Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna―Introduction
Book 1 = Sayings 1-226
Book 2 = Sayings 227-638
Book 3 = Sayings 639-1019
Book 4 = Sayings 1020-1120.
PAGE Introduction page 1
I.
Man 27
II.
Maya 39
III.
Maya as Woman and Gold 44
IV.
Maya as Ahamkara or Egotism 53
V.
Bondage of Book-learning 63
VI.
Religious Teachers―False and True . 71
VII.
The Worldly-minded and Their Ways 78I
BOOK
II
THE ASCENT OF MAN
VIII.
Varieties of Aspirants and Their Ideals 91
IX.
Some Aids to Spiritual Life 112
X.
Ways of Spiritual Life 126
XI.
.. Spiritual Aspirants and Religious Differences
XII Essentials of Spiritual Life 158
XIII: Yearning for God 190
BOOK III
MAN AND THE DIVINE
CHAP. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. |
. The Lord and His Devotees Helpers in the
Spiritual Path Jñāna, Bhakti and Karma The Divine Realization of the Divine The Man of Divine Realization Glimpses of the
Masters Experiences in His Own Words BOOK IV. MAXIMS AND PARABLES Some Maxims Parables Index |
PAGE 199 213 227 265 281 295 306 331 336 393 |
Prepared by
Veeraswamy Krishnaraj
Bhagavadgitausa.com/SayingsOfSriRamakrishnaIntroduction.htm
INTRODUCTION
THE sayings and parables of Sri
Ramakrishna included in this volume speak themselves as far as their spiritual
value and philosophic depth are concerned. The stamp of genius they bear cannot
escape the notice of even a casual reader. But wise maxims and admirable reflections on life have been given also
by great intellectuals and first-rate literary men. The sayings embodied
in this volume should, however, be distinguished from the productions of such
men. For
with all their artistic beauty and sublimity of thought, the writings of one,
who is merely an academic philosopher or a man of letters, lack authority in
matters relating to God and spiritual life, since their author is on1y groping
in the dark, just like any plain man, as far as these subjects of
transcendental significance are concerned. The sayings of Sri Ramakrishna stand
on quite a different footing in this respect, because Sri Ramakrishna possessed not
only a great intellect and an artistic mind, but had the additional
qualification that he had seen God face to face, talked with Him and shared the
divine life. Hence his words on these transcendental themes come with a weight
of authority derived from the Supreme Being Himself. Our
excuse for writing the following brief life-sketch of his as an Introduction
to this edition of his sayings. is that there may be among its
readers persons who have had no occasion to study any detailed biography of his
and to be acquainted with this unique aspect of his life and teachings.
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna
II
Sri Ramakrishna was born in a poor
Brahmin family of the village called Kamarpukur in
Bengal, on the 11th February, 1836. His father Khudiram Chatterjee was a man of great piety and
uprightness of character. His adherence to truth was so great that he would not
break this cherished principle of his life even when he found that its
observance meant utter ruin to himself and his family. Once when bidden by the landlord of the village to bear false witness in his favour,
Khudiram refused to do so, and in his wrath at the
defiance of this virtuous Brahmin the big man of the village despoiled him of
all his earthly possessions. His mother Chandramani
Devi too was a paragon of womanly virtues. And
tradition has
it that this pious
couple had many Divine visions and experiences before the birth of Sri
Ramakrishna indicative of the divinity of their Gadadhar,
as they called their son in his early days.
From his infancy Sri
Ramakrishna showed signs of the great power of personality that became a
distinguishing feature of his in later life. As a boy he could easily fascinate
people, and become the darling of his elders and the beloved leader of his own
playmates. He had the soul of an artist that revelled
in Nature s beauties and caught the subtle shades of difference in sounds and images as well as in the formation of the faces and muscles
of men. The favourite pastimes of his boyhood therefore
consisted in mimicry, portraiture, day-modelling, dramatic performances,
devotional music and contemplation of epic heroes and
heroines. And it was perhaps the artist in him that led him
to revolt against the dull routine of the school and its curriculum of stereotyped studies, and show
special dislike for exact sciences like mathematics. But his keen
intellectual powers and prodigious memory more than compensated for this
dislike of academic study. He educated himself in a higher sense by mastering
the Hindu epics embodying. the great spiritual ideals of India through listening to
their recital and exposition by scholars, and above all by going direct to
Nature to study men and things through observation.
Among. the
boys of his age he was noted for his courage and stubborn spirit of
independence. Even from infancy he knew no shyness or timidity. Full of health
and vigour, he would never allow
himself to be bullied or put down by elders when he
considered himself in the right. In the face of some of the influential elders
of the village he defied the rules of Purdah (the system of secluding women)
which he considered in themselves to be of no use in educating women in high
ideals of character. He must have been considered a revolutionary by many in
that conservative village when, on the occasion of his Upanayana
ceremony (investiture with sacred thread), he insisted, in the face of much
opposition, on receiving his first Bhiksha or alms
from a blacksmith woman, according to the promise he made to her previously.
But the young rebel was not without
the quality of reverence. For love of God was ingrained in him from childhood
and both in the worship of the Deity in his own house as well as in the
religious activities of the village in general, he took a leading part. From
early life he had a fancy for wandering ascetics and he mixed and conversed
with them freely whenever he got an opportunity. With the advance of years his
devotional inclinations took a more definite form. Enwrapped in Divine
contemplation, he was often seen to pass into high
spiritual moods that culminated in ecstasy. The most noteworthy occasions of
such occurrences in his early days were mainly three―once while observing a
flight of snow-white cranes against a dark sky overcast with sombre thunderclouds, next in the course of enacting the
part of Siva in a village drama, and again while singing songs in praise of the
Deity during a pilgrimage. And it was this devotional strain that ultimately
dominated over the leader, the artist and the rebel in
him, and organized the diverse qualities of his personality in the service of
the supreme spiritual ideal, the achievement of which made him one of the noted
figures in modern times.
III
The proper environment for the full development
of Sri Ramakrishnas personality was
provided by the Kali temple of Dakshineswar in
Calcutta, founded by the Rani Rasmani in 1855. The
daily round of pious duties as the chief priest in the Divine mothers temple fanned the fire of devotion in him. He was observed to send hours in deep meditation and singing devotional songs. It was also found that he was spending a large part of his
nights in contemplation in the jungly regions of the
garden, quite bereft of all clothing and even the sacred thread. In his method
of worship the rigid observance of rituals was noticed
to give place gradually to an informality of procedure born of a sense of
intimacy with the object of worship.
All this was only the sign of the
storm that was raging in his soul-the passionate longing to know whether the Mother whom he
worshipped was real or not. As days passed, this longing became so great that
one day he was about to put an end to his own life in despair. Suddenly the
screens that hid the Truth from his souls eyes
disappeared, and
passing into a state of ecstasy, he had a vision of the Divinity as
a boundless, effulgent Ocean of
Intelligence. The solace and the sense of Divine
presence accompanying this experience did
not however last for many days. He found that it gave him only a glimpse of the
higher life, but did not enrich his consciousness with a perpetual experience
of the Divinity. Hence this first flight of the soul only went to whet his
appetite for the Divine, and in the period of dryness
that soon followed, he was filled with a longing, even more powerful than the
previous, to
feel the presence of
God everywhere and at all times. The intensity of the urge was so great that
he practically lost all sense of reality for the external world. Without any
thought of even food or sleep, he began to spend his whole time in praying to
the Divine Mother in the agony of his soul. It became impossible for him to
perform the daily worship of the Deity in the temple any longer. Therefore Mathuranath, the manager of the temple and son-in-law of
Rani Rasmani, who had by this time
contracted great affection and respect for Sri Ramakrishna, relieved him
of his duties in the temple, and gave him every facility to pursue his
spiritual inclinations. And Sri Ramakrishna utilized this opportunity to plunge
himself into prayer, meditation and ascetic practices with an intensity of
spiritual aspiration that has seldom been witnessed in the world. Often seized
with a desperate longing, he was seen to rub his face
on the ground until it bled.
Describing this insatiable longing of his soul for God, he
said to his disciples in later days that it was something like the organic craving that a man kept under water felt
for a breath of air. Again
he used to say that one could have a hazy idea of that craving for God if one
could imagine a concentration of these three types of attachments―a misers
fondness for his hoarded wealth, a noble lady’s love of her husband, and a
parents affection for an only child.
About this time he
went on a visit to his village at Kamarpukar. His
mother thought that if he married his madness for God and supreme unconcern for
the world would be checked, and that he would
naturally come back to normal ways of living in course of time. Accordingly in 1859 he was
wedded to Saradamani Devi, a little girl of five,
daughter of Ramachandra Mukhopadhyaya
of a neighboring village. Though this marriage was destined to have
important consequences in his later days, it did not have the intended effect
of abating his zeal for Gog. For, immediately after his return to
Dakshineswar in 1860, his soul again caught in the same cyclonic
passion of God-love.
Till now his spiritual strivings may be described as a solitary and unaided quest. From this
time onwards many great spiritual teachers went to him, as if sent by Divine
Providence, to help him in his search after God, and with their guidance he
began to practice various spiritual disciplines as enjoined in the scriptures.
There are two (outstanding features
that distinguish Sri Ramakrishna from other spiritual aspirants in this aspect
of his life. One is the rapidity with which he attained success in each Sadhana (spiritual practice). which
may be explained
as due to the intensity of his quest. The other is the variety of Sadhanas he underwent, which is unprecedented in the spiritual history of mankind.
The first of his teachers to arrive was Bhairavi
the Brahmani, who met Sri Ramakrishna in 1861. She was a middle-aged
Brahmin woman of great learning and high spiritual attainments, and under her
guidance he successfully underwent all the principal spiritual practices
mentioned in the sixty-four Tantras of the Sakta cult. All these practices relate to the worship of
the Deity as the Divine Mother of the universe, and several of them are so
difficult to follow that none but those who are perfect masters of the senses
and are capable of seeing the Divinity in everything,
can practice them with advantage or safety. His successful pursuit of them
gives one a fair idea of the great purity of his mind and his innate spiritual genius. Besides bestowing
on him the realization of the Divine Mother in her diverse aspects, this discipline of
Mother-worship established him in the conviction that
every woman is a manifestation and a symbol of the Divine Mother in a special
sense.
The
Vaishnava form of Sadhana was another type of spiritual
discipline that Sri Ramakrishna practised. The Vaishnavas worship the Deity by cultivating various forms
of personal relationship with Him, known as Bhavas or
attitudes, as those of the servant towards the Master (Dasya), of the
friend towards friend (Sakhya), of the parent towards the child (Vatsalya), and of the beloved
towards her sweet-heart (Madhura). Sri Ramakrishna adopted all these
attitudes one after another, and while doing so, he used to identify himself with the
classical personalities with whom a particular attitude has been traditionally
associated―with Mahavir for Dasyabhava, with Radha for Madhura-bhava, and so on.
During such periods of
identification, he used to live like those very personalities and express in
himself their consciousness and behavior. Thus for many months he lived like a
woman in the company of women, while practising the Sakhya and Madhura forms of Sadhana; and neither he nor the ladies in whose company he
lived felt any sense of strangeness or artificiality in this. So radical was the transformation he could effect
at will on his consciousness and even on his physical life.
Next in 1864 he came into contact
with a great Vedantin of the non-dualistic
school, an itinerant monk named Totapuri. Sri Ramakrishna was initiated by him into the life of Sannyasa. Till now he was worshiping the deity as the Divine Personality
endowed with attributes.
From Totapuri he learnt the method of contemplating on Him
in His attributeless and impersonal aspect. So ripe
was his mind for this highest form of spiritual discipline that within a period
of three days after his initiation, he attained the Nirvikalpa-samadhi
or the state of unconditioned consciousness, which the Advaita scriptures speak
of as the goal of all the spiritual endeavors of man. And after Totapuri had
left Dakshineswar at the close of nearly an years stay in the temple. Sri
Ramakrishna remained in the non-dual state of Nirvikalpasamadhi
continuously
for six
months,
In 1866 he received initiation in Islamic spiritual practices from a Sufi ascetic named Govinda, and discovered that that path also
ultimately led to the same spiritual realisation which the Hindu systems of spiritual discipline had given him. Sometime later he meditated on Christ and his ideals, and found
the goal of that path also to be identical with that
of that other religions.
The long period of Sri Ramakrishnas
spiritual practice came to a close in 1872 with the inspiring rite known as the Shodasi Pooja when he worshipped
his own wedded wife as the symbol of the Deity, His girl wife, Saradamani Devi, had by this time grown up into a young
woman. During these years she
had seen her husband only on two or three occasions. In 1872 she went to Dakshineswar, anxious, as she was to serve her
husband, whom the village gossip described as mad. Quite unlike ordinary
ascetic, Sri Ramakrishna received her kindly, and did everything to educate her
in secular and spiritual matters. Her presence, at Dakshineswar
also helped him to test his own realization and sense-control, but in every form of crucial test, he
found that he was above all bodily cravings, and that he could view every
woman, including his own wife, as a manifestation of the Divine Mother. In
token of this attainment, he placed his own wife before him as the Deity,
offered her worship with all the proper rituals, surrendered all the fruits of
his spiritual practices at the feet of the Deity manifest as the pure virgin,
and at the close of the worship entered into deep Samadhi.
IV
The Shodasi Pooja is Supposed to mark the close of Sri Ramakrishnas life as an aspirant (Sadhakabhava), and
herald the period of his spiritual ministration as the world-teacher (Gurubhava). After this time his insatiable craving for
practising spiritual disciplines abated. In place of it he felt the
unshakable conviction of truth within himself. What was more,
he began to have a vivid consciousness of the mighty spiritual power and wisdom
that the Divine Mother was manifesting through his body and mind, and he felt
an intense longing to minister unto the spiritual needs of men.
Indeed, a detailed
study of his life-incidents would show that from his boyhood onwards there was
present in him the inborn quality of a teacher, and that gleams of spiritual
wisdom emanating from him used to enlighten the hearts of men every now and
then. This became, more and more prominent in the course of his spiritual
practices. His attitude towards Rani Rasmani and Mathuranath, the proprietors of Dakshineswar
temple, was
not that of an employee, but that of an intimate friend at ordinary times, and that of their lord and saviour in his exalted spiritual moods. Persons who came to teach him often learned from him more than what they taught him. By his contact, Bhairavi Brahmani had the defects of her character rectified and came to be endowed with supreme renunciation. From him, Totapuri, his spiritual preceptor in the path of Advaita learned the secret of the love of the Personal God, to which he was a stranger before. Besides, when he went on pilgrimage with Mathuranath in 1870, many an aspirant in the holy places he visited drew inspiration from his company.·And what was more, from time to time innumerable ascetics of various orders were flocking to Dakshineswar, and most of the sincere aspirants among them received spiritual help from him.
Among these aspirants were also some of the scholarly Pandits of those days like Vaishnavacharan, Padmalochan, Gauri and Narayan Sastri. who were so filled with inspiration in his company that they looked upon him as an Incarnation of Godhead.
Thus from his early days the mood of the teacher was present in him. But it was, however, occasional, the dominant attitude of his till now being that of a Sadhaka or spiritual aspirant. But after the Shodsi Pooja the ardour of the spiritual aspirant got
transformed
into the Intensity of the redeeming love of the world-teacher.
Sri
Ramakrishna was now
a Divya, a divine
man. His
awareness of God had become perpetual, and did not depend on any particular
state of mind like ecstasy, although the phenomenon of ecstasy continued to be
a frequent occurrence with him till the last. The state of mind that he had gained may be described in
terms of Christian mysticism as theopathetic (religious emotion excited
by the contemplation of God.) or in his own words as Bhava-mukha―a
state in which the mind could ever dwell in the Divine both in His absolute and
relative aspects, and yet without the least distraction
of this union, apply itself actively to
everyday concerns of life. That his experience of God was not an imaginary state or a
degenerate sub-normal condition, we know from its effect on his character, which in its power and
purity, stands in striking contrast with that of the
so-called great and mighty men of the world. Unlike even the best and greatest
of them,
he was established in a
state of peace, poise and radiant joy, which could not in the least be affected by any change of worldly fortune. He was absolutely
free from carnality, and in all women, whether noble or fallen, he saw the
expression of the Divine Mother. Nor had he any selfish attachment to possessions, ―a trait
of character which he expressed by developing in himself a
spontaneous inability to possess anything or even to touch any metal.
For in the period of Sadhana he used to take mud and precious metal in hand and throw them both into the
Ganges, discriminating within himself that, though their value differed in
point of purchasing worldly goods, they were both alike, and to an equal degree
worthless, in gaining for oneself the realization of God.
This idea went so deep into him that in course of time he began
to feel even physical pain at the touch of any metal, and a violent shock in his body
and mind when anybody offered him
money or property. He was also devoid of all worldly snobbery and discrimination against men placed in low positions of
life, and this he symbolized by cleaning the dirty places in the huts of
scavengers with his own long matted hair. His adherence to truth was
something phenomenal. Not
only did his habit of truthfulness extended
to the major issues of life, but even to
petty matters like an agreement to visit a place on a particular day, or to
take a medicine from a particular person and not another. Even if his conscious mind happened to forget a promise or an agreement, his body reminded him of it by refusing to act in any way that would be contrary to
his words. Indeed, he said that when he surrendered everything to the Divine Mother, he could not surrender the virtue of Truthfulness:
for, if that was done, the very truth of his self-surrender would be falsified. And withal,
he possessed many wonderful powers of personality, of which we shall say more
in the succeeding sections.
V
Although this phase of his life as the world-teacher might be said to have begun from 1872. his spiritual
ministry reached its climax only after 1875 (age 39, born Feb1836) when he got
acquainted with the great Brahmo leader Keshub Chandra Sen. Keshubs
public utterances and writings about him attracted the notice of the educated men of Calcutta
to him and a constant stream of them, both young and old, began to visit him, attracted by the
power of his love and holiness. Among those who met him and held him in great
respect may be mentioned
the names of many of Indias best thinkers, writers
and leaders of those days, like Keshub Chandra Sen, Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Sivanath Sastri, Vijay Krishna Goswami. Devendra Nath Tagore, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Michael Madhusudan
Dutt, Aswini Kumar Dutt, and Girish Chandra Ghosh.
From among the many earnest souls
who went to him, a good many became very intimate with him, and formed into the
group of his devotees through whom his message was destined
to be transmitted to the world at large in later days. This group was
formed of two sets of people ―one, of elderly, married, gentlemen settled down in life, and the other of young school and college boys who had
not yet taken upon themselves the responsibilities of life. It was this second group that took to the life of Sannyasa
afterwards, and formed into the Ramakrishna Order of monks under the leadership
of Swami Vivekananda, then known
as Narendranath Datta. The Swami was the special
object of Sri Ramakrishnas love and grace, and in later life spread his Masters message far and
wide and made a lasting impression on the consciousness of his countrymen as
the great patriot-saint of modern India.
The rest of Sri Ramakrishnas life was spent in
teaching these devotees and in moulding their lives
in the light of the highest spiritual ideal. The manner and method of his
teaching as well as his relationship with his disciples,
were in many respects unique. He never undertook the work of teaching in an
egoistic sense. He was the
humblest of men without any sense of ego in him, and he attributed all that he
achieved to the Divine Mother of the universe. And it was because of this very
fact of his having surrendered his ego completely to the Divine that the Guru Sakti (the redeeming power of the Lord) manifested itself
through his body and mind in so remarkable a degree, sanctifying and
enlightening all that came within their influence.
Before he accepted people as
disciples, he subjected them to very minute tests and got a thorough understanding
of their character. He would study their nature by observing their physical features―an art in which
he was a past master. He would watch
carefully the little actions of their daily life at unguarded moments, and
besides gauge their worth by putting them questions and observing their
reactions towards his teachings and ideals. In addition to these methods he would also sometimes use his Yogic powers
to see into the hearts of men, or to put them into a sort of trance in which they revealed the innermost
contents of their minds.
As for those whom he
accepted as disciples, he made them his own by the power of his love, the like
of which they never received even from their parents. He spared no pains in
instructing them, and in seeing that they carried out his instructions into
practice. Often by a touch
or an act of will, he would obliterate any undesirable tendency he found in
them, and bestow on them the highest experiences of spiritual life. The
very contact with his dynamic personality, radiant with the flame of holiness,
Divine love, imparted strength and steadiness to their
aspiration for the Divine life. He never entered into arguments with people or
delivered academic discourses to them, but just
stated his settled convictions on spiritual matters in all humility, and left
each person to understand and accept according to his capacity. He never forced his views on
anyone. Those of his disciples who were critically minded were free to
criticize his teachings, and also to test him just as
he himself tested them. Such conduct on their part only brought his praise,
never his displeasure.
He had the strange capacity to make
himself interesting and intelligible to people of diverse temperaments and
stages of intellectual development. He could astound learned Pandits like Sasadhar and Iswar Candra Vidyasagar
by the profundity of his wisdom, and he could also
bring himself to the intellectual level of the ignorant village woman who went
to him to get the wounds of her heart healed, or to have her simple doubts cleared. Himself an orthodox
Hindu in his life and thought, and quite innocent of modern scientific and
social ideas, he could yet have appreciation and sympathy for the ideals and
aspirations of champions of reform and rationalism. In his room could therefore
meet on friendly terms a Viswanath-Upadhyaya and a Keshub Chandra, a Narendranath
and a Nag Mahashay, a Dr Mahendra Lal Sircar
and a Girish Chandra Gho.
As in the practice of diverse religions with mutually conflicting traditions,
here too the- unparalleled catholicity of his mind and heart could alone
account for this wide range of his sympathy and his appeal as a teacher to men
of diverse temperaments and outlooks. Truly he
was the most universal yet most individual of men.
There was with him
none of the formal features usually characteristic of the relationship between Guru and disciple, or did he demand any cringing
reverence or any attitude of awful expectancy from those whom he taught. His disciples were more intimate
with him than the members of a loving family, and he was to them dearer than
their earthly parents. He preached no particular dogma, creed
or philosophy. What he did was to convey to people a spirit that transformed
their outlook on life and gave them, an insight
into the ultimate nature of the world and of human personality. In doing this. he relied not on
formal sermons and discourses, but on loving contacts, illustrations drawn from
Nature, a life of purity and self-control, and above all the practice of silent
Japa and meditation. He never failed to impress on disciples that the
scrupulous observance of truth and absolute continence was the unavoidable condition for the realisation
of spiritual ideals.
Another remarkable feature of his method was its
unconventionality, and its intermingling of the
serious and the funny, the sublime and the ridiculous. Almost every day,
centering round him, were enacted in his room scenes
that by turn inspired, entertained, instructed and consoled those who were
present. He would sing devotional songs with an ecstatic abandon, and dance
with the joy of the Mother's name. This might be followed
by simple and luminous exposition of abstruse metaphysical and ethical problems
lie the relation between the Impersonal and the Personal God, or the
compatibility of Gods goodness with the existence of evil in the world. From
these thoughts on transcendental wisdom, he could with the utmost ease, come to
sound practical instruction on conduct in the world. He taught the simple-minded
Yogen about the ways of bargaining in the market; checked
the impetuous Niranjan in his rash actions; taught
Hari, the disciple who hated women, to be considerate towards the fair sex;
consoled old Mani Mallick in the bereavement of his
only son; and reprimanded the brother of S. for neglecting his duty towards
wife and children. His instructions, whether on philosophy, devotion
or conduct, would take the form of witty sayings, striking analogies and
illuminating parables couched in his rustic conversational Bengali of a highly
expressive type, and delivered in his sonorous voice with a slight though
delightful stammer in it. Often these talks were punctuated with humorous
remarks that creates sidesplitting laughter among his hearers and with masterly caricatures of men and
things―of the Kirtaniya (professional singer of
religious
songs)
receiving rich visitors, of the idle talks of pilgrims going for bath in
the Ganges, of hypocritical devotees bargaining with fish mongers of
domineering widows asserting authority in their brothers houses, of hen-pecked
husbands submissive only to their wives, and of several other features of daily
life which revealed great powers of observation and of healthy criticism. In
the midst of all this fun and frolic, a slight suggestion would set his mind to
a high spiritual pitch, and he would lose himself in devotional fervor, or in
deep Samadhi, radiating the influence of his powerful thought on all who were
around.
But with all his
ecstasy and Divine intoxication, few men could excel him in attention to the
minute details of life. He
was very particular about personal cleanliness and about the orderliness of the things kept in his
room. He disliked to see people going about with torn clothes and shoes, or keeping their houses
insufficiently lighted. Whenever he went anywhere on a visit, he always carried
the few things required for his personal use, and he advised his disciples
never to go to a place at a time or in a manner calculated to cause
inconvenience to their host. It is also remarkable that never in his
life he came away from a place leaving behind any of his things in
forgetfulness, be it shoe, umbrella or cloth. And in spite of all his Samadhi and
self-forgetfulness in the thought of God, the powers of his senses were so very
keen that when he entered a room, his eagle eyes would at a glance observe all
objects present there, and he could even long after, give exact descriptions of
the shape and position oven such of those things as were hardly noticed by
others accompanying him.
Thus this great teacher of men spent his life holding
forth before the world the ideal of a perfect man, and actively ministering to
the spiritual needs of those who flocked to him, until his delicate frame broke
down under the strain of constant teaching. In 1885 he had an attack of cancer
of the throat. About a few months later, his devotees took him to Calcutta and
put him under the treatment of the famous doctor Mahendra
Lal Sircar. With the
passing of days, the disease got only aggravated in spite of the best medical
aid. But even the prolonged tortures of this excruciating disease could not in
the least affect the
joy and serenity of his mind,
or disturb his perpetual consciousness of the Divine Presence everywhere.
Moreover, this period
of physical suffering formed also the most active part of his ministry. For, the Divine Power that was working through his body and mind in
its fullest expression during this period. By 1884 (Age 48) his name had
already become widely known in Calcutta, and therefore his presence in the city
for treatment attracted large crowds to him. Though he was
prohibited by doctors from speaking, his great love of men made him go
against medical restrictions and give himself up entirely to the service of his
visitors, quite regardless of its fatal effect on his own health. ,
The period of his
illness was also the occasion for the spiritual advancement of his intimate
devotees, and for the formation of a spirit of brotherhood
among them,
which later on
fructified into the Ramakrishna order of monks. For while the expenses of his stay and treatment
were defrayed by the householder devotees, his young disciples under the leadership of Narendranath (Swami
Vivekananda) undertook to stay with him and nurse him in his illness. Thus at the bedside of
their sick Master the
disciples formed themselves into a community, unified by their common devotion to him
and their earnestness to realize the spiritual ideal.
In spite of his
physical illness, Sri Ramakrishna was like a living spiritual dynamo during
this period. He blessed many of his devotees with higher experiences.
Especially on the 1st of January 1886, he was in a highly exalted mood, and by an act of will he
roused the latent spiritual powers of all the devotees who went to him for
blessings. A few days after, he
imparted the experience of Nirvikalpa Samadhi to
Swami Vivekananda. ..
After a period of
nearly one year's illness, he gave up the body in the early hours of Monday the
16th August, 1886 (50½ yrs), leaving behind him
a new spirit to be broadcast in this world by his disciples, especially by the
young men who took to the life of renunciation, following in his footsteps.
VI
What did Sri Ramakrishna teach?
Evidently he taught more by his life than by words. He never wrote or lectured, but imparted all his
teachings in the shape of informal conversations, some of which have been faithfully recorded by his disciples. By their
very nature, even these original sources of information cannot claim to exhaust his teachings. Whatever he taught by words,
and whatever of it has been recorded by his direct disciples ―of that the present book is a faithful and fairly comprehensive summary,
consisting as it does of all the precious instructions lying scattered in a
voluminous literature. Being a Collection of extracts from various contexts,
the subject matter of the present book is bound to
appear fragmentary in spite of all attempts to give it a logical sequence by
devices of arrangement. While no effort has been spared to arrange the sayings
logically, we trust the general reader would find it easier to follow their
trend of thought if we give below a summary of the fundamental principles
embodied in them. The following brief summary should not, however, be taken as the statement of a creed―for the Master
taught no special creed or dogma― or as an exhaustive exposition of his teachings, but only as a guide of
their detailed study.
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna
Reality is in essence a principle of
Intelligence. It is this one Intelligent Principle
that is variously known as God, Allah, Buddha, Siva,
Vishnu, Brahman, etc. in the different religions of the world. It is both personal and impersonal, with attributes and without
attributes. Impersonal
does not mean less than personal, but without the limitations of personality.
While
Reality transcends every form of relation in its absolute nature. it is in
its cosmic aspect, intimately related to the world of living and non-living
beings as their cause, support and substratum. In this aspect the Intelligent
Principle is spoken of as He or She as Father or
Mother of the universe. Both the Jivas (living beings) and the Jagat
(non-living beings) are the manifestations of this Father-Mother Divinity. He
is the source alike of what is pleasing and terrific in Nature.
For the devotee, however, He is the God of
Love, the pains and terrors of life being only the devices. He employs to draw
His careless and forgetful children to His feet. He is present in every being,
but is very near to a devoted heart in a special
sense. He hears the sincere prayers that well up from the heart of man. and responds to them in His infinite mercy.
As the Impersonal, He can be approached
through Knowledge and as the Personal, through Love, but the path of Love and
self-surrender is easier and more natural, and on one who treads this path, He confers also the fruit of Knowledge―the sense of
identity with the Absolute. In the path of Love He may be looked upon as
Father, Mother, Friend, Child, Lover or any other intimate form of human relationship.
According to the devotees attitude, He manifests
Himself in various forms of beauty and holiness to his purified vision.
A special form of Divine mercy is
the Incarnation. From time to time He embodies Himself as a human being of
great holiness and spiritual power in order to show mankind
the way of holy and righteous living. The founders of all the great religions,
who have opened new paths of spiritual-life to men of different ages and
climes, are
either such special Divine manifestations, or are souls specially commissioned
by Him. To worship them and to meditate on their life and doings form one of
the most effective forms of spiritual upliftment.
The
human personality is intimately related to the
Cosmic Intelligence; for it is a manifestation of that Intelligence. through the limitations of
matter. Every soul is
therefore, potentially Divine, and the goal of life is to manifest this
indwelling Divinity by controlling Nature within and without. All forms of
righteous activity in life can aid this process, provided the proper attitude
of mind is brought to bear on it. Religion embodies
the methods evolved by mankind for the attainment of
life's goal, and does not consist in mere intellectual assent to dogmas or
creeds, or performance of rituals. Religion, in a vital sense means the
realization or the actualization of the great spiritual truths in our consciousness
and daily activities. We shall have to do this through work, worship, psychic
control, or philosophy―through one or all of these.
Strength is one of the most essential requirements of
spiritual life. For strength is virtue and weakness is sin.
Faith is the source of all strength―faith in God and faith in oneself.
Self-depreciation, or morbidly dwelling upon ones essential sinfulness, is no
part of true religion, and should by all means be
avoided; for sin is not overcome by dwelling on thoughts of sin but by
contemplating the inherent Divinity of the soul. Man is no sinner but a child
of God. An abiding consciousness of this is the true faith, the source of all
strength and therefore of all virtue.
Spiritual life is impossible without
a sound moral basis. The underlying principle of all morality is unselfishness.
A man cannot be unselfish unless he is imbued with the
spirit of renunciation. Renunciation means the giving up of Kama and Kanchana― lust and greed.
The spirit of renunciation manifests in life
as purity of character, as devoted service to fellow beings, and as a strong and steady
aspiration for the Divine. The vision of God dawns in a heart in which the
spirit of renunciation and the intensity of aspiration have reached their
maturity. If a man does not reach this goal, or at least make some progress
towards its realization, his life on earth, as a man, has surely been in vain.