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) and so on, 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. Whatever M. saw Thakur do or heard him say,
he recorded the same day or night in his 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 Thakur say, which they later recalled and then described.
This kind of testimony is also very good – the record of other avatars (Divine
Incarnations) is generally of this kind – but twenty-four years have passed between now and Thakur’s passing. So there is greater possibility of
mistake in such testimony of recollection than in that of a diary kept daily at
the time of incidence.
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 on 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. In other words, the contents of Thakur’s life would have been written relying only on his
own words.
Mahendranath Gupta