Ramakrishna: Devotional Giant of the Twentieth Century

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is one the most remarkable and inspiring spiritual figures in the history of mankind. In the introduction to The Life of Sri Ramakrishna, written by the monks of the Ramakrishna Order in 1924, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “His life enables us to see God face to face. No one can read the story of his life without being convinced that God alone is real and that all else is an illusion.” Indeed, it is impossible to read about his life and come away believing there is any more meaningful, purposeful, or joyful existence than to devote yourself to the realization of the Divinity in all.

Ramakrishna was born February 18, 1836, in a village just south of Calcutta, Kamarpukar. His parents, Khudiram and Chandra Devi, were an orthodox Brahmin couple who, it is said, had dreams or visions indicating that they would receive the gift of a special child. In fact, while Khudiram was on a pilgrimage, Vishnu Himself came to him and said He would be born as Khudiram’s son. Shortly afterward, Chandra realized she had conceived.

Khudiram was a very virtuous man. Before Ramakrishna’s birth, the owner of the property that the family lived on tried to coerce Khudiram into testifying falsely against one of his neighbors. Despite threats, Khudiram steadfastly refused, prompting the landlord to confiscate Khudiram’s ancestral property. Though the family was forced to move a few miles to the east, the man of the household always managed to provide for his family. Though he owned only a very small plot of land, it always managed to yield just the right amount of rice for as long as he lived.

At birth, Ramakrishna was named Gadadhar, one of Vishnu’s names that means “bearer of the Mace.” By all accounts, Gadadhar had some striking characteristics even as a small child. He was unusually charming and very smart. His memory was so extraordinary that he could repeat an entire religious opera or drama—both the words and the music—after hearing the work only once. When he was older, he founded a small troupe composed of his playmates. With Ramakrishna as producer and director, the group performed religious dramas. The boy also possessed a natural artistic bent. While still quite young, he sculpted many of his spiritual heroes.

Far and away, his most powerful and defining characteristic was his devotional bent. Sai Baba Himself has said that Ramakrishna scaled the very heights of devotion, achieving madhura bhakti (the intense love for God as a divine lover). Some say the young saint went into meditative trances and ecstasies as early as age six. Ramakrishna himself provided an account of that first experience: “I was following a narrow path between the rice fields. I raised my eyes to the sky as I munched my rice. I saw a great black cloud spreading rapidly until it covered the heavens. Suddenly at the edge of the cloud, a flight of snow-white cranes passed over my head. The contrast was so beautiful that my spirit wandered far away. I lost consciousness and fell to the ground. The puffed rice was scattered. Someone picked me up and carried me home in his arms. An excess of joy and emotion overcame me. …This was the first time I was seized with ecstasy.” Some say Ramakrishna spent half his life in such states.

At the age of nine, he was invested with the sacred thread, which enabled him to formally enter the worship of Raghuvir, the family deity. Predictably, he performed with unique zeal. By the time Ramakrishna turned sixteen, his older brother Ramkumar had opened a Sanskrit academy in Calcutta. Ramakrishna was more than prepared to assist by then, and he served as family priest to a number of families in the area. Up to this point, his formal education had been virtually non-existent (he particularly loathed mathematics), and when his brother expressed concern about his future prospects for earning a living on his own, Ramakrishna’s response was similar to Sai Baba’s dictum, “Education is for life, not for a living.”  Ramakrishna said, “What shall I do with a mere bread-winning education? I would rather acquire the wisdom that will illumine my heart and give me satisfaction forever.” In his new full-time capacity as priest, he was in a position to pursue this yearning more than ever before.

In 1855, Ramakrishna went with this brother, Ramkumar, who had been appointed priest of a Kali temple constructed by a rich and highly regarded widow, Rani Rasmani, and managed by her son-in-law, Mathur Mohan. The brother was to pass away the following year, but before that time, he enabled Ramakrishna to receive an initiation that qualified him to perform the special worship of Kali. The effect of this “simple twist of fate” is probably unparalleled in the history of religion. The young priest quickly came under the spell of the Divine Mother and gradually began to abandon his worldly concerns in favor of a state of devotion, surrender, and ecstasy that became deeper and deeper as time went on. Eventually, the state became all-consuming. The formalities of worship gave way to Ramakrishna’s personal pursuit of total union with the Divine Mother. Had Mathur Mohan not been utterly convinced of Ramakrishna’s devotional sincerity and the authenticity of his spiritual experiences, he would most likely have had to let his employee go. But Mohan and the Rani had grown quite fond of Ramakrishna and they constantly tried to be of assistance to him.

Eventually Ramakrishna’s complete indifference to worldly affairs—including his health—came to the attention of his biological mother (his father had passed away), who, hoping to provide some balance for her son, arranged his marriage to a young girl. Because it was a child marriage (the girl was only five), consummation was many years in the future. When Ramakrishna returned to the temple shortly after the marriage, he again fell into a God-intoxicated state, but this time it had increased tenfold. He is said to have sat motionless (he himself said for a period of six years) while endless visions of Gods and demons issued from him. If a cousin had not come to live with him to make sure he ate, he might not have survived.

Reports tell us that Ramakrishna greatly feared for his sanity. Fortunately, help was on the way. A traveling Brahmin woman (a Brahmani), well-versed in Tantric and Vaishnava forms of worship, recognized in Ramakrishna’s spiritual experiences and physical symptoms (he heard strange clicking sounds in his legs that left him immobile and he felt a burning sensation in his body) the classic characteristics of an incarnation. She helped dispel his concerns over his mental state.  Their relationship saw him through a critical period. Eventually, she convened a conference of scholars to decide the matter of his Divinity officially. Though the men were skeptical when they arrived (if not outright contemptuous), after a few days of questions and examination, they were in agreement with the Brahmani. Publicly, they declared Ramakrishna an incarnation of God. He had sat on the sidelines during the proceedings, almost as a spectator. After their announcement, he said, “It is you who say so. Believe me, I know nothing about it.” He would take this position to the end of his life. In fact, he often quoted his favorite proverb to his devotees: “The more I live, the more I learn.”

His official recognition drew the attention of the public and soon Dakshineswar became the object of pilgrimage for spiritual seekers all over the country. But Ramakrishna’s period of sadhana (spiritual practice) had not come to an end. Having successfully achieved what the scriptures refer to as the “nineteen attitudes”—the roads to God through viewing Him as father, mother, and friend, any one of which could easily take serious sadhakas (spiritual aspirants) could easily take an entire lifetime—he still hadn’t reached the summit. Another wandering monk, Tota Puri (the “naked one,” who wore nothing), finally brought him to the exalted state of nirvikalpa samadhi(the seedless samadhi [state beyond duality], according to Patanjali) from which there is no return. One cannot return because after the ultimate purification, no attachment is left to material existence. The only ones who do return, say both Sai Baba and Ramakrishna, are those with a special mission in the world. Though it took Tota Puri more than forty years to attain the state, Ramakrishna achieved it in just three days.

Still he was not quite finished. One of the most distinctive features of Ramakrishna’s sadhana was that after reaching the pinnacle of Hindu spiritual accomplishment, he went on to practice Islam and Christianity as well, immersing himself in their respective religious values and cultures, to the point of God realization in each. To this day, many of his followers consider this to be his chief legacy. He said, “I have practiced all religions—Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths.” Many believe that achieving unity within himself in the various faiths—by practice and realization—was his primary mission and message to mankind.

Eventually, Ramakrishna returned to the world and the sociopolitical realities of his time. He met and, in some cases, befriended the leaders of various spiritual movements that were emerging, in an attempt to unify under a common banner all the warring factions in India. Although some of these movements were exerting a tremendous influence over his countrymen, Ramakrishna never lost his own autonomy. In fact, he soon attracted a group of extraordinary young men, including, of course, Swami Vivekanada, whom he would guide and train with great love and affection. They, in turn, would go on to spread what Ramakrishna believed to be the Divine Mother’s very own message of self-realization through love, meditation, and service. They achieved this goal with great success the world over.

Possibly, future generations will come to view Ramakrishna in the way that Christians regard John the Baptist. In many ways Ramakrishna prepared the way for Sai Baba by revitalizing India’s ancient spiritual values, which at the time lay dormant. Many members of the Sai Baba Organization, both past and present, were devotees or students of Ramakrishna before coming to Sathya Sai Baba. One of these is Profesor Kasturi, who served as Secretary of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission in Mysore for seventeen years before being called to Swami.

In sum, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s life was truly extraordinary. Let us always remember the incredible blessing it is to have had such a being among us.

~Richard Margolin
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

Sources: Romain Rolland. The Life of Ramakrisna. Reprinted.
Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1974
Max Mueller. Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings. 3rd Indian ed.
Calcutta: Advaita  Ashrama, 1988
Swami Nihkilananda. The Gospel of  Sri Ramakrishna.
Reprint ed. New York:  Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1977