Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa

Shri Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa

Shri Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa, a mystic, (Gadadhar Chattopadhyay) was born to poor Khudiram and Chandramani in the village of Kamarpukur, West Bengal province of Bharat(India). Gadadhar disliked school, and did not show interest in earning money. Instead he devoted most of his time with nature, he liked visiting monks, He respected people from lower caste.

Rani Rashmoni founded a temple at dakshineswar, Gadadhar was to decorate the deity Bhavatarini, he began to question if he was worshipping a piece of stone or a living goddess. If he was worshipping a living Goddess, why should she not respond to his worship? This question nagged him day and night. Then, he began to pray Kali "Mother, please reveal yourself to me, Am I not also your son?" he would weep and some times cryout loudly while worshipping, At night, he would go into a nearby jungle and spend the whole night praying.

One day he grew so impatient to see Mother Kali that he seized a sword hanging on the wall and was about to strike himself with it, when the light from the deity spread across the temple, the very sight of this devine illumination made him unconscious, it is a general talk that, when such a light comes out particularly from Kali, one should start looking at it from the feet to the head to avoid the ferocious appearance of goddess Kali, many monks have lost their minds and gone crazy when gazed directly at the illumination.

by doing so the appearance of the goddess takes the form of very pleasing goddess durga,

Ramakrishna was initiated in advaita vedanta by a wandering monk named Totapuri, in the city of dakshineswar, Ramakrishna started to remain in the state of Samadhi for six months at a stretch.
Rumors spread that Ramakrishna had gone mad, marriage was proposed, instead of objecting to the marriage, he mentioned Jayrambati, three miles away from Kamarpukur, the five-year-old bride, Sarada, was found and the marriage was duly solemnised. she remained with her parents till she turned 18, then she joined Ramakrishna, but by then Ramakrishna was way deep in renunciation, so Sarada become his first disciple, he began to treat her as the Universal mother and would perform puja, Sarada as Tripura Sundari Devi. He said, 'I look upon you as my own mother and the Mother who is in the temple'. Ramakrishna impressed upon Sarada Devi that she was not only the mother of his young disciples, but also of all humanity. Initially, Sarada Devi was initially shy about playing this role, but slowly, she filled it with courage.

Sarada Devi

Her renunciation is believed by devotees to be a striking quality that she shared with her husband in a measure equal to, if not beyond, his. The true nature of their relationship and kinship was believed to be beyond the grasp of ordinary minds. Ramakrishna concluded, after close and constant association with her, that her relationship and attitude toward him were firmly based on a divine spiritual plane. Devotees believe that as they shared their daily lives, no other thought other than that of the divine presence, arose in their minds. An account of such continuous divine relationship between two souls of opposite gender is unique in religious records, not known in any of the past hagiographies. After the passing away of Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi became a religious teacher in her own right and she is called as holy mother.
He soon came to be known as Ramakrishna Paramahansa, seekers of God were attracted to him, he taught the basic truths of religion for about fifteen years and eventually developed throat cancer and attained Mahasamadhi on 16 August, 1886.
Ramakrishna's taught oneness of existence, the divinity of living beings, the unity of god, and harmony of religions, he beleived that the primal bondage of human beings were lust and greed, he emphasized that God-realization is the supreme goal of all living beings, religion was merely a mean for the achievement of this goal. Devotees believe that Ramakrishna's realization of nirvikalpa samadhi also led him to an understanding of the two sides of maya (illusion), to which he referred as Avidyamaya and Vidyamaya. He explained that avidyamaya represents dark forces (e.g. sensual desire, evil passions, greed, lust and cruelity), which keep the world-system on lower planes of conciousness. These forces are responsible for human entrapment in the cycle of births and death, and they must be fought and vanquished. Vidyamaya, on the other hand, represents higher forces (e.g. spiritual virtues, enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love and devotion), which elevate human beings to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya, he said that devotees could rid themselves of avidyamaya and achieve the ultimate goal of becoming Mayatita - that is, free from maya.

The famous Swami Vivekanada ( 1863-1902) was his first desciple and he started the

Swami Vivekanada

Ramakrishna matth and Mission institute of culture in Calcutta in 1897, Swami Vivekananda become famous after his speech at Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, after a very hectic but short public life of mere 10 years, swami vivekananda also suffered from throat cancer and in the midst of acute physical suffering he left for posterity his four classics: Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, and Raja-Yoga, all of which are outstanding treatises on Sanatana( Hindu) philosophy. He passed away at the young age of 39 years.

Under his leadership many national and international vedanta Societies were started, one in Toronto was started in 1968, Vedanta Society of Toronto, 120 Emmett AvenueToronto, Ontario M6M 2E6Phone: 1-416-240-7262 Fax: 1-416-245-3764E-mail: vedanta@total.net, society@vedantatoronto.ca

ॐ नमः शिवाय!

Sianala, Jan 2007