Life of Thakur from his own Holy Lips

[Three Classes of Evidence]

It has been a long-cherished desire to publish the life of Thakur from his childhood in serial form. After completing the Kathamrita, material will be available to write his life, as he himself chronicled it, in six or seven volumes. In this regard three classes of evidence will be available.

First: Direct and recorded on the same day: what Thakur Sri Ramakrishna said about his childhood, his states of sadhana (spiritual practices) etc., and what his devotees recorded that very day. The life of Thakur as told by himself, published in Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, belongs to this class of evidence. The day M. saw Thakur’s acts, or heard from his lips, he recalled and that very day or night recorded in his daily diary. This kind of testimony is obtained only by direct seeing and hearing. As well, M. recorded the year, the date, the day of the week and the lunar date.

Second: Direct but unrecorded at the time of the Master. This is what devotees themselves heard from the holy lips of Thakur, which they later recalled and then told. This kind of testimony is also very good. The record of other avatars (Divine Incarnations) is generally of this kind. But twenty-four years[1] have passed between now and Thakur’s passing, so there is greater possibility of mistake in this testimony than in one from a daily diary.

Third: Hearsay and unrecorded at the time of the Master. What one hears about Thakur's childhood or his states of sadhana from his contemporaries, such as Hriday Mukherji, Roy Chatterji and other devotees; or what one hears about the life of Thakur from the residents of Kamarpukur, Jayrambati, Shyambazar, and from the circle of Thakur's devotees, belongs to the third class of evidence.

At the time of writing Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, M. relied only upon the first class of evidence, his daily diary. Were he to have published Thakur's life in serial form, he would have relied mainly on such first class evidence as well. In other words, the contents of Thakur’s life would have been written relying only on his own words.

Calcutta, 1317 B.Y., 1910 A.D.

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[1] The reference to twenty-four years having passed (1886-1910) and the 1910 date of publication was in a subsequent edition of Volume III, which was originally published in 1908