Ramakrishna Totally Explained

Everything about Ramakrishna totally explained

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Bangla: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস Ramkrishno Pôromôhongsho) (February 18, 1836 - August 16, 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (Bangla: গদাধর চট্টোপাধ্যায় Gôdadhor Chôţţopaddhae), was a rustic Bengali religious ecstatic who practiced Vaishnava and Shakti bhakti, Vedanta, Tantra, and other spiritual disciplines. Toward the end of his life, he became a guru to Anglicized Bengalis, including Narendranath Dutta—the future Swami Vivekananda—and also became an influential figure in the Bengal Renaissance. He was considered an avatar or incarnation of God by many of his disciples, and is considered as such by many of his devotees today.

Biographical sources

Like Jesus and Socrates, Ramakrishna wrote nothing himself. Some say that he was illiterate or semi-literate. Thus, everything that we know about Ramakrishna comes through the writings of his disciples. Additionally, only a few of the primary sources have been translated into English and scholars find those translations to be highly problematic.
There are four major sources of information for the life of Ramakrishna:

Ram Chandra Datta's 1885 Srisriramakrsna Paramahamsadever Jivanavrttanta ("The Life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa")
Akshay Kumar Sen's 1901 Śrīśrīrāmkṛṣṇa Punthi ("Scripture of Sri Ramakishna")
Mahendranath Gupta's 1902-32 Sri-Sri-Ramakrisna-kathamrta ("Words of Nectar of Sri Ramakrishna")
Swami Saradananda's 1911 Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga ("Divine Play of Sri Ramakishna") There are also other sources, such as Vivekananda's 1896 biographical lecture "My Master", Mahendranath Dutta's Sri Ramakrishner Anudhyan, ("Sacred Memories of Sri Ramakrishna"), Satyacharan Mitra's 1897 Sri Sri Ramakrsna Paramahamsadeber Jiboni o Upadesh ("The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa"), and Sureshchandra Datta's 1886 Sriramakrsnadeber Upades ("Teachings of SriRamakrishna").

Vivekananda's "My Master"

Vivekananda gave two lectures on Ramakrishna in 1896, one in England, and a second in New York. These were later combined and published as “My Master”. Marie Louise Burke calls the New York lecture “a clarion call to renunciation, combined with a scorching indictment of Western hedonism.” Narasingha Sil doubts its reliablility as a source for information about Ramakrishna's life, describing it as "shot through with the author's very personalized interpretation of Ramakrishna's preachings and teaching and his claims on behalf of the Ramakrishna phenomenon.”

1897 edition of The Gospel of Ramakrishna

There was an English translation of portions of Gupta's diary published in 1897 as The Gospel of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda registered his dislike of it in a letter to Swami Trigunatitananda and his subsequent exuberant praise of it in letters to Gupta.

Sen's Punthi

The 1901 edition of Sen's poetic biography of Ramakrishna incorporated all four parts of his Bhagaban Srisriramakrsna Paramahamsadeber Caritamrta, which were written from 1894-1901. Vivekananda loved the 1894 edition. "I can't tell in words the joy I've experienced by reading the book," he wrote. However, he also offered editorial suggestions for future editions of Sen's poem.
It has been translated into English as A Portrait of Sri Ramakrishna.

Gupta's Kathamrta

By far the best known source is Gupta's Kathamrta, which consists of five volumes published in 1902, 1905, 1908, 1910 and 1932. It contains vivid descriptions of dialogue between Ramakrishna, his disciples, and visitors. These scenes were recalled or re-imagined by Gupta from notes in his personal diary. Each of the five volumes recapitulates the last six years of Ramakrishna's life. Naransingha Sil speculates that Gupta didn't dare to publish the Kathamrta while Vivekananda was still alive.
It was translated into English in 1942 as The Gospel of Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda of the Ramakrishna Mission. Although Nikhilananda calls The Gospel "a literal translation," he substantially altered Gupta's text, combining the five parallel narratives into a single volume (which is often sold as a two-volume set), as well as deleting some passages which he claimed were "of no particular interest to English-speaking readers." According to William Radice, this "standard translation of the Kathamrta by Swami Nikhilananda is bowdlerized, with the 'vulgar expressions' in Ramakrishna's earthy, rustic Bengali either removed or smoothed over: so that 'raman' (sexual intercourse) has become "communion" in the Gospel.'" In a review of Kali's Child, religious scholar Brian Hatcher noted that a passage in the Kathamrta in which Ramakrishna describes how he "...could not resist worshipping the penises of boys with flowers and sandalwood paste" was paraphrased by Nikhilananda as: "I practiced a number of mystic postures"
Malcolm McLean of Otago University translated the entire Kathamrta as his 1983 dissertation, entitled A Translation of Sri-Sri-Ramakrsna-Kathamrta with Explanatory Notes and Critical Introduction. Only a few copies of this work exist.

Saradananda's Lilaprasanga

Swami Saradananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, first wrote the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga in five volumes to correct what he felt were misconceptions about Ramakrishna as well as to pay off a financial debt he'd incurred to build the Udbodhan office.
In 1952, the Lilaprasanga was translated into English as Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master by Swami Jagadananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. In 2003, the Lilaprasanga was re-translated by Swami Chetanananda, also of the Ramakrishna Order, as Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play.
It is considered the definitive biography of Ramakrishna by the Ramakrishna Mission. Sil says that "In spite of its stark hagiographical character, the Great Master contains a mine of information." Elsewhere, Sil speculates that "It is quite possible that Saradananda's Lilaprasanga was influenced by Vivekananda's ideas and suggestions."

Biography

Birth and childhood

Various supernatural incidents are recounted by Saradananda in connection with Ramakrishna’s birth. It is said that Kshudiram, Ramakrishna’s father, named him Gadadhar in response to a dream he'd had in Gaya before Ramakrishna’s birth, in which Lord Gadadhara, the form of Vishnu worshipped at Gaya, appeared to him and told him he'd be born as his son. Chandramani Devi, Ramakrishna’s mother, is said to have had a vision of light entering her womb before Ramakrishna was born. Even in his childhood, some villagers considered Ramakrishna to be an incarnation of God.
   According to his biographers, Ramakrishna was born in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, into a very poor but pious brahmin family. The young Ramakrishna, known as Gadadhar, was an extremely popular figure in his village. He was considered handsome and had a natural gift for the fine arts. However, he disliked attending school, and wasn't interested in earning money. As he was growing up, he was barely literate. He loved nature and spent much time in fields and fruit orchards outside the village with his friends. He would visit with wandering monks who stopped in Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. He would serve them and listen to their religious debates with rapt attention.
   When arrangements for Gadadhar to be invested with the sacred thread were nearly complete, he declared that he'd have his first alms from a certain low-caste woman of the village, as he'd promised this to her. This was met with firm opposition from Gadadhar’s family, as tradition required that the first alms be received from a brahmin, but the boy was adamant that a promise made couldn't be broken. Finally, Ramkumar, his eldest brother and head of the family after the passing away of their father, gave in.
   Meanwhile, the family's financial position worsened every day. Ramkumar ran a Sanskrit school in Calcutta and also served as a purohit priest in some families. About this time, Rani Rashmoni, a rich woman of Calcutta who belonged to the untouchable kaivarta community, founded a temple at Dakshineswar. She approached Ramkumar to serve as priest at the temple of Kali and Ramkumar agreed. Ramkumar recruited assistants among his relatives, including Gadadhar, who agreed only after some persuasion and was given the task of decorating the deity. When Ramkumar passed away in 1856, Gadadhar took his place as priest.

Career as priest

When Gadadhar started worshipping 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 to Kali: "Mother, you've been gracious to many devotees in the past and have revealed yourself to them. Why would you not reveal yourself to me, also? Am I not also your son?" He is known to have wept bitterly and sometimes even cry out loudly while worshipping. At night, he'd go into a nearby jungle and spend the whole night praying. One day, the famous account goes, he was so impatient to see Mother Kali that he decided to end his life. He seized a sword hanging on the wall and was about to strike himself with it, when he's reported to have seen light issuing from the deity in waves. He is said to have been soon overwhelmed by the waves and fell unconscious on the floor.
Gadadhar, however, unsatisfied, prayed to Mother Kali for more religious experiences. He especially wanted to know the truths that other religions taught. Strangely, these teachers came to him when necessary and he's said to have reached the ultimate goals of those religions with ease. Soon word spread about this remarkable man and people of all denominations and all stations of life began to come to him.

Heterodox religious practices

At Dakshineswar, Ramakrishna engaged in a practice called madhura bhava, in which he imitated the "sweet mood" of the goddess Radha waiting for her lover Krishna. He wore female clothing and jewelry, and imitated female speech and behavior. This practice culminated with a vision of Krishna, in which Krishna's body merged with Ramakrishna's. He said: � I spent many days as the handmaid of God. I dressed myself in women's clothes, put on ornaments, and covered the upper part of my body with a scarf, just like a woman...Otherwise, how could I've kept my wife with me for eight months? Both of us behaved as if we were the handmaids of the Divine Mother. I can't speak of myself as a man.

For a period, while he was practicing bhakti, he was supposed to have resembled the monkey-god Hanuman, the servant of Ram. He lived on roots and fruit, and a growth which resembled a tail was supposed to have grown from his spine. Later, Ramakrishna experienced the goddess Sita's body merging with his own (Sita is the consort of Ram).
At some point, Ramakrishna visited Nadia, the home of Chaitanya and Nityananda, the 15th-century founders of Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava bhakti. He had an intense vision of two young boys merging into his body.

Totapuri and Vedanta

Ramakrishna was initiated in Advaita Vedanta by a wandering monk named Totapuri, in the city of Dakshineswar. Totapuri was "a teacher of masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice". Ramakrishna would soon affectionately address the monk as Nangta or Langta, the "Naked One". Nikhilananda interjects that this is because as a renunciate, Nangta didn't wear any clothing. � I [Ramakrishna] said to Totapuri in despair: "It's no good. I'll never be able to lift my spirit to the unconditioned state and find myself face to face with the Atman." He [Totapuri] replied severely: "What do you mean you can't? You must!" Looking about him, he found a shard of glass. He took it and stuck the point between my eyes saying: "Concentrate your mind on that point." [...] The last barrier vanished and my spirit immediately precipitated itself beyond the plane of the conditioned. I lost myself in samadhi.

After the departure of Totapuri, Ramakrishna reportedly remained for six months in a state of absolute contemplation: � For six months in a stretch, I [Ramakrishna] remained in that state from which ordinary men can never return; generally the body falls off, after three weeks, like a mere leaf. I wasn't conscious of day or night. Flies would enter my mouth and nostrils as they do a dead's body, but I didn't feel them. My hair became matted with dust.

Marriage

Rumors spread to Kamarpukur that Ramakrishna had gone mad as a result of his over-taxing spiritual exercises at Dakshineswar. Alarmed, neighbors advised Ramakrishna’s mother that he be persuaded to marry, so that he might be more conscious of his responsibilities to the family. Far from objecting to the marriage, he, in fact, mentioned Jayrambati, three miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur, as being the village where the bride could be found at the house of one Ramchandra Mukherjee. The five-year-old bride, Sarada, was found and the marriage was duly solemnised in 1859. Ramakrishna was 23 at this point, but the age difference was typical for 19th century rural Bengal. Ramakrishna left Sarada in December 1860 and didn't return until May 1867.
According to the Ramakrishna Mission, Sarada was Ramakrishna’s first disciple. He attempted to teach her everything he'd learned from his various gurus. She is believed to have mastered every religious secret as quickly as Ramakrishna had. Impressed by her religious potential, he began to treat her as the Universal Mother Herself and performed a puja considering Sarada as a veritable Tripura Sundari Devi.

Yogeshwari and Tantra

In 1861, a female guru named Yogeshwari appeared at Dakshineshwar. Reportedly, she taught Ramakrishna 64 Tantric sadhanas. She tried to teach him kumari-puja ("virgin worship"), — which reportedly can include ritualized copulation with a young girl — but Ramakrishna fainted. Datta said: "We have heard many tales of the brahmani but we hesitate to divulge them to the public."
Sarada, now a young woman, heard rumors of Ramakrishna's bizarre practices and came to Dakshineshwar to protect him from Yogeshwari. They began to relate to each other as husband and wife, but didn't consummate their marriage, due to Ramakrishna's severe asceticism.

Islam and Christianity

In 1866, Govinda Roy, a Hindu guru who practiced Sufism, initiated Ramakrishna into Islam. According to Christopher Isherwood, Ramakrishna said: � I devoutly repeated the name of Allah, wore a cloth like the Arab Moslems, said their prayer five time daily, and felt disinclined even to see images of the Hindu gods and goddesses, much less worship them—for the Hindu way of thinking had disappeared altogether from my mind.

His Muslim practices culminated in Ramakrishna experiencing the prophet Muhammad merging with his body.
Years later, as he contemplated an image of the Madonna and Christ child at a devotee's house, he began a phase of Christian spiritual practice. This phase culminated in a vision of the merging of Ramakrishna's body with that of Christ.

Later life

By the 1870s, Ramakrishna had established a reputation as a mystic and had attracted a large number of male devotees from the emerging urban Bengali bourgeoisie class, most of whom including Narendranath Dutta, had been educated at English schools. He came to be known among his devotees as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. The name Ramakrishna is said to have been given him by Mathur Babu, the son-in-law of Rani Rasmani. Many prominent people of Calcutta like Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Shivanath Shastri and Trailokyanath Sanyal began visiting him during this time (1871-1885). He also met Swami Dayananda. Through his meetings with Keshab Chandra Sen of the Brahmo Samaj, he'd become known to the general populace of Calcutta.
After fifteen years of teaching, in April 1885 the first symptoms of throat cancer appeared and in the beginning of September 1885 he was moved to Shyampukur. But the illness showed signs of aggravation and he was moved to a large garden house at Cossipore on December 11, 1885 on the advice of Dr. Sarkar, who was treating him. On August 15, 1886 his health deteriorated, and at 01:02 a.m. on the 16th he attained mahasamadhi. At noon, Dr. Sarkar pronounced that life had departed not more than half an hour before. He left behind a devoted band of 16 young disciples headed by Swami Vivekananda.

Teachings

God-realisation

The key concepts in Ramakrishna’s teachings were the oneness of existence; the divinity of all living beings; and the unity of God and the harmony of religions.
Ramakrishna emphasised that God-realisation is the supreme goal of all living beings. Religion, for him, was merely a means for the achievement of this goal. Ramakrishna’s mystical realisation, classified by Hindu tradition as nirvikalpa samadhi (literally, "involuntary meditation", thought to be absorption in the all-encompassing Consciousness), led him to know that the various religions are different ways to reach The Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed in human terms.

Kamini-kanchan

Ramakrishna taught that that the primal bondage in human life is to kaminikanchan, or "women and gold". Devotees insist that this phrase warns against lust and greed, but religion scholars and historians have tended to take it more literally. He seems to have overcome sexual desires by "becoming female":
� A man can change his nature by imitating another's character. By transposing onto yourself the attributes of a woman, you gradually destroy lust and the other sensual drives. You begin to behave like a women. I've noticed that men who play female parts in the theater speak like women or brush their teeth like women while bathing.

Various scholars have come to opposing conclusions about Ramakrishna's attitude toward women. Some say that he was simply an ascetic and avoided lust in order to retain mystical clarity. Others say that he feared women deeply or pathologically, especially women as sexual beings. Narasingha Sil links this to traditional rural Bengali misogyny. Sil also says that Ramakrishna made his wife into a deity in order to avoid thinking of her as sexual.

Avidyamaya and vidyamaya

Devotees believe that Ramakrishna’s realisation of nirvikalpa samadhi also led him to an understanding of the two sides of maya, or illusion, to which he referred as Avidyamaya and vidyamaya. He explained that avidyamaya represents dark forces (for example sensual desire, evil passions, greed, lust and cruelty), which keep the world-system on lower planes of consciousness. These forces are responsible for human entrapment in the cycle of birth and death, and they must be fought and vanquished. Vidyamaya, on the other hand, represents higher forces (for example 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.

Harmony of religions

Ramakrishna recognised differences among religions but realised that in spite of these differences, all religions lead to the same ultimate goal, and hence they're all valid and true. Regarding this, the distinguished British historian Arnold J. Toynbee has written: “… Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna’s testimony to the harmony of religions: here we've the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family – and in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.”

Other teachings

Ramakrishna’s proclamation of jatra jiv tatra Shiv (wherever there's a living being, there's Shiva) stemmed from his Advaitic perception of Reality. This would lead him teach his disciples, "Jive daya noy, Shiv gyane jiv seba" (not kindness to living beings, but serving the living being as Shiva Himself). This view differs considerably from what Ramakrishna’s followers call the "sentimental pantheism" of, for example, Francis of Assisi.
   Ramakrishna, though not formally trained as a philosopher, had an intuitive grasp of complex philosophical concepts. According to him brahmanda, the visible universe and many other universes, are mere bubbles emerging out of Brahman, the supreme ocean of intelligence .
   Like Adi Sankara had done more than a thousand years earlier, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa revitalised Hinduism which had been fraught with excessive ritualism and superstition in the Nineteenth century and helped it become better-equipped to respond to challenges from Islam, Christianity and the dawn of the modern era. However, unlike Adi Sankara, Ramakrishna developed ideas about the post-samadhi descent of consciousness into the phenomenal world, which he went on to term "vignana". While he asserted the supreme validity of Advaita Vedanta, he also he accepted both the Nitya (or the eternal substance) and the Leela (literally, "play", indicating the dynamic phenomenal reality) as aspects of Brahman.
   The idea of the descent of consciousness shows the influence of the Bhakti movement and certain sub-schools of Shaktism on Ramakrishna’s thought. The idea would later influence Aurobindo's views about the Divine Life on Earth.

Views of Ramakrishna

Since the 1976 publication of Walter Neeval's essay "The Transformation of Ramakrishna", scholars have thought of Ramakrishna's image as going through three discrete transformations. The first transformation, which occurred during Ramakrishna's life, was from a local village madman into a divine avatar. The next transformation, occuring after his death and conducted by his most famous disciple Swami Vivekananda, was from a mystical ecstatic into the founder of a universalistic religious movement. The third transformation, this one also engineered by Vivekananda, was from a quietistic mystic into a social reformer.
Philosopher Arindam Chakrabarti called Ramakrishna "The practically illiterate, faith-bound, emotional, otherworldly esoteric Ramakrishna who prayed to the Goddess: "May my rationalizing intellect be struck by thunder!" And yet in his

...views about the nature of ultimate reality, the relation between the self and the body, ways of knowing truth, moral and social duties of human beings and metatheoretical explanations of why mystics disagree...Ramakrishna was no less a philosopher than [[Gautama Buddha

Chakrabarti then contrasts Ramakrishna's talkativeness with Buddha's reticence, and makes seven comparisons between Ramakrishna and Socrates. He then analyzes a song that Ramakrishna was fond of ("The Dark Mother Flying Kites") and pulls out six philosophical elements: a nondualistic metaphysics, a spiritualistic ethic, the doctrine of karma, a playful goddess, the possibility of moksha, and the theory of psychological causation.

Ramakrishna’s impact

Born as he was during a social upheaval in Bengal in particular and India in general, Ramakrishna and his movement were an important part of the direction that Hinduism and Indian nationalism took in the coming years.

On Hinduism

His career was an important part of the renaissance that Bengal, and later India, experienced in the 19th century. Hinduism faced a huge intellectual challenge in the 19th century, from Westerners and Indians alike. The Hindu practice of murti came under intense pressure specially in Bengal, then the center of British India, and was declared intellectually unsustainable by some intellectuals. Response to this was varied, ranging from the Young Bengal movement that denounced Hinduism and embraced Christianity or atheism, to the Brahmo movement that retained primacy of Hinduism but gave up idol worship, and to the staunch Hindu nationalism of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Ramakrishna’s influence was crucial in this period for a Hindu revival of a more traditional kind, and can be compared to that of Chaitanya's contribution centuries earlier, when Hinduism in Bengal was under similar pressure from the growing power of Islam.
Among his contributions is a strong affirmation of the presence of the divine in an idol. To the many that revered him, this reinforced centuries-old traditions that were in the spotlight at the time. Ramakrishna also advocated an inclusive version of the religion, declaring Joto mot toto path (meaning As many faiths, so many paths). He was given a name that's clearly Vaishnavite (Rama and Krishna are both incarnations of Vishnu), but was a devotee of Kali, the mother goddess, and known to have followed various other religious paths including Tantrism and even Christianity and Islam.

On Indian Nationalism

Ramakrishna’s impact on the growing Indian nationalism was, if more indirect, nevertheless quite notable. A large number of intellectuals of that age had regular communication with him and respected him, though not all of them necessarily agreed with him on religious matters. Numerous members of the Brahmo Samaj respected him. Though some of them embraced his form of Hinduism, the fact that many others didn't shows that they detected in him a possibility for a strong national identity in the face of a colonial adversary that was intellectually undermining the Indian civilisation. As Amaury de Riencourt states,"The greatest leaders of the early twentieth century, whatever their walk of life -- Rabindranath Tagore, the prince of poets; Aurobindo Ghosh, the greatest mystic-philosopher; Mahatma Gandhi, who eventually shook the Anglo-Indian Empire to destruction -- all acknowledged their over-riding debt to both the Swan and the Eagle, to Ramakrishna who stirred the heart of India, and to Vivekananda who awakened its soul." This is particularly evident in Ramakrishna’s development of the Mother-symbolism and its eventual role in defining the incipient Indian nationalism.

Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission

Vivekananda, Ramakrishna’s most illustrious disciple, is considered by some to be one of his most important legacies. Vivekananda spread the message of Ramakrishna across the world. He also helped introduce Hinduism to the west. He founded two organisations based on the teachings of Ramakrishna. One was Ramakrishna Mission, which is designed to spread the word of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda also designed its emblem. Ramakrishna Math was created as a monastic order based on Ramakrishna’s teachings.

Legacy

It could be argued that Ramakrishna’s vision of Hinduism and its popularisation in the West, by converts like Christopher Isherwood and admirers like Aldous Huxley and Romain Rolland, have largely coloured Western notions of what Hinduism is.
Many great thinkers of the world have acknowledged Ramakrishna's contribution to humanity. Max Müller, who was inspired by Ramakrishna, said: Leo Tolstoy saw similarities between his and Ramakrishna's thoughts. He described him as a "remarkable sage". Romain Rolland considered Ramakrishna to be the "consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million people." He said: Mohandas Gandhi wrote:
Sri Aurobindo considered Ramakrishna to be an incarnation, or avatar, of God on par with Gautama Buddha. He wrote:
Christopher Isherwood also considered Ramakrishna to be an incarnation of God. Jawaharlal Nehru described Ramakrishna as "one of the great rishis of India, who had come to draw our attention to the higher things of life and of the spirit." Subhas Chandra Bose was also influenced by Ramakrishna. He said:

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