Previous Section << | Index | >> Next Section
Baranagore Math
Today is Monday, 9 May 1887, the second day of the dark fortnight of Jaishtha. Narendra and other devotees are in the monastery. Sarat, Baburam, and Kali have gone to Sri Kshetra.[1] Niranjan has gone to see his mother. M. is at the monastery.
The brothers of the Math are resting after the midday meal. The Elder Gopal is copying some songs into a music notebook.
It is afternoon. Rabindra enters like a madman, barefoot and wearing only half a black-bordered dhoti. His eyes are rolling like a madman’s. They all ask, “What has happened?” Rabindra says, “Wait. I’ll tell you everything in a little while – but I won’t go back home. I will stay here with you. She’s a traitor. What do you think of this? I had a drinking habit for five years, and I gave it up for her sake. That was eight months ago. Not a drop. She’s betrayed my trust!”
The brothers of the monastery say, “Calm down, please. How did you get here?”
Rabindra: “I walked barefoot all the way from Calcutta.”
The devotees ask, “Where is the other half of your dhoti?”
Rabindra says, “She tugged at it when I left and it got torn off.”
The devotees say, “Please go take a bath in the Ganges and cool off. Then we’ll talk.”
Rabindra belongs to a respectable Kayastha family of Calcutta. He is between twenty and twenty-two years old. He met Sri Ramakrishna at the Kali temple in Dakshineswar and received his special grace. Once he spent three nights with Thakur. He is a man of very gentle and sweet nature. Thakur showed him great affection but said, “It will take you some time. There is still some desire for sense enjoyments in you. Nothing is possible just now. The police can’t do anything the very moment a theft takes place. When it quiets down a little, the police come and arrest the guilty.”
Rabindra has become infatuated with a prostitute, but he has all the other virtues – compassion for the poor, contemplation of God, and so on. Learning that the woman was unfaithful to him, he arrives at the monastery in a torn dhoti and resolves not to return to the world.
Rabindra goes to the Paramanik Ghat for a bath in the Ganges. A devotee accompanies him, hopeful that the company of holy men will awaken the young man’s spiritual consciousness. After the bath he takes Rabindra to the cremation ground near the ghat and shows him a dead body, saying, “The brothers of the monastery come here alone at night to meditate. It is good for us to meditate here. Here one sees clearly that the world is transitory.” Hearing this, Rabindra sits down to meditate, but he cannot meditate for long. His mind is too restless.
Both men return to the monastery and bowed down to Thakur in the shrine. The devotee tells Rabindra that the brothers meditate in this room. Rabindra sits to meditate for a while but cannot continue for long.
Mani: “How do you feel? Is your mind very restless? Is that why you got up? You probably couldn’t concentrate properly.”
Rabindra: “I am definitely not going back to the world. Even if my mind isn’t settled down.”
Mani and Rabindra stand in a quiet spot in the monastery. Mani tells a story from the life of Buddha: Buddha first attained spiritual awareness by listening to a song of some celestial maidens. These days the lives of Buddha and Chaitanya are continually discussed in the monastery. Mani sings:
We long for peace, but where can it be found?
Where we come from and where we go, we do not know.
Again and again returning, with laughter and tears without end,
We wonder all the while where our paths will lead.
That night Narendra, Tarak, and Harish return from Calcutta, where they had been invited to eat at a devotee’s house. When they arrive, they say, “Oh, what a feast we had!”
Narendra, the brothers of the monastery, M., Rabindra, and others are all sitting in “the room of the demons.”[2] Narendra hears Rabindra’s news.
Grief-stricken man and Narendra’s counsel
Narendra sings, as though to instruct Rabindra through the song:
Give up, O man, and cast aside any wrong advice.
You will be freed from your pain when you have known the Lord.
Narendra sings again as if advising Rabindra:
Aspiring soul, imbibe the bliss from Hari’s cup of love, become intoxicated!
One’s childhood is spent in play, and adulthood infatuated with woman.
In old age one falls prey to bodily ills and lies in bed from morning till dusk.
How can delusion be removed? As the musk deer roams the forest, not knowing
That the sweet-scented musk that draws it ever onward rests in its own navel,
So without the guru one’s searches will be in vain.
After some time the brothers of the Math come into Kali Tapasvi’s room.[3] Girish has just sent two of his new books to them, Buddha Charita and Chaitanya Charita. Narendra, Sashi, Rakhal, Prasanna, M., and some other devotees are present. Since coming to the new monastery (Baranagore), Sashi has devoted himself heart and soul to worshiping Thakur. They are all amazed at his devotion. In the same way that he served Thakur day and night during his illness, he now worships him single-mindedly with deep devotion.
One brother of the monastery reads from Buddha Charita and Chaitanya Charita. He reads Chaitanya Charita somewhat sarcastically. Narendra snatches the book away from him and says, “You spoil a good thing doing that!”
Narendra himself reads about Chaitanya Deva’s showering of love.
A brother of the Math: “I say that nobody can give love to another.”
Narendra: “Paramahamsa gave love to me.”
Brother: “Are you sure you got it?”
Narendra: “What can you understand? You belong to the servant class.[4] All of you will serve me and massage my feet – even Sarat, Mitir, and Deso. (All laugh.) Don’t flatter yourself that you’ve understood everything. (Laughter.) Go and prepare a smoke for me.” (All laugh.)
Brother: “No… I will… not…”
M. (to himself): Sri Ramakrishna has infused mettle in many of the brothers of the monastery, not only in Narendra. Without such mettle is it possible to renounce “lust and greed”?
Spiritual practices of the monastic brothers
The next day is Tuesday, 10 May, the day of the Divine Mother. Narendra and the other brothers are going to offer a special puja to the Mother of the Universe. A triangular yantra (sacred diagram) has been drawn in front of Thakur’s shrine. They will perform a homa,[5] followed by animal sacrifice. According to the Tantra both homa and sacrifice have to be performed. Narendra reads from the Gita.
Mani goes for a dip in the Ganges. Rabindra paces the roof all alone. He hears Narendra chanting melodiously:
Om, I am neither the mind, the intellect, the ego, nor the mind-stuff,
Nor I am the ears, the tongue, the nostrils, the eyes.
I am neither the sky nor earth nor fire nor air.
I am pure Knowledge and Bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva!
I am neither the life-breath nor the five vital forces;[6]
not the seven metals, not the five sheaths.[7]
Neither speech nor hands nor feet nor genitals nor anus am I.
I am pure Knowledge and Bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva!
I have neither attachment nor enmity, neither greed nor infatuation.
Neither vanity nor envy have I.
I have neither righteousness, wealth, desire, nor liberation.[8]
I am pure Knowledge and Bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva!
I know nothing of virtue and vice, nothing of happiness and sorrow.
I am neither mantra, nor place of pilgrimage, nor Veda, nor ritual;
Neither the eater of food, nor eating, nor food.
I am pure Knowledge and Bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva!
Rabindra returns after his bath in the Ganges. His dhoti is wet.
Narendra (in a whisper, to Mani): “He has just taken his bath. It’s the right time to initiate him into sannyas. (Mani and Narendra laugh.)
Prasanna asks Rabindra to change and gives him a gerua dhoti.
Narendra (to Mani): “Now he’s going to wear the cloth of renunciation.”
Mani: “What kind of renunciation?”
Narendra: “Renunciation of ‘lust and greed.’”
Rabindra puts on the ochre cloth and goes into Kali Tapasvi’s room to sit there alone. Perhaps he will meditate for a while.
[1]. Jagannath Puri, an ancient place of pilgrimage in Orissa state.
[2]. Danas; the monastic brothers were nicknamed “demons.”
[3]. Kali Tapasvi later became Swami Abhedananda. Tapasvi means ascetic.
[4]. God’s servant class.
[5]. Vedic sacrifice in which oblations are offered into fire.
[6]. The five “breaths”: prana, apana, samana, vyana, and udana.
[7]. The five coverings of the atman: the physical body (annamayakosha), the life-force (pranamayakosha), the mental sheath (manomayakosha), the intelligent will (vijnanamayakosha), and the causal body (anandamayakosha).
[8]. Dharma, artha, kama, moksha – the four goals of human life.
Previous Section << | Index | >> Next Section
