jnani to whom Supreme Self or Brahma is alone real and the rest or world unreal as said in dictum ‘Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithya’. How can such a Jnani do good for world or mankind which he feels it as unreal? Thakur went a step further – he conceived that Brahma alone is ever real and omnipresent and world or Jagat is His manifestation as divine play or Lila. Brahma is both the source and sink of Jagat that He said as ‘Brahma Nitya, Jagat Lila’. The cycle of creation, maintenance and destruction is the eternal game of Supreme Being and is like ferrying from Nitya to Lila and then from Lila to Nitya as compared by Thakur. Such realization promotes Jnani to Vijnani. Sri Ramakrishna explained as:
“The jnani gives up his identification with worldly things, discriminating, ‘Not this, not this’. Only then can he realize Brahman. It is like reaching the roof of a house by leaving the steps behind, one by one. But the vijnāni, who is more intimately acquainted with Brahman, realizes something more. He realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the roof: bricks, lime, and brick-dust. That which is realized intuitively as Brahman, through the eliminating process of ‘Not this, not this’, is then found to have become the universe and all its living beings. The vijnāni sees that the Reality which is nirguna, without attributes, is also saguna, with attributes.
“A man cannot live on the roof a long time. He comes down again. Those who realize Brahman in samādhi come down also and find that it is Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings. In the musical scale there are the notes sa, re ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni; but one cannot keep one’s voice on ‘ni’ a long time. The ego does not vanish altogether. The man coming down from samādhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnāna.” (Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda.)
To remain in such a state of duel perception like Vijnani means to remain in the state of Bhavamukh.
As a Vijnani Sri Ramakrishna could not consider Jagat as Mithya (unreal) – as an Avatar he was quite aware of his great mission and responsibility for the good of mankind of this very Jagat – and so he was anxious for how to accomplish it. As a bumble-bee is attracted to a blooming flower so people started to flock around Sri Ramakrishna. Many pundits, some of whom were celebrated authorities of Veda, Gita, Upanishads and other Sanskrit scriptures, were astounded hearing even the most complicated explanations of sayings of scriptures in most down to earth language and with examples from everyday real life so easily and effortlessly from so to say illiterate Sri Ramakrishna. A handful of educated and enlightened people from the then elite society of Kolkata became his strong admirers, followers, devotees and disciples. Sri Ramakrishna carefully selected amongst them a dozen plus young boys of very high morale and strong character who would carry on his ideals to the mankind of present and coming generations. He personally trained and initiated them on their spiritual struggle in the path of realization of God. This fire-brand group of youths under the leadership of Narendranath Dutta, later world-renowned Swami Vivekananda, renounced the world to take Sannyas and formed ‘The Ramakrishna Mission’ along with Ramakrishna Math a few years after the demise of their Guru Sri Ramakrishna. The basic idea behind formation of such mission was recorded in the minutes of the 2nd meeting of the Association on May 5, 1897 as:
Object: The object of this society is to propagate the principles propounded by Sri Ramakrishna and illustrated by His own life for the benefit of humanity and to help mankind in the practical application of those principles in their spiritual, intellectual and physical needs.
The Mission: The mission of this society is to carry on the work inaugurated by Sri Ramakrishna of fraternizing the various creeds of the world knowing them to be only phases of one eternal universal religion.
Method of Work: The method of work is by starting centres in different places to train spiritual and secular educators by encouraging arts, industries and by popularizing the study of Vedanta and other systems of the spiritual thought as interpreted by the life of Sri Ramakrishna.
Swamiji envisioned divinity in all human beings and so stressed on service to humanity as a part individual’s spiritual struggle towards realization of God. He made the motto of the Ramakrishna Mission as atmono mokshartham jagaddhitaya cha – “for one’s own salvation and for the welfare of the world”. Following Swamiji’s ideal and guidelines the Ramakrishna Mission for more than last one hundred years is carrying on service activities for the mankind especially for the poorer, under-privileged and downtrodden masses in the fields of
- Relief and rehabilitation for people in distress due to natural and man-made calamities like flood, earthquake, cyclone, ethnic clashes etc.
- Health care by establishing and running hospitals, health centres and mobile medical units and medical education through post graduate and research centres, nursing schools etc.
- Mass education by establishing and running one university, large numbers of schools, colleges and primary education centres.
- Spiritual culture through value education, worship, meditation, study of scriptures and holy texts through regular lectures, occasional seminars, Bhakta Sanmelans etc.
Now what made Swamiji being a traditional formal Hindu monk, an Advaita Vedantist whose sole objective would had been to seek for own salvation, to dive for such social services? Was it his own idea or a trend of thought of his Guru Sri Ramakrishna? In fact many ardent devotees and disciples who were intimate with Thakur were skeptic with Swamiji’s works at that time. Sri Ramakrishna was a rarest kind of mystic – very frequently and with no effort He could move to trance state and could talk to God or enjoy the ecstasy. Returning back to normal state He would discuss God, would sing and dance in the name of God. He never preached or lectured in public gathering – rather advised a small group of people sitting around Him, very lucidly with parables and citing examples from everyday life. Going through His biography and Gospel we find His prime advice to mankind was to seek God through any path of any religion. Once when Shambhu Charan Mallick, a dedicated devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, sought His blessings for to spend all his money for good purposes such as building hospitals and dispensaries; making roads, and digging wells etc., Thakur discouraged him by saying, “’It will be good if you can do these things in a spirit of detachment. But that is very difficult. Whatever you may do, you must always remember that the aim of this life of yours is the attainment of God and not the building of hospitals and dispensaries”. Again on the other hand we find how same Thakur forced Mathur Babu to serve poor villagers on two separate occasions with food and clothes.
In fact Sri Ramakrishna had infinite thoughts (Bhavas) and He was extremely adept in guiding any individual in his spiritual path as per his needs and capabilities. Though He remained mostly in God-intoxicated state, He was very sympathetic to poor, downtrodden and oppressed mass. He knew that religion is not possible in empty stomach and basic physiological needs like food, clothes and shelter get priority to general mass rather than religion. It was sometimes in 1884 – Sri Ramakrishna in his room at Dakshineswar was explaining to devotees in presence of Swamiji the then Narendranath that in Vaishnavism the doctrine teaches one to be careful always to observe three things namely a taste for God’s name (Name Ruchi), kindness or compassion to all beings (Jive Daya) and worship to Vaishnavas (Vaishnabpujan). While explaining the terms, Thakur at one point uttered in a semi ecstasy state, “No, no; not compassion to Jivas but service to them as Shiva.” Of all those present there only Swamiji understood the inner meaning and significance of what Master wanted to mean. He realized that how one Jiva can show compassion to other one when same God manifests through all beings? Rather revering Jiva as Shiva (God) by doing sincere self-less service to mankind one can purify one-self and can make rapid progress in attaining non-duel knowledge and this is what Swamiji meant by Practical Vedanta.
During his cross-country journey throughout India as a wandering monk Swamiji watched painfully the plight of millions of his poor, hungry, homeless, illiterate and oppressed countrymen. During his time the British ruled India was the poorest country in the world in terms of per capita income as statistics based historical research has proved today. He took a vow to give the practical shape of the Sadhan Mantra ‘Shiva-jnane Jiva-seva’ given by his Guru Sri Ramakrishna by socio-economic development of these poor Indians. Swamiji realized that for such human development the priority areas should be improvements in basic living condition, health, education and morality and he founded Ramakrishna Mission for service to mankind in these areas. Now-a-days the well-being of people of a country is measured by in index called Human Development Index that is calculated on the basis of the status of basic living condition, health and education of people of that country based on works of Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen and other economists. Recently many economists and sociologists today are advocating for introducing the morality and religious development of people in calculating Human Development index in addition to the basic amenities. Long back what ideas Swamiji conceived are today being proved true in reality.
Sri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of ancient Indian philosophy of India and his proclamation of ‘jatra jiva tatra shiva’ sprouted from his non-duel perception of Truth and was not a new concept. Even in Vaishnavism, it is said that “jatra jatra netra pade, tatra tatra Krishna sphure.” But the concept remained confined ever in Philosophy only and surely Sri Ramakrishna intended for its large scale practical application and entrusted His chief disciple Swamiji to give its practical shape. When Swamiji started Ramakrishna Mission for such purpose many of Thakur’s devotees disliked such attempt as they thought Swamiji was deviating from his Master’s advices and philosophies. But nobody understood Sri Ramakrishna so well as Swamiji did and he used to call himself Sri Ramakrishna’s slave. Nobody knows what his Master advised him and what task entrusted to him when Thakur made closed door private and confidential meeting with Swamiji alone for a number of days prior to leaving the mortal world. Swamiji got active support from his brother monks and disciples and a full approval and blessings from Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi in his mission.
Our human birth is for journey of upgradation from Apparent Man to Real Man – and we human being except one in a million forget this. God incarnates to remind us our real objective of our human life and so came Sri Ramakrishna. But he found millions of people suffering so much in their lives that they even degraded them from their apparent manhood. So first it was necessary to upgrade them to Apparent Man first so that they could be able to make progress in their journey to become Real Man and by serving them selflessly an Apparent Man could upgrade himself to Real Man more easily. Sri Ramakrishna was the Theory and Swamiji was the Practical Application. Swamiji proved the practicality of the ideas conceived by Sri Ramakrishna – the realistic mystic ever born on earth.
Eternity 