SHRI RAIVIKRISHN.A. PARAMAHANSA

A fflodern Saint lVho Saw"'

'The, l}ivine illother',r,, Prof. Vaman H .Pandit

Often in our hearths andhomes and temPles we see a

picture of a small brown manwith a short beard and beau-tiful eyes-Iong dark eYes, fullof light, obliquely set andslightly veiled-never verywide open, but seeing half-closed a great distance bothoutwardly and inwardlY. HisInouth half oPen sYgr hiswhite teeth in a bewitchingsmile, at once affectionate and

mischievous. He is Shri R"am-

krishna Paramat\ansa, a most

Jamiliar figure everYwhere inIndia.

At Kamarpukar, a village in'Borgal, set in the midst ofpalm trees, pools and rice.fields, lived a pious and poorold Brahmin couPle. TheY,were the deeP devotees of ;

I,ord Shri Ralnchandra, The.child whom the world was toknow as Ramkrishna wasborn in this .tamily on Febru-

]

ary 18r 1836. His cradle name I

was Gadadhar. As a child he I

was futl of fun and IiIe, mis-'chievous and charming witha feminine grac,e which hemaintaioed to the end of hisUfe.

Stories AboutChildhood

What stories are told abouthis ehildhood? Gadadharw,as the

- fourth of five child-

ren. His father died wheu he'was seven years old. As a

child of eight Years old, hisbiographers tell us storiesabout his frequent ecstasieswhen he played different rolesin the village dramas with theboys of his own ,age, his be-ing was Possessed bY theroles of gods and goddesses

and he lost himself in theglory of God. He was trans-ported like GanYmede bY theEagle carrying the thunder-bolt-he was thought to be

dead.

t school Gadadhar uade afair progress except mathema-tics. It is said he did not liketo study but he took delightin the rhapsodists who usedto go round the vilIage, lnthose d.ays, reciting mytholu-gical stories from the epicsand Puranas. Sometimes heused to enact in the villagedramas rvithout any stage-set-ting. It was his pastime torepeat such roles before hisfriends .almost verbatim. Hehad a wonderful power ofgetting by heart what heheard only once, From theviilage potters he learnt theart of 'rnoulding images oigods and goddesses. From thepainters he learnt how topaint these figures, Constantstudy of these subjects madehim to concentrate his atten-

ffiehimlforgetful of the world andthrew him into deep thinkingand later these thoughts threwhim into frequent trtsnces.This is a psychic phenome-non.

In addition to this quautYGadadhar had many goodgifts. He had fair clear skin,be,autiful flowing locks, attrae-tive smile, charming voice andiadependent spirit. IIe alwaysplayed truant from school andlived as free as air and re-rnained ]ike a child to theend of his 1ife. He refused tolearn anything i:r school' Hewas adored and Petted bY thewomen and girls, PerhaPs,they found something of theirown in liim. At the age ofthirteeq he Piayed the rolesof l,ords for Himself-thehighest comedY of the uni-verse. It is alwaYs the sYm-bol of art and of love.

perfect health. IIis elever fin- i

gers {ashioned Gods trom I

clay; the heroic deeds of the I

heroes of Ramayan blossomed I

i; ;ir *1"J, rr"- sang divinety I

the Pastoral airs of Lord Shri I

Krishna; and .o*"UJ".- t "

j

took part in the discussions I

of learned fren and astonish-'

Krishna; and sometimes he

ed them by his wisdom. Hissoul was like a Proteus Pos-sessed of assuming tJre roleswhom he saw or imagined' Itwas this singular fact whichmanifested later in his lifefor espousing all the souls inthe wor1d.

After the death of his fa-ther, his eldest brother Ram-kumar looked after him. Atthat trure there was a richwoman, named fi,ani Rasmani.She founded a femple to theGreat Goddess Ka1i, at Dak-shineshwar, on the easternbank of Ganges, four milesoff frou Calcutta Si:e was onthe lookout of a Brahnin toserve jn the temPle as lt'spriest. She had considerabledifficulty in findlrg a Properm,an. His eldest brotber re-signed himself to it and whenhe died, Ramkrishna took hisplace. At that tirne he wastwenty years old. LitUe didthe young Priest knew thathe had elected to serve a ter-rible mistress, who alwalssat on a ttger and true to saythat this Great Goddess PlaY-ed with him for-teo long en-chanted Years, And: thereflocked counuess Pilgrims ofaI1 qastes and creeds aod

vou"g Fr"r"tilE".-- oE uir

and dqsginafigrx

ti,i. - "o"g".g"tioi" ffif ^;l

watchful and anxious "y ""Jlwith a mixture o, ,"nr*"- ,

, , This temple is still in exis-I

tence with five domes crown_I ed with spires and within it

1 owells the sovereign deity_the Queen of ttre world ando-f the Gods made of basalt_the Goddess Kali-the il_ Iversal Mother. To the west of !the

-temple there is a beautiful igarden ,and two ponOs oo Inorth and the east. , Beyondthe garden therre are five sa_cred trees, planted by Ram-krishna called panchvati. Onthis spot he spent iris live-long day in meditation andprayer to the Mother and be-iow the waves of the Gangessang their intoxicating song.

Ramkrishna passed. his daysand nights in the continualPrEsence of his Beloved-,,MyMother". Their iatercoursewas uninterrupted tike theflow of the river. Eventuallyhe was identified with herand graduaily the radiance ofhis inner vision became out-wardly maniJest, He had. thecomplete vision of the Motherbefore him. He ]istened. her.I{e saw her. As she walkedthe rings of her anJ<lets rang. I

He saw her with flowing i

Iocks on the terrace of thetemptre, watching the Gangesflow through the beautifulnight down to the distaut,Iights of Calcutta.

Love-MadnessTo most people his m,adness

of love was a crying scandal.For a short tihe he was sent I

back to his houe at xamar- |pukar. His mother wishedhim to be married, hopingthat marriage would cure himof his divine achievehent Hewas married (1859) to a girrof Mukhopadhyaya tamilynamed Saradamani. After-wards she was known byna?ne of Saradadevi. ft was auuion of souls and renainedunc.onsununated Later in Ufeshe. recognised hirn as herEuide and put herself at hisservice. This marriage provedthe truth of the great Upaui-shadic dictum that a wife isdear to the husband not aswiJe but as his own Atman,and the husband is dear tothe wife not as husband butas her own Atman. Tbus theuitimate objective of a mar-ried life was revealed anddemonstrated, in' this twinpersonality in a lttanner urr-precedented in the annals ofmankind. It is a wotoderfulinstance of how tbe conjugai,relation between the husband I

and the wife, wnen spirrtua-'lized, can be the me.'

Shri ,Ramkrishna Pararnahansa(Contd. From pags B CoI. 4)

krishna carne in contaet with1wo persons. One was a ladyknown_as Ehairavi Brahmani--the Brahmin Nun and theother one was Tola puri,r<norvn as the Naked Man_anextraordiaary Vedantic asce-tic. Both of rhem tried.to ini_tiate hirn iu their o*o *"y.The Nua made him to goback over t}le road to tao#_ledge which he had atreadytraversed. She enUghteueO Aismind. She reeognised in him,an Incarnation of _the Divinitland irrsisted that ilre theolo_gists should give recognit^iouto the new Ay4fs1. I4lhilethe Naked Moalr hught hirnthe cardi:ral virtues of abso_Iute Non-DuaUsh (the Ad_vaita), that is, nothiirg butone unique Reality exists tothe exclusion of every other.The doctrine of .See ttre SeIfand be the Self,,--Tat tvamasi (Thou art that.) But forboth the Gurus in learningprocess the discipJ.e far opt_stripped his masters. He fultystood the trial of various Sa_ Imadhis, particularty the Nir- |vikalpa bamadhj.-a state of I

superconsc.iousness. I

Fame SpreadsNow his fame spread {ar

and wide, People came to seethis wonderful man, who hadsucceeded, not only in oneSadhana, but in ail. Motks,sages, s,adhus, visionaries-allcatne to seek his advice. Nota few people spoke of thefascination produced by theappearance of the Dlan, whohad taken birth tvith goldeirradiance of his body burutand purified in the fires ofecstasy.

rrrany words which had thepower of euthralling men andwohen. I{is speech had thewealth of spiritual experience;the inexhaustible store of si-mitre and metaphor, tJre un-equalled powers of observa-tion; the bright and subUehumour; the wonderful c,atho-licity of sympathy and theceaseless flow of wisdom. ?hefoilowing were and are thewords of deliverance he car-ried to tJre masses;

Religious Truths('AU retgions are true intheir essence and in the sin_

Sere {1ith of their believers',,he said, ,(The three great or_ders of metaphysical thought-Dualish,

(qualified, Monisrn

and absolute Monism, ane thestages on the way to supremetruth, For the ordinary peo_Ple, who are attracted thro_ugh the senses, a dualisticform of religion with ceremo_nies, music, images and sym_bols is use.tul One is like agood servant who takes careof a house alttrough he isaware that the house is nothis. Religion is a path whichleads to God, but a path isnot a house. By purity andlove, step by step, salvatloncari tie achieved.,,

What did Shri Ilamkrlshnateach his disciples? ,Or whatwas and is his swatr song ?He told people in Bengali ofe.-homely kind with a s[ghtUut*d.elrehtfut stammer ia so

And above all he iaught tothe world his word of truthcontaining all others- Theword was and is ,IJniversal'-the Union and Unifur of aIIthe aspects of God; of all thetransports of love and know-ledge; of all forms of huma-nity. Until then nobody hadsought to realise. more thanone aspect of Reing. Thatwas and is and in the daysahead the duty. Who ean denythis is not the dut5r of the nu-clear age?

Sunday, August 15, 1gg6was the final day of his ecs- |tasy. He said: "He had passedlfrom oae roou to the other.,,[

1

1,,ortndidn'

<T

Victory to Bhagwan ShriRamkrishna. His sptrit haddeparted. to travel along thepath of collective tfe in theveins of humanity. He was,indeed, messenger from Godarrlved and hy his own lifegave a treaendous impetusto India's future reEaissance.Prophets like him suppletnentbut they do not su,pplant. Bytheir own example they re-vive the forgotten spiritua!truths and again proclaimthem before tJre wor1d, accor-ding to the aeeds of time,'(Devotion to oners own idealand sympathy for those ofothers," was the hatchlessmessage delivered by himoften and oftea.

The Supreme SageHe was tire supreme sage

of his day. The name of SbriRamkrishna paramahansa hasbeen carried as one of themagnificent beads in the ro-sary of saints of India fit tobe ehanted and called for tlte-,,attaiument of salvation. HLsname is like a Pole Star toguide all of us lrrespective otany faith or creed.

Right from the dawn ofhistory to the present 4anrinspite of many changes thiiancient thread of reUgioncontinues to run oa and thecredit of upholding rhis mar-vellous continuity in Faith,from time to time. goes tothe saints of India' and ShriRalnkrishna belongs to thatglorious galaxy. This t''aithendures today and is the basisof Indian Unity. This ls our.divine inheritance. Is it notwonderful to think that weare the legatees of this sacred,Faith- .Universal Faith ?rSuch was the great saint ofIndia whose teachings havebecoine immortal. Itre needhis word today for achlevingthe integratioa of our coun-tE . -.-.. - ri ..-. t

\,YEDNESDAY JANUARY 16, 1963

.1- -tvtasrrns rvusslo;,1j At nrst. Naren hesitated himselfi to take up his Master's Mission,iHis mastel had foreseen with pro-phdtic eye that the young man of'23 had the necessary energy and

.onstructive genius. "The day when '

Naren cornes in contact", he said,"with suffering and misery, the pri-de of his character will melt into a

, mood of infinite compassion," Af-,ter many mcnths of wandering here ,

iand there he saw with his own eyes i

the miserable body of humanity ,

his Mother India in all her rragil i

, nakedness. - II What il as his mission to be?

Who was to dictate it to him? Hismaster was dead without having

, defined it for him. rnd among rheliving, there s'as one Pavhari Ba-ba. Naren Y/ent to find him duringthe period (I888) oi uncenainA.He visited him dail-v and rvas onthe verge of becoming his foiiorrerand demanding initialron cf him.

This torment of soul lasted for, several v.eeks. Naren was torn be-I tween the rh o mysric appeals ofShri Ramakrishna and Pavharr Ba- l

ba. The latter u'ould have satis- i

fred his passion fc.r the DivineGulf, wherein the inciviCual souirenounces itself and is entireli' ab-

I nand. He was a discipld of Shrii Ramakrishna Paramhansa-a greati sage and saint of India. He wasihis master and he thought of trans-; Iating his Master's thought into

sorbed without an!' thought of re-.turn. And,he rvould have appeasedlthe remorse, alwal's gnawing at Na-

I ren's heart. for turn:ng arr'ay fromithe world and social senice: lor

in the humble song was the turning i

point in his life. His mission was,

he professed the faith that the spi-rit can help others l.ithout help of;body, and that the most rnrense r

action is that of the most inrense l

concentration What religious spi- i

rit has not heard this voice 'w-ith its'deadly attractions?

SERYICE OF }L4,\ 1

Naren was for tx'enry-ote ciays,within an ace of yielding. Bur icr'twenty-one nights the vision ofShri Ramkrishna came to drawhim back. In the end after an in-ner struggle of the utmost intensi- I

ty. whose vicissitudes he alrvays r

consistently refused to reveal. he I

made his choice forever. He chosethe service of God in man.

During his whirlwing tour across;this ancient land, he happened ro I

be the guest of the Maharaia of i

Khetri near Jaipur (189I) and a'little charming dancer gave himall unwittingly a lesson inhumiliry.When she appeared to dance iricourt, the saffron robed monk rose I

to go out. The Maharaja begged I

him to remain. The little dancer'sang in sweet melodious tones. :

'O Lord, look not ugrn my I

evil quatities Thy name, O Lord, I

is same-sightcdness, One drop of i

water is in the sacred ]umna I

I and another is foul in the ditch I

I by the roadside. But when they i

I fall into the Ganges both alike j

I become holy. So Lord, do not I

I look upon my evil qualities! i

I Xhy name, O Lord is same sigh-rI tedness."I Naren was completely overwhel- :

i med. The confident faith, expressed I

i Vivekanand was not his namelbut his real name was Narendra-nath Duft. He belonged to a resp--. ectable family of warrier caste.

, His master always called him Nar-, endra or more shortly Naren. ShriIRemakrishna never gave mon-astic names to his d i s ci-ples. . He never initiared anybgdy in the formal ceremony

1 of Sannyasa, On the other handl he said. "He who feels a srrong de-'i tachment from life and an inienseI thirst for God, can take the San-I nyasa alone, even without formalI initiation. This was doubtless theI case with Naren. But he gave Na-ren a cognomen of 'Kamalaksha'lotus.eyed. The young man had anaversion for this name and dropp-

reveaied to him by the dancer..Many years later he recalled it i

with einotion and said to his fri- |

ends," sinners are potential saints." fAnother event in his young age'I Another event llr hrs young age

' happened at Cape Comorin which,opened his eyes, he viewed theltuost enchanting panorirma of Sun-i

Swami Vivekananda & EIisDivine Message

Prof. Yaman H- PanditNE- of the most remarkable

[f things achieved during the.ciose of the nineteenth cen-,

t-ury was the spiritual message,of I

the Universai Gospel of humanitv,delivered by a young Indian at thL'Parliament'of ieligion hetd at Chi-r

i cagc (USA). "Never forget theI glory of human nature" h--e said.I "We are the greatest Gods. ChristsI and Buddhas are but waves on thei boundless ocean which I am."i The young man had no credenti-'al with him from any group ci so-ciety in India. He was overwheim-ed when he reached America. Hecabled to his friends in lndia forheip and applied to an official reli-gious sociery that it might make tohim a grant. The chief of the so-ciety replied, "Ler the devil die ofcold". But Fate helped him as ithas always helped those who knowhow to heip themselves.

The man whom we must thank(for his message is Swami Viveka-

living action.

ed it immediately.. There is an interesting story

about his name. During his prelimi-nary travels across this country heappeared under different names inorder to conceal his identity. Buton the eve of his departure to Am-erica, the Maharaja of Khetri sug-gested to him, the name Vivekan-anda. The Maharaja was his grearfriend and the choice of rhe namewas inspired by an allusion to the'powe1 of discrimination' possess-ed by him. It seems Narendra liked

I this name. He accepled it provi-sionally, but he could never havechanged it even if he had wanted

, to, for within a {ew months it had;acquired a world wide celebrity.iThe name given by the Maharajalhas lived long and it will ever live; long. The name has made a histo-ty. rise-of infinire mystery.. Soon he

saw the vision of his mission andhe felt within himself. Therealter

tre ,o*ea to d.aicot.- r,l, rite tothe unhaPPY masses.

VISION REYEALEDBut how bould he helP the mas-

s".? H. lifted uP his eYes to ,theocean to the land beYond the seas'

lAn appeal from India to the West-I ern wbrld began to take shaPe inI irii mind. At Porebander. where hei U.eun to learn French a mendicant'adiised him to go to rhe Westr*f't"i" hrs though-t, "the Gaspel, ofI Vedanta" rvould be better under-I stood than in his own country' Hei*it st.uck bY hearing his remark'and began to turn the matrer overin t ir 6in0. At Khandwa (M.P.) inttre- earlY autumn of 1892 he heard

* of a Failirm"nt of Religions to be- ' r held under the following year atlChi.reo (USA i893) and his nrstthought was how he might take

r oarr in it.I ' Asain he went to Khetri, where, tti" fiiend the Maharaia listened tohim and approved his view Point'

' ihe Maharaia arranged everything'

I for his western tour' He gave him'ihir De*u., to escort him to Bom-bav. where he embarked the shiP'Af the lime of deParture, he Put

r on the robe of red silk and ochrel[urban and the name of Vivekan-I anda.i ---i" e.merica' he never Passed

ilanvwhere unnoticed but fascinat-ed- evervbodv even while he was' u"t tto*n. He visited Chicago airdWorld's Columbian ExPosition, Theexoosition exhibited 'man's mate-

.'riai progress. His eyes were dazzl-! ect aiain. He thought what messagei coull he give to thb West? He

qrF.-,grade up his mind l-o give to the^

TWest-the spirituai rnessage otI Vedanta PhilosoPhi.I Amonssr all the delegates, this

' i strange loung man. drew the gla-i nce of (he assembled thousands.His red robe, drawn in at the waistby an oiange cord, his great Yellow

'lurbatr, accentuated the ravenI black of his hair, his olive comP-' 1 lexion his dark eyes his red UPs

I and his noble stature lent colourI to the Pariiament of Religions. Itwas the flrst tiine that he had to

i speak before such an assembly ofc J learned men and women rePresen-" 1 ting each and every faith in the

; woild. Most of the delegates read'their .neeches from written textbut, Vivekananda had prepared no-r,ilng. .6ut then when he address-p.4 the gatheriilg,- his speech wasIike a tongue oI flame.

" tarrily had-lie pronouncid thevery simple opening world "Sistersaho Brorhers of America" thou-sands arose in their seats and aPP-lauded. Vivekananda was the' firstdelegate to cast off the forntalityof the Congress and to sPeak -tothe masses in the language for

. which they were thirsty. He greet-ed Americans in the. name of the:most ancient monastic 'order inthe world the Vedic-order of "San'nyasins". He presented Hinduism

, as tne mothei ot religions, whichi had taught them the double Pre-r cept?| "Acceot and understand one' anotherli' He quoted two beauri-j fui passages from the s.lired books'i "Whoever comes to me, throughwhatsoever form, I reach him" and,"A1l men are struggling through.paths which in the end lead t{M{i'u.krnrnda

alone ,oot" of ^fi-ltheir Gods and embraced them all Iin Universal Being. . I

Tiemendous ovition he got from I

the learned delegates and others atthe world religious congress. Vive-kananda the unknown, became wellknown al1 over the world over-night. It was a most singular achi-'evement in those daYs of slowcommunication. He spent tle nexttwo years in Ameriea, ira,veilingacross the con-tillent, teaching andpreaching and impressing the Am-erican crowds with his message otln'/e and the history of India. Thushe became the man of the hour.The Americans called his "the '1i-ghtnrng orator."

Thus lived and died a greatsage of Modern India Swami Vive-kananda a name. to count with andwhose message of Universal Gos-pel "of equality and divinity ofman"-is itill reverberating from .

all the directtoll_

..,I