Ramakrishna's childhood name was Gadadhar Chattopadhyay. He was born in 1836 AD in a poor Brahmin family in Hooghly district of Bengal.
He
had no interest in education since childhood. He was engrossed in religious
thoughts all the time. When he was 17 years old, his father died.
At
the age of 21,
he became a priest in the temple of Kalidevi in Dakshineswar near Calcutta.
He
learned Tantric practice for two years from a Brahmin monk named Bhairavi.
A
great Vedantic monk named Totapuri taught him Vedanta practice.
Through
his spiritual practice, he proved that religion and knowledge are not a matter
of knowledge, but a matter of experience.
Ramakrishna
died of tuberculosis on 16 August 1886.
His
biography was written by Max Muller. Then Romain Rolland also published a
biography.
Personality of
Param Hans
1.
Not
a Pandit but a Saint
There
is the same difference between a Pandit and a Saint as there is between the
heart and the intellect. What the intellect cannot understand even after trying
hard, the heart suddenly sees.
Through
the propaganda of Dayanand, Rammohan Roy and Annie Besant, it was proved that
Hindu religion is not condemnable but noble, but the public wanted to see what
the living form of the religion is like. He saw this living form of religion
when Paramahamsa Ramakrishna (1836-1886 AD) appeared.
2.
Not
logic but feeling
With
the arrival of Ramakrishna the experience of religion became evident. He showed
through his life that religious truths are not merely an object of intellectual
speculation, they are a matter of direct experience and in front of them all
the desires and pleasures of the world are completely insignificant.
He
practiced all the paths of Hinduism. For some days, he became a true Muslim and
practiced Islam and for some time he also practiced Christianity. There can be
no bigger and more useful solution to the religious problem of India than the
one given by Ramakrishna. By becoming Vaishnav, Shaiva, Shakta, Tantric,
Advaist, Muslim and Christian, Paramhansa Ramakrishna proved that the external
forms of religions are only external forms. They do not make any difference to
the basic principle. There are many means and ways. Man can choose anyone among
them.
3.
The
embodiment of religion
He
took initiation into Advaita practice from Mahatma Totapuri who himself came to
his hut. He got the practice of Tantra from a Bhairavi who herself had reached
Dakshineshwar while travelling. Similarly, his guru of Islamic practice was one
Govind Rai who had converted from Hindu to Muslim and he practiced Christianity
with Shambhu Charan Mallik who was well-versed in Christian scriptures. But,
even while delving into all the spiritual practices and investigating the deep
secrets of religion, his faith in the feet of Kali remained unshakable.
Paramhansa
Ramakrishna was the embodiment of the depth and sweetness of Hinduism. His
senses were completely under his control. From head to toe he was full of the
light of the soul. The glow of joy, purity and virtue surrounded him. He
remained engrossed in spiritual thoughts day and night. Worldly happiness and
prosperity, even Suyash, had no value in front of him.
4.
Disenchantment
with Kanchan
To
test the fact that Ramakrishna does not touch money and the mere touch of it
causes pain, Narendra Dutt one day surreptitiously hid a rupee under
Paramahamsa ji's bed. When Ramakrishna returned and sat on the bed, he felt as
if he had been stung by a scorpion and he jumped up and stood up. People looked
around, but there was nothing anywhere. Finally, when he removed the bed and
looked down, he saw that there was a rupee lying under it. Everyone was
stunned. Only Narendra was surprisingly serious. Ramakrishna was aware of his
mischievousness and said, “Okay Ray; The Guru should be examined to his heart's
content." This aversion towards money kept increasing in him. At last it
became such that he could not even touch a bronze vessel without wrapping his
hand with a cloth.
5.
Indifference
towards wife
Ramakrishna
was a monk who remained with his wife till his last days. He had left his home
after marriage and the truth is that he had not even formally left his home
because, even after attaining maturity, he went to his village and lived there
with his family in the same manner as The householder should stay. After this
journey, his wife joined him in Dakshineshwar and Paramhansaji did not hesitate
at all in keeping her with him. But, he did not have physical relations with
his wife, this is known from all the details.
He
said that although women are a part of Jagadamba, yet they are sacrificial for
the seeker and sage.
6.
Preaching in the
saint's way
His style of
presenting the subject was exactly the same which was adopted by the ancient
sages of India like Parshvanath, Buddha and Mahavira and which has
traditionally been the method of preaching of Indian saints. He used to take
less help of arguments; whatever had to be explained, he used to explain it
through analogies and examples.
He said, “If the
attachment of Kamini-Kanchan is completely destroyed, then the body is separate
and the soul is separate, this becomes clearly visible. When the coconut water
dries up, the copra (Gari) inside it gets separated from the drain, the copra
and the drain both start appearing separately (like that), or as can be said
about a sword kept inside the scabbard. That the scabbard and the sword are two
different things, likewise, know about the body and the soul.”
To understand the
idea that idol worship also has real importance in the worship of God, he would
say, “Just as the court is remembered when we see a lawyer, in the same way,
God is remembered when we see an idol.”
“Maya
is the power of God, it resides in God only, then is God also as bound by Maya
as we are?” To solve this problem he would say, “Oh, no brother! It is not like
that...look at this. There is always poison in the snake's mouth. He always
eats and drinks with the same mouth, but he himself does not die from that
matter.”
The famous
Brahmo-Samaji seeker and scholar Acharya Pratapchandra Majumdar has written
that “Before having the darshan of Shri Ramakrishna, no one even understood
what is called religion. It was all ostentation. What a religious life is like,
I came to know after benefiting from the company of Ramakrishna.”
कोई टिप्पणी नहीं:
एक टिप्पणी भेजें