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Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna

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The Tantras and Kundalini Power
 | Raas Lila of Sri Krishna | 
 |  Story of Sri Krishna | 
Ma Saradadevi
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A Series of Articles on The Life of Sri Ramakrishna

A Series of Articles on The Life of Swami Vivekananda

A Series of Articles on The Gita

Poetry Section
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List of all Previous Articles

Immediate Previous Articles:
Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita
Story of Buddha
Spiritual Consciousness
Ma Saradadevi and Amzad
Introduction to Isha Upanishad
Samkhya and Vedanta
True Discipleship
More About Guru
Life of Ramakrishna and Its Relevance
Advaita Vedanta as the Quest for Knowledge

Related to Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda: Short Biography
At The Parliament of Religions: Chicago 1893
Swami Vivekananda and Madame Calve
Nature of India's Contribution

Related to Ramakrishna
Sri Ramakrishna: A Brief life sketch
The Game of Ladder
The Illusion
Glory of Sri Ramakrishna
Distracting Noises

Related to Hinduism
What is Hiduism?
Gita: An Introduction
Path of Devotion in Gita
Karma Yoga in the Gita
Introduction to Katha Upanishad
Introduction to Isha Upanishad
Religio-Social Movements

Related to Vedanta
NeoVedanta
Practical Vedanta
Maya
Yoga: Part 1 | Yoga: Part 2
MORE...

Of Special Interest:
Guided Meditation
Altered States of Consciousness
Neurophysiology of Meditation
Extra Sensory Perceptions
Frequently Asked Questions
Poetry Section
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French Translation: L'Histoire de Sri Ramakrishna
Spanish Translation:
El cuento de Sri Ramakrishna

Stories From Great Indian epics:

 |  Ramayana | 

 | Mahabharata | 

A series on the Gita

List of All Articles

Home Page |  Glossary

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Lessons From The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Lessons From The Gospel: Part 1 | Part 2  | Part 3

Part 4

'M' meets Ramakrishna at devotee's house

'M' met Sri Ramakrishna later at Balaram's house where he got acquainted with more close devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. Rakhal, Swami Brahmananda, was one of them who later became the first President of Sri Ramakrishna Order. 'M' noticed that Rakhal was spiritually advanced disciple and showed high spiritual growth that led him to experience states of trance, bhava. Besides Rakhal, Tarak, Sharat, and Naren 'M' came in contact with many more 'inner circle' disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who later took to monastic life. And like himself, many householder devotees used to come to Thakur out of love and devotion. They all were highly impressed by unusual love and attraction towards Sri Ramakrishna and equally powerful reciprocation of pure love by him.

At Dakshineswar 'M' also noticed peculiar changes in the mood of his Master. Many a time he (Sri Ramakrishna) would be seen talking to Mother, 'Mother, everyone says his watch alone is correct. The Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Brahmos, all think and try to impress their faith alone is true religion, all the other are false. But O Mother, you have shown me how every path is correct to take the aspirant to the same goal. Your Grace is all that is needed to see the Truth in all religions.' Second peculiarity of Sri Ramakrishna was his ability to impress the intricate truths about religion in simple language. He was capable of bringing home the point by pointing to daily observations in everyone's life, simple stories, and parables. Once he said, 'the bliss of worship and communion with God is the true wine, the wine of exotic love. I have no need to drink ordinary wine as I have tasted this wine.' Then making more important observation he said, 'the goal of human life is to love God. Bhakti is one essential thing.' In this process the devotee gets intoxicated with the wine of Bliss.

Third important way Sri Ramakrishna would impress upon the listeners the intricacies of spiritual philosophy was through his sweet and melodious recitation of songs and bhajans in praise of God, Sri Krishna, Mother Goddess and other deities. For this he used to take recourse to the devotional and emotional songs written by two Bengali poets, Ramprasad was the main amongst them. Sri Ramakrishna's voice was very sweet and impressed his audience very much. While singing he used to dance as well with most graceful movements and would fill the hearts of the onlookers with great devotion. Tears used to roll down from their eyes. Even Sri Ramakrishna was unable to check the flow of tears that would wet his chest. But it was not that Sri Ramakrishna alone sang; Naren, Trailokya Nath, and others were equally proficient in singing. Sri Ramakrishna used to reach the plane of divine consciousness, ecstasy, quite often while listening to these songs. Given below is a part of one such song:

I drink no ordinary wine,
but Wine of Everlasting Bliss,
As I repeat my Mother Kali's name;
It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk!
First my guru gives molasses for the making of the Wine,
My longing is the ferment to transform it...

Such impressive session after sessions changed the perception and conception of 'M' about religion, devotion, knowledge, and God. He was highly impressed by the true devotion, love, and knowledge of Sri Ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna visits Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar

On 5th August 1882 Sri Ramakrishna paid a visit to famous Bengali educationist, philanthropist, and noble person of high reputation. Pundit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was kind hearted and compassionate well-known social personality of his time. He was Sattvik by nature and helped the needy students by way of financial support and kind words. Sri Ramakrishna used to visit such personalities deliberately, and used say that in such persons the light of God manifests more clearly and therefore one should visit them. Such persons are shreshtha in their own way and in their field of activity that influences other members of the society. (We shall also see Sri Ramakrishna' meeting with another great socio-religious leader - Keshab Chandra Sen in the next chapter.)

At about four in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna reached the house of Vidyasagar. Vidyasagar means ocean of knowledge; therefore, Sri Ramakrishna started with great fun and joy: "Till now I have met springs and rivers, but today I have come the ocean itself!" To this, Vidyasagar replied, 'sir, then please take home some salt water from this sea.' But Sri Ramakrishna never saw smallness or defect anywhere or in anyone. Hence with genuine feeling he said: "Oh, no! Why salt water? You are not the ocean of ignorance; you are the ocean of vidya - knowledge! Everyone would learn something from you."

Here Sri Ramakrishna introduced a new concept of what I would call 'sattvik rajas'. "Your activities are inspired by sattva. Though they are rajasik, they are influenced by sattva. Compassion springs from sattva. You are distributing food and learning. That is good too. If these activities are done in a selfless spirit they lead to God," so said Sri Ramakrishna. During subsequent discussion Sri Ramakrishna took a dig at persons with mere scholarship without spiritual leanings. Like vultures these pundits soar high, but eye mere rotten flesh on the earth.

The conversation turned to the Knowledge of Brahman. Brahman as Absolute Consciousness is beyond all dualities; pleasure and pain, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. "One may read the Gita by the light of a lamp, and another fellow may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected." The same is with Brahman; He is beyond sex, nationality, and name and form. What Brahman is cannot be described by tongue, meaning by words. And equally true is the fact that seldom does one ever realize totality of Brahman. These truths should bring humility and feeling of surrender (to almighty) in sadhakas heart. And Sri Ramakrishna said, "Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean's depth?"

Many more words of highest wisdom flowed from the mouth of Sri Ramakrishna that day. Everyone was spell bound in that atmosphere surcharged with spiritual wisdom. Sri Ramakrishna emphasized the need for Narada Bhakti in addition to jnana, for renunciation and other qualifications required to undertake path of jnana are difficult to cultivate in this age. Love for God with attitude of humility and surrender pays rich dividends in this age. Faith and devotion, service and selfless work make the approach easy to reach God. At the same time Sri Ramakrishna insisted that even noble undertakings and feelings for poor in the form of social reforms might distract the mind from the true goal, realization of God. Therefore, one should be always on guard, lest one should slip into work that inflates the ego.
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Lessons From The Gospel:
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

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C. S. Shah

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