About Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa was born in 1836 to Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandra Devi in Kamarpurkur village which is located at Hoogly District in Bengal. He belonged to an orthodox Brahmin Family.
Once while his father was on a pilgrimage to Gaya where he had a dream in which Lord Vishnu promised him that he would be born as his son. Later on February 18, 1836, a divine soul was born who was later to be known as Sri Ramakrishna.
Childhood of Sri Ramakrishna
As a small boy, Sri Ramakrishna was full of fun. He was very intelligent and blessed with an extraordinary memory. At the age of six or seven Sri Ramakrishna had his first spiritual experience.
His father left his physical body at the age of seven which made him realized that life on earth was impermanent. He used to spend hours together on cremation ground absorbed in his own thoughts.
Slowly he gave more attention to the stories of Puranas and became interested in wandering monks who would stop at Kamarpukur which was on the way to Puri. These holy men entertained the little boy with epic Hindu stories and he on his part used to fetch water and served them in various other ways.
At the age of nine, Sri Ramakrishna underwent a sacred thread ceremony which is a traditional brahmin lineage. His tendency to lose himself in contemplation was first noticed post his thread ceremony where he was permitted to worship his family god, Lord Raghuvir.
At the age of sixteen, Sri Ramakrishna was called to Calcutta by his elder brother Ramkumar to help him in his priestly work. His worship was different from the other priests. He spent hours together decorating the idols and singing hymns. He paid very little attention to his studies.
Dakshineshwar Kali Temple - Calcutta
Sri Ramakrishna was appointed as a priest for the Dakshineshwar Kali temple which was built by Rani Rasmani in 1847. Born in an orthodox Brahmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities of worship, its rites, and rituals.
From the very beginning, the inner meaning of rites and rituals was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. While going through the rituals, he would actually find himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him.
The glow on his face and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship Mother Kali. Sri Ramakrishna was a very intense devotee of Kali. For him, Kali was not only a Deity but a living reality. He poured his soul into her worship.
The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a living vision of the Mother. He would spend hours decorating Mother Kali, singing devotional songs for her, and would sit and talk to her for hours and weep before her like a child for her vision.
He would spend days and nights in such painful prayers. Sri Ramakrishna's first vision of Mother Kali was a result of such a desperate desire to see the divine mother. His visions became deeper and more intimate. Even while retaining the consciousness of the outer world he would see her tangibly as we see the trees, river, and men around.
Marriage Life
Sri Ramakrishna's ill health and various abnormal activities filled the heart of his poor mother with agony. Later when he showed improvement in his health, his mother decided to get Sri Ramakrishna married at the age of 23.
Saradamani, a girl of five years old was selected as a bride for Sri Ramakrishna. From her tender age, this girl had been praying to God on every full moon to keep her character stainless and pure.
Post his marriage, Sri Ramakrishna lived in Kamarpur for a year and then came back to Dakshineshwar. His madness, his ecstatic mood, his weeping, his sleeplessness, the same indifference to the body, and the outside world reappeared tenfold times.
Sri Ramakrishna regarded women as the manifestation of the divine mother. Never even in his dream did he ever felt the impulse of lust. According to Sri Ramakrishna, all women are Her symbol. He believed Kali is one of Her several forms.
Guru
A few years later a fifty years old Brahmin lady came to Dakshineshwar who played an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual unfoldment. She was adept at Tantrik and Vaishnava methods of worship.
According to her, Sri Ramakrishna was passing through the unknown spiritual experiences which is an extreme exalted state of divine love. She openly proclaimed that Sri Ramakrishna was an incarnation of God and only such person was capable of this kind of spiritual experience.
A conference of scholars of that time were called upon to discuss the matter. The great scholars too declared Sri Ramakrishna as a divine incarnation. Sri Ramakrishna started practicing the discipline of Tantra after accepting Brahmani as his Guru.
Samadhi
Sri Ramakrishna's new Guru was a wandering monk Totapuri. He arrived at the Dakshineshwar temple towards the end of 1864. Totapuri Baba realized that Sri Ramakrishna's attachment to his devotion was not allowing him to take the ultimate step though he had the potential to do so.
Sri Ramakrishna was devoted to Kali and she was his only interest. Whatever talks about enlightenment Totapuri Baba told him, he was not interested in all that.No matter how many times he sat for meditation the moment he saw Kali he would drip into ecstasy.
Totapuri Baba then advised him that the moment he sees Mother Kali in meditation, he will have to cut that awareness into pieces. The moment Kali arrived, he cut Sri Ramakrishna really deep across his forehead.
At that moment Ramakrishna created the sword of his awareness and cut Kali down becoming free of Mother and the ecstasy. This is the time when Sri Ramakrishna became fully enlightened, he became Paramahamsa. Sri Ramakrishna remained completely absorbed in Samadhi for the next 3 days.
Ramakrishna Paramhamsa on Bhakti Yoga
According to Ramakrishna, there are three types of devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If the person while showing devotion to God still derives his actions through anger, jealousy, arrogance then his devotion is tamasic since it s influenced by tamas(inertia).
If a person worships God from a desire for fame and wealth then his devotion is rajasic. But if a person loves God without any material gain then his devotion is called sattvic.
But the highest devotion transcends all three Gunas with the inclination of mind toward the Inner Soul of all beings. Such a devotee's desire is to love God in all conditions be it pleasure-pain, life-death, honor-dishonor, prosperity- adversity.
Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Sri Ramakrishna used to say when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey. Similarly, many serious souls on their spiritual journey started visiting the sage of Dakshineshwar to satisfy their thirst.
Sri Ramakrishna showed great respect to all religions and believed that it is the same God towards whom all are stepping, though along different paths.
Swami Vivekananda and sixteen others were direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.
The Departure of Divine Soul
Sri Ramakrishna suffered from throat cancer. During his last days, he was looked after by his disciples and his wife Sarada Devi. Before his death, he transferred all the spiritual power to Swami Vivekananda.
Later, Vivekananda was given the responsibility to look after the other fellow disciples and the monastic discipline. Sri Ramakrishna left his physical body on 16th August 1886. According to his disciples, the state in which he left his body was Mahasamadhi
Good Read on Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
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