by T. P.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has vitalised the Indian national ethos through the dissemination of a spiritual path that is profound yet practicable. He has given a new glory, a new sanctity to time honoured yogic and tantric practices by mastering them only to subordinate them to the worship of God and to the service of mankind. Sri Ramakrishna's life is a shining example of unswerving devotion to God brought forth by intensely epiphanic mystic experiences of the all pervasive presence of divinity.

His 'spirituality' is so unostentatious yet all powerful that it is more in line with the wisdom of Upanishads than the trends and cults that took root in India in the decades before his advent. Unburdened by scholarship, uncorrupted by Westernisation, unbothered about establishing or strengthering a sect of his own, Sri Ramakrishna was a 'self-made' saint if such a term could be used in spiritual parlance. His father Sri Khudiram was an upright man originally from Dore who migrated to Kamarpukur because he did not want to be coerced into giving false evidence in a court case. When his first wife died childless, he took Chandramani as his second wife and Sri Ramakrishna was the fourth of the five children born to this pious couple. Prior to his conception both parents had visions about his descent into human form as an illustration of Vishnu's grace and that is why they named him Gadadhar. From the time of his birth in the early hours of 17-2-1836, onlookers were captivated by his fair looks and innocent endearing smile. As a boy of five, he could repeat verbatim the mythological stories narrated to him by his father, but in school no one could force him to study subjects he did not want to study. He loved painting the images of Gods and Goddesses and dancing in temples while singing bhajans. He used to show extra consideration to his mother after the death of his father and did not mind helping her with her domestic chores.

His favourite pastime was visiting the local dharmasala or choultry and talking to the sadhus and Sanyasins who were resting there on their way to the holy shrine of Jagannath at Puri. In his seventh year, the sight of a flock of cranes flying across beautiful blue clouds made him go into a trance of ecstacy. In his 11th year he went to a neighbouring village to offer worship at the Durga temple and while chanting her name he fell down and lost consciousness. In his 14th year while enacting on the stage the role of Lord Siva, he went into a deep trance. These sporadic trances mark the beginning of his ability to go into samadhi state at will later in life, after years of sadhana.

A non-Brahmin lady Dhani, who was at the bedside of Ramakrishna's mother at the time of his birth, doted on him, and he was also very fond of her. Legend has it that, during his "upanayanam" ceremony when, as part of the ritual he was asked to beg for alms, he shocked everyone by going straight to Dhani's house and receiving alms from her. This shows that, from the beginning, Sri Ramakrishna gave greater importance to devotion than to caste or convention.

In 1852, Ramkumar, Sri Ramakrishna's elder brother, took him to Calcutta to take his help in running the Sanskrit "tol" he started and also to personally supervise his education. But Sri Ramakrishna was adamant in his refusal to have "learning for breadwinning" because he was convinced that a learning that does not give one enlightenment is a waste of time. He happily volunteered, however, to share Ramkumar's priestly duties in the temple built at Dakshineswar by Rani Rasmoni. The temple premises were ideal for Sadhana and Sri Ramakrishna in subsequent years received spiritual instruction from many evolved souls like Bhairavi Matha and Sri Totapuri. Not one to be eclectic, he followed ascetic practices as ordained in religions other than Hinduism also. His teachers included the Sufi Govinda Raj, and the admirer of Christ, Sambhu Charan. His practice of asceticism was so rigorous that he used to forgo food and sleep for days on end. He gained such perfect mastery over his senses that he could eat with the same relish human excrement or a sweet like "jilebi". Though he followed the spiritual practices taught by many, his supreme teacher was always Mother Kali Herself. He had darshan of Kali both as benevolent mother and ruthless destroyer. A unique feature about Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana was his striving for, and attaining darshan of many other deities besides Kali.

When friends and family members thought that the proper cure for Sri Ramakrishna's "Godmadness" would be marriage, he not only agreed to get married but told them that his future bride Saradamani, then five years old, could be found in the village of Jayaramwati. The very fact that Sarada Matha was 'chosen' as wife by Sri Ramakrishna shows that she was an aspirant at a very advanced level of spiritual evolution. It was out of whole-hearted willingness, and not by coercion, that she chose to be of assistance to her husband in his chosen spiritual path of renunciation of all worldly pleasures. Sri Ramakrishna's performing 'Shodasi puja' to her clearly indicates that in his eyes she was none other than Kali, the Holy Mother.

Swami Vivekananda's becoming an ardent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna is also a divinely ordained occurrence. The importance of his instrumentality in spreading his master's message and in making Ramakrishna Mission a dynamic centre for practical Vedanta is too well known to merit repetition. As Sarada Matha was a perfect wife Swami Vivekananda was a perfect disciple. The combined spiritual power of the trio had given a new direction to human striving for self-realisation.

Sri Ramakrishna, in the course of his Sadhana acquired many "Siddhis" but he never gave any importance to them. Sri Ramakrishna's comment, when told of a Sadhu's acquiring after thirty years of rigorous yogic practice, the power to walk across water, was, "What folly! Can this power take him one step nearer to God? For three paise a boatman would have taken him in his boat across the water". He did not teach any systematised school of philosophy. His teachings have a pristine purity because they stem, not from any assiduously acquired scholarship, but, from direct experience of God-consciousness.

He could explain complex philosophic truths in simple language, with the help of easy to understand similes and parables. For instance, when asked once about the danger of a householder getting bogged down in samsara he replied that one could enter into the world after the attainment of Bhakti, since even as the milk of jack fruit cannot stick to palms annointed with oil, samsara cannot touch a heart insulated with Bhakti. To aspirants' questions on how to overcome 'weaknesses' his reply was that with progress in spiritual Sadhana weaknesses would automatically be 'shed' even as the petals of a flower fall down when the fruit is emerging. He wanted his disciples always to remember that they may live in the world but that the world should not live in them.

He used to drive home this point with the illustration of a boat that can keep afloat as long as water is outside it but would sink the minute water enters into it. According to Sri Ramakrishna, spiritual quest should be to experience God through devotion but not to understand Him through intellect. As God is beyond comprehension, Sri Rama Krishna says of a man trying to analyse Him. "He is like a salt doll trying to fathom the sea. He will be lost and absorbed in the attempt". It is insights like this which made Gandhi say that Sri Ramakrishna's utterances are not those of a mere learned man but are pages from the Book of Life. The ultimate in spiritual wisdom is to be garnered from Sri Ramakrishna's awareness of the all pervasiveness of Divinity even in the midst of excruciating physical pain. During his last days, when devotees, unable to see his suffering in the advanced stage of throat cancer, begged him to cure himself through praying, he agreed with a gentle smile. A few hours later, he sent word to Swami Vivekananda and told him that he did tell Mother Kali about his inability to swallow food but that she drew his attention to all the people in the Ashram and in the outside world and asked him if he was not eating through all those mouths.

This made them understand that every living thing in the universe was for him a vehicle of Mother Kali's love and grace and that Sri Ramakrishna's consciousness is no longer tethered to the shell of his own physical body

Perhaps the best description for Sri Ramakrishna's evolved spiritual state is to be found in his own assertion : "As a piece of rope when burnt retains its form but is no good for binding, so is the ego which is burnt by the fire of supreme knowledge".