Introduction

A Brief Life Sketch of Thakur Sri Ramakrishna

Birth of Sri Ramakrishna ­ father Kshudiram and mother Chandramani ­ the primary school ­ worship of Raghuvira ­ company of sadhus and listening to the Puranas ­ beholds a miraculous light ­ comes down to Calcutta and company of sadhus at Kali Temple in Dakshineswar ­ sees a miraculous Divine form ­ Thakur like one mad ­ company of sadhus, Bhairavi Brahmini, Tota Puri and Thakur’s listening to Vedanta in the Kali Temple ­ practises spiritual disciplines according to the Tantra and the Puranas ­ Thakur’s talk with the Mother of the Universe ­ goes on pilgrimage ­ Thakur’s inner circle ­ Thakur and his bhaktas ­ Thakur and the Brahmo Samaj ­ reconciliation of all religions: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and so on ­ the women bhaktas of  Thakur ­ his family of  bhaktas.

Thakur Sri Ramakrishna was born in the interior village of Kamarpukur in the Hooghly district in a pious brahmin family, on the second lunar day of the bright fortnight of Falgun. The village of Kamarpukur is 4 kosas (about 8 miles) west of Jehanabad (Aram Bag) and 12-13 kosas (about 26 miles) south of Burdwan.

There is a difference of opinion on the date of birth of Sri Ramakrishna ­

Ambika Acharya made Thakur’s horoscope during his illness on the third of Kartik, 1286 B.Y., 1879 A.D. This gives his date of birth as 1756 Shaka, the 10th of Falgun, Wednesday, the second day of the bright fortnight, Purva Bhadrapada Nakshatra. His calculation is ­ 1756/10/9/59/12.

Kshetra Nath Bhatt’s calculation in 1300 B.Y. is 1754/10/9/0/12. According to this calculation it is 1754 Shaka, the 10th day of Falgun, Wednesday, the second day of the bright fortnight, Purva Bhadrapada ­ all tally. 1239 B.Y., 20th February, 1833. At this time, there is conjunction of sun, moon and mercury. It is the Aquarius sign. Because of the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, he would be the chief of a religious sect.

Narayana Jyotirbhushan has made a new horoscope (in the Math). According to his calculation 1242 (B.Y.), 6th day of Falgun, Wednesday; 17 February 1836, 4 a.m., the second day of the bright fortnight of Falgun, conjunction of the three planets, all tally except the 10th of Falgun given by Ambika Acharya. 1757/10/5 /59/28/21.

Thakur was in human body for 51/52 years.

Thakur’s father Sri Kshudiram Chatterji was a man of firm faith and great devotion. His mother Chandramani Devi was the personification of simplicity and kindness. Previously they used to live in a village named Dere, one and a half kosas (about three miles) from Kamarpukur. Kshudiram did not give evidence in favour of the landlord of the village in a lawsuit. So, he later came and settled with his family in Kamarpukur.

Thakur Sri Ramakrishna’s childhood name was Gadadhar. After learning elementary reading in the primary school, he stayed at home and served the deity of Raghuvira. He himself would pluck flowers and perform puja daily. In school, the arithmetic book by Shuvankara would confuse him.

He could sing of his own with exquisite sweet voice. He could sing almost all the songs he heard in yatras (theatrical performances). He was ever cheerful since his childhood. Everybody in the locality, children, men and women, all loved him.

Holy men frequently visited a guesthouse in the garden of Laha Babus, near Gadadhar’s house. He would meet them there and serve them. When the story tellers read from the Puranas, he would listen to everything with rapt attention. In this way he learnt all the stories of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavata.

One day he was passing through a field to a village located near his house. He was eleven then. Thakur himself narrated that he suddenly lost all sense-consciousness on seeing a miraculous light. People said he had fainted. Thakur had attained bhava-samadhi  (a super-conscious state).

After the death of his father, Kshudiram, Thakur came to Calcutta with his elder brother. He was then 17, or 18 years old. In Calcutta, he spent some days at Nathair Bagan, few days at the house of Govinda Chatterji in Jhamapukur where he performed puja. In this connection, he performed puja for sometime in the family of the Mittras of Jhamapukur.

Rani Rasmani dedicated Kali Temple in Dakshineswar, two and a half kosas (about five miles) from Calcutta on 18th of Jaishtha, 1262 B.Y., on the Snan Yatra[1] day, Thursday, 31 May, 1855[2]. Sri Ramakrishna’s elder brother, Pundit Ramakumar, was appointed the first priest of the Kali Temple. Thakur too used to come here often from Calcutta and after some time he was also appointed for the puja work. He was at that time 21/22 years old. His second brother, Rameswar too performed puja in the Kali Temple from time to time. He had two sons Ramalal and Shiva Rama, and a daughter Lakshmi Devi.

As Sri Ramakrishna had been performing the puja for quite sometime, a change came over him. He would remain absorbed and keep sitting beside the image of the Mother.

Soon after his near and dear ones arranged his marriage. They thought that marriage might change his state. He was married in 1859 to Sarada Mani Devi, the daughter of Ramachandra Mukherji of Jairambati, a village two kosas from Kamarpukur. Thakur was 22/23 years old while the Holy Mother was six then.

After his marriage Sri Ramakrishna returned to the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. Within a few days, there was a sudden change in his state. While worshipping the Kali's image, he began to see wonderful divine visions. He would be performing the arati but the arati was not coming to a close. He would sit down to perform the puja but the puja was not coming to a close. At times, perhaps he would offer flowers on his own head.

At times, he could not carry on the puja; he would roam about like a mad man. Rani Rasmani’s son‑in-law, Mathur, however, began to see and serve him as a great man and arranged for Mother Kali’s puja through another brahmin. He gave the responsibility of performing the puja and attending upon Thakur Sri Ramakrishna to Hriday Mukherji, Thakur’s sister’s son.

Afterwards Thakur neither attended to the duties of a priest nor did he enter householder’s life. This marriage was merely in name. Day and night ­ ‘Mother, Mother’ was on his lips. Now he was like a figure of wood, now moving about like a mad person. Sometimes he would live like a child, sometimes he would hide himself at the sight of worldly people attached to ‘woman and gold[3]’. But for divine talk, he did not like anything ­ always uttering, ‘Mother! Mother!’

In the Kali Temple, there was (it is still there) a free kitchen. Sadhus and sannyasis would frequently visit it. Totapuri stayed for eleven months and expounded Vedanta to Thakur. While he would do a part of it, Totapuri observed that Thakur would go into the Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Perhaps it was 1866 A.D. and Bhairavi Brahmini had already come (in 1859 A.D.). She had made Thakur practise several Tantrik exercises. Looking upon him as Sri Chaitanya, she read out to him ‘Sri Charitamrita’ and other Vaishnava holy books. When she saw him listening to Vedanta from Totapuri, Brahmini would warn him and say, ‘Baba, don’t listen to Vedanta. It will dilute your bhava and bhakti.’

Vaishnava Charan, a pundit of the Vaishnava sect, often visited him. It was he who took Thakur to an assembly of Chaitanya’s bhaktas in Calootola. In this assembly, Thakur Sri Ramakrishna experienced the state of God‑consciousness and had stepped up and occupied the seat of Sri Chaitanya. Vaishnava Charan was the president of this Chaitanya assembly.

Vaishnava Charan had told Mathur, ‘This madness is not ordinary, it is the madness of love. He is mad for the Lord.’ Vaishnava Charan and the Brahmini had seen Thakur’s state of mahabhava (divine ecstasy). Like Chaitanya Deva, he sometimes passed through the state of super-consciousness (samadhi ­ like a piece of wood, unmindful of the world around), sometimes in the state of semi-consciousness and sometimes he would come into the state of outer-consciousness.

Thakur would weep calling out, ‘Mother, Mother!’ He would always talk to the Mother and take instructions from Her. He would say, ‘O Mother, I shall hear You and You alone. I do not know the sacred books, nor do I know the pundit. If You explain me, only then I shall believe.’ Thakur knew and would say that He who is Supreme Being Indivisible Sachchidananda is Mother.

Divine Mother had told Thakur, ‘You and I are one. Live with bhakti for the good of mankind. All bhaktas will come. Then you will not have to see the worldly minded people alone. There are many bhaktas, pure and free from worldly desires; they will come.’

In the Temple at the time of arati when bells and cymbals used to ring, Sri Ramakrishna would go to the roof of the Kuthi and cry in a loud voice, ‘O, you bhaktas, who are you? Where are you? Come soon.’

Thakur took his mother Chandramani Devi for another form of the Mother of the Universe and would serve her in the same spirit. When Thakur’s elder brother, Ramakumar, departed for heaven the bereaved mother was stricken with grief. Within three-four years, Thakur called her to the Kali Temple and made her stay near him. Daily he would go to see her, take the dust of her feet and ask about her welfare.

Thakur went on pilgrimage twice. During the first one, he took his mother with him. Rama Chatterji and some of the sons of Mathur accompanied him. At that time, the first railway line was just laid for Kashi ­ within the period of five, or six years of the change in his spiritual state. At that time, night and day he was in samadhi, or remained overwhelmed and intoxicated in bhava. During the pilgrimage, after visiting Vaidyanath he visited Kashi dham (place of pilgrimage) and Prayag in 1863 A.D.

His second pilgrimage took place five years later, in January 1868, with Mathur Babu and his wife Jagadamba Dasi. This time his sister’s son Hriday was with him. During the journey, he visited Kashi dham, Prayag and Vrindavan. In Kashi, he went into samadhi at the Manikarnika ghat and had divine vision of Lord Vishvanath whispering the name of Tarak Brahman in the ears of the dying ones. He also met and spoke to Trailanga Swami who had taken the vow of silence. In Mathura at the Dhruva ghat, he saw Sri Krishna in the lap of Vasu Deva; in Sri Vrindavan, he saw Sri Krishna amongst the cows returning in the evening from across the Yamuna ­ such sports he saw with his spiritual eye. In Nidhuvan, he was overjoyed on meeting and conversing with Mother Ganga  who was immersed in the love of Radha.

When Keshab Sen was meditating with his disciples in the garden of Belghar, Sri Ramakrishna came to see him with his nephew Hriday in 1875. Vishwa Nath Upadhyay, the Captain from Nepal, used to visit Sri Ramakrishna during these days. Gopal of Sinti (the Elder Gopal), Mahendra Kaviraj, Kishori of Krishna Nagar and Mahima Charan had met Thakur by this time.

The bhaktas of Thakur’s inner circle began coming to him in 1879-80. When they met Thakur, he had almost passed the state of ‘madness for the Lord’. He was like a child then ­ calm and ever cheerful. But he was almost always in the state of samadhi ­ sometimes in jada samadhi (like a piece of wood unmindful of the world around), sometimes in bhava samadhi (immersed in God). When out of samadhi, he would roam about in the world of bhava. He then looked like a five year old child ever uttering ‘Mother! Mother!’

Rama and Manmohan met Thakur towards the end of 1879. Kedar and Surendra came next. Also came Chuni, Latu, Nityagopal and Tarak. The end of 1881 and the beginning of 1882 ­ during this time had come Narendra, Rakhal, Bhavanath, Baburam, Balaram, Niranjan, M. and Yogen. During 1883-1884 came Kishori, Adhar, Nitai, the Younger Gopal, Tarak of Belghar, Sarat and Shashi. In the middle of 1884 came Sanyal, Gangadhar, Kali, Girish, Devendra, Sarda, Kalipada, Upendra, Dvija and Hari. In the middle of 1885 came Subodh, the Younger Narendra, Paltu, Purna, Narayana, Tejachandra and Haripada. Likewise came Hara Mohan, Yajneshwar, Hazra, Kshirode, Yogen of Krishna Nagar, Manindra, Bhupati, Akshay, Navagopal, Govinda of Belghar, Ashu, Girendra, Atul, Durgacharan, Suresh, Prana Krishna, Nabai Chaitanya, Hari Prasanna, Mahendra (Mukherji), Priya Mukherji, Sadhu Priyanath (Manmath), Vinod, Tulasi, Harish Mustafi, Basakh, Kathak Thakur, Shashi of Bali (Brahmachari), Nityagopal (Goswami), Vipin of Konnagar, Bihari, Dhiren, Rakhal (Haldar) ­ one after the other.

Ishwara Vidyasagar, Shashadhar Pundit,
Dr. Rajendra, Dr. Sarkar, Bankim (Chatterji), Mr. Cook of United States, Bhakta Williams, Mr. Missir, Michael Madhusudan, Krishna Das (Pal), Pundit Dina Bandhu, Pundit Shyamapada, Dr. Rama Narayana, Dr. Durgacharan, Radhika Goswami, Shishir (Ghosh), Navin (clerk) and Neelkantha ­ they too had met Thakur. Thakur met Trailanga Swami in Sri Kashi dham and Mother Ganga in Vrindavan. Taking him as (the incarnation of) Radha (divine love), Mother Ganga would not let Thakur leave Vrindavan.

Before the bhaktas of inner circle came, Krishna Kishore, Madhura, Shambhu Mullick, Narayana Shastri, Gauri Pundit of Indesh, Chandra and Achalananda always visited Thakur. The court pundit of the King of Burdwan, Padma Lochan and Dayananda (the founder) of Arya Samaj also met Thakur. Out of the bhaktas of Thakur’s native village, Kamarpukur, and of Seor, Shyam Bazaar etc., many had met him.

Many persons from Brahmo Samaj often came to meet Thakur. Keshab, Vijay, Kali (Basu), Pratap, Shivanath, Amrit, Trailokya, Krishna Bihari, Manilal, Umesh, Hirananda, Bhavani, Nanda Lal and many other Brahmo bhaktas often visited him. Thakur would also go to meet the Brahmos. During the lifetime of Mathur, Thakur went with him to Devendra Nath Tagore’s house and paid a visit to the Adi Brahmo Samaj during the service hours. Later on, he went to see Keshab’s Brahmo temple and Sadharan Samaj during the worship time. He would frequently visit Keshab’s house. How much he would rejoice in the company of Brahmo bhaktas! Keshab also visited him frequently sometimes with bhaktas, sometimes alone.

At Kalna, he met Bhagavan Das Baba ji. Seeing Thakur’s state of samadhi, Baba ji said, ‘You are indeed a mahapurusha (great spiritual personality), only you are fit to take the seat of Chaitanya Deva.’

To realize the harmony of all religions, Thakur, on the one hand, practised the disciplines of the Vaishnavas, the Shaktas, the Shaivites and so on. On the other hand, he recited the name of Allah and meditated upon Christ. In the room where he lived, there were pictures of gods and an image of the Buddha. There was also a picture showing Jesus Christ saving Peter from drowning in the water. These pictures can still be seen if you go to that room. English and American devotees can now be seen meditating upon Thakur in this room.

One day he earnestly said to the Mother, ‘O Mother, I shall see how your Christian devotees pray to You. Kindly take me there.’ After a few days, he went to Calcutta and watched the service standing at the entrance to a church. On his return, Thakur said to the bhaktas, “I did not enter the church to sit there for fear of the steward. I said to myself, ‘Maybe he does not then allow me to return to the Kali Temple.’ ”

Thakur had many women bhaktas. He had called Gopal’s mother as Mother and used to call her as ‘Gopal’s mother’. He would look upon all women as incarnations of Bhagavati (Divine Mother) and would worship them as Mother. As long as man cannot see woman as Mother Herself, he cannot have pure love for the Lord. He warned men to guard themselves against women till that stage is reached. So much so that he would forbid the company of even the most devoted  woman. He himself said to the Mother, ‘Mother, I will run a knife across my throat if any lustful thought arises in my mind.’

Thakur’s bhaktas are countless. Out of them, some are known while others unknown. It is impossible to name all of them. The names of many of them will be found in ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita’. Those of childhood are many ­ Ramakrishna, Patu, Tulasi, Shanti, Shashi, Vipin, Hira Lal, Nagendra Mitra, Upendra, Surendra, Suren and so on; and a number of little girls had also seen Thakur. Now they too are his devotees.

After he ended his leela, so many people became his devotees and are still becoming his devotees. In Madras, Srilanka, U.P., Rajaputana, Kumaon, Nepal, Bombay, Punjab and Japan and also in America, England ­ at all the places the families of bhaktas are scattering and are gradually increasing.

 

Janmashtami

1310 B.Y., 1903 A.D.