Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Ramakrishna (1836-1886 C.E.) was a famous Saint in the 19th century India. He was born on 18 February 1836 into a very poor but devoutly religious Brahmin family in the village of Kamarpukur, Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. He became a priest of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, dedicated to the goddess Kali. He is famously known as Ramakrishna Paramahansa among his devotees. His full name was Gadadhar Chattopadhyay.
He was married to Sarada Devi who later became his spiritual counterpart. Swami Vivekananda was one of his famous disciples. In honor of his Guru, Swami Vivekananda founded Ramakrishna Math which works for the welfare of others and spread the spiritual movement known as Ramakrishna Movement worldwide. Belur Math is the headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Mission.
Sri Ramakrishna, who was born in 1836 and passed away in 1886, represents the very core of the spiritual realizations of the seers and sages of India. His whole life was literally an uninterrupted contemplation of God. He reached a depth of God-consciousness that transcends all time and place and has a universal appeal. Seekers of God of all religions feel irresistibly drawn to his life and teachings. Sri Ramakrishna, as a silent force, influences the spiritual thought currents of our time. Through his God-intoxicated life Sri Ramakrishna proved that the revelation of God takes place at all times and that God-realization is not the monopoly of any particular age, country, or people. In him, deepest spirituality and broadest catholicity stood side by side.
The God-man of nineteenth-century India did not found any cult, nor did he show a new path to salvation. His message was his God-consciousness. When God-consciousness falls short, traditions become dogmatic and oppressive and religious teachings lose their transforming power. At a time when the very foundation of religion, faith in God, was crumbling under the relentless blows of materialism and skepticism, Sri Ramakrishna, through his burning spiritual realizations, demonstrated beyond doubt the reality of God and the validity of the time-honored teachings of all the prophets and saviors of the past, and thus restored the falling edifice of religion on a secure foundation. Drawn by the magnetism of Sri Ramakrishna’s divine personality, people flocked to him from far and near — men and women, young and old, philosophers and theologians, philanthropists and humanists, atheists and agnostics, Hindus and Brahmos, Christians and Muslims, seekers of truth of all races, creeds and castes. His small room in the Dakshineswar temple garden on the outskirts of the city of Calcutta became a veritable parliament of religions. Everyone who came to him felt uplifted by his profound God-consciousness, boundless love, and universal outlook. Each seeker saw in him the highest manifestation of his own ideal. By coming near him the impure became pure, the pure became purer, and the sinner was transformed into a saint.
The greatest contribution of Sri Ramakrishna to the modern world is his message of the harmony of religions. To Sri Ramakrishna all religions are the revelation of God in His diverse aspects to satisfy the manifold demands of human minds. Like different photographs of a building taken from different angles, different religions give us the pictures of one truth from different standpoints. They are not contradictory but complementary. Sri Ramakrishna faithfully practiced the spiritual disciplines of different religions and came to the realization that all of them lead to the same goal. Thus he declared, “As many faiths, so many paths.” The paths vary, but the goal remains the same. Harmony of religions is not uniformity; it is unity in diversity. It is not a fusion of religions, but a fellowship of religions based on their common goal –communion with God. This harmony is to be realized by deepening our individual God-consciousness. In the present-day world, threatened by nuclear war and torn by religious intolerance, Sri Ramakrishna’s message of harmony gives us hope and shows the way. May his life and teachings ever inspire us.
The Story of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa lived as a very intense devotee for most of his life. He was a devotee of Kali. For him, Kali was not a deity, Kali was a living reality. She danced in front of him, she ate from his own hands, she came when he called, and she left him dripping with ecstasy. This was real, it was actually happening. This was not a hallucination, he was actually feeding her. Ramakrishna’s consciousness was so crystallized that whatever form he wished became a reality for him. It is such a beautiful state for a human being to be in. But though Ramakrishna’s body, mind and emotion were dripping with ecstasy, his being was longing to go beyond this ecstasy. Somewhere there was an awareness that the ecstasy itself was a bondage.
One day, Ramakrishna was sitting on the banks of the Hoogli River when Totapuri – a very great and rare yogi, very few like that have ever happened – came that way. Totapuri saw that Ramakrishna was a man of such intensity with the possibility to go all the way and attain enlightenment. But the problem was, he was just stuck to his devotion.Ramakrishna was devoted to Kali and Kali was his only interest. When he was high on her, he would be bursting with ecstasy and dancing and singing.
Totapuri came to Ramakrishna and tried to convince him, “Why are you still so attached to your devotion? You have the potential to take the ultimate step.” But Ramakrishna said, “I want only Kali, that’s all.” He was like a child who wanted his mother. It is not possible to reason with that. It is a different state altogether. Ramakrishna was devoted to Kali and Kali was his only interest. When he was high on her, he would be bursting with ecstasy and dancing and singing. When he got a little low, when he lost contact, he would cry like a baby. This was the way he was. So whatever enlightenment Totapuri talked about, he was not interested in all that. In many ways Totapuri tried to instruct him, but Ramakrishna was unwilling. At the same time, he was willing to sit before Totapuri because Totapuri’s presence was such.
Totapuri saw that Ramakrishna was just going on like this. Then he said, “This is very simple. Right now you are empowering your emotion, you are empowering your body, you are empowering the chemistry within you. You are not empowering your awareness. You have the necessary energy but you just have to empower your awareness.”
Ramakrishna agreed and said, “Okay, I will empower my awareness and sit.”
But the moment he has a vision of Kali, he would again go into uncontrollable states of love and ecstasy. No matter how many times he sat down, the moment he saw Kali, he would just fly off.
So Totapuri said, “The next time Kali appears, you have to take a sword and cut her into pieces.”
Ramakrishna asked, “Where do I get the sword from?”
Totapuri replied, “From the same place you get Kali from. If you are able to create a whole Kali, why can’t you create a sword? You can do it. If you are able to create a goddess, why can’t you create a sword to cut her? Get ready.”
Ramakrishna sat. But the moment Kali came, he burst into ecstasy and forgot all about the sword and the awareness.
Then Totapuri told him, “You sit this time. The moment Kali comes…” and he picked up a piece of glass and said, “With this piece of glass, I am going to cut you where you are stuck. When I cut that place, you create the sword and cut Kali down.”
Again Ramakrishna sat and just when Ramakrishna was on the edge of ecstasy, when Kali appeared in his vision, Totapuri took the piece of glass and cut Ramakrishna really deep across his forehead.
At that moment, Ramakrishna created the sword and cut Kali down, becoming free from the Mother and the ecstasy of feeding off her. That is when he truly became a Paramahamsa, he became fully enlightened. Till then he was a lover, he was a devotee, he was a child to the Mother Goddess that he created.
Sourced from: Ramakrishna Paramahansa / About – Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa / The Story of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa