Ramakrishna as We Saw Him
EPOCH III Ecumenicity News Service. News that stays news.
Excerpts from the book RAMAKRISHNA AS WE SAW HIM:
....When the Master [Ramakrishna] was standing, his mood had been like that of the Divine Mother. Now, when he was seated, his mood was like that of Krishna. At that time I observed another amazing thing that would remain in my memory all through my life. I saw that the Master's spinal cord was swollen like a thick rope and that his kundalini power had reached his head. It looked like the hood of a snake moving with joy....
....I returned home and my mother scolded me. When she heard that I had gone to see Sri Ramakrishna, she said: "My goodness! You went to that crazy brahmin! He has deranged the brains of three hundred and fifty young men." It was indeed the derangement of brains! Even now my brain is hot. I did not pay any attention to my mother's scolding....
Another day I went in the afternoon to visit the Master at Dakshineswar. Many devotees were seated in his room. After saluting the Master I sat quietly in a corner. The Master was conversing with the devotees seated on his small cot. In physical appearance he was like any other man, but his smile was something divine. I have never seen such a smile in my life. When he smiled, a wave of bliss rolled not only over his face but over his whole body. And that blissful smile would wipe out the worries and troubles of those who looked at him. His voice was so sweet and melodious that one never tired of hearing it. His eyes were keen and bright, and when he would look at a person, it seemed that he was seeing everything inside him.
I felt Sri Ramakrishna's room vibrating with a tangible atmosphere of peace, and the devotees present semed to be listening in blissful absorption to the words that poured from the Master's lips. I don't recall what he said, but I experienced tremendous joy within. For a long time I sat there, my whole attention concentrated on Sri Ramakrishna. He did not say anything to me, nor did I ask him anything. Then one by one the devotees took their leave, and suddenly I found myself alone with him. The Master was looking at me intently. I thought it was time for me to depart, so I prostrated before him. As I stood up to go, he asked: "Can you wrestle? Come, let me see how well you wrestle!" With these words he stood up, ready to grapple with me. I was surprised at this challenge. I thought to myself, "What kind of holy man is this?" But I replied, "Yes, of course I can wrestle."
Sri Ramakrishna came closer, smiling. He caught hold of my arms and began to shove me, but I was a strong, muscular young man and I pushed him back to the wall. He was still smiling and holding me with a strong grip. Gradually I felt a sort of electric current coming out of his hands and entering into me. That touch made me completely helpless. I lost all my physical strength. I went into ecstasy, and the hair of my body stood on end. Releasing me, the Master said with a smile, "Well, you are the winner." With those words, he sat down on his cot again. I was speechless. Wave after wave of bliss engulfed my whole being. I was pondering the fact that the Master had not won physically but his spiritual power had completely subdued me. Some time passed. Then the Master got up from his seat. Patting me gently on the back, he said: "Come here often. It is not enough to come once." Then he offered me some sweets as prasad, and I returned to Calcutta. For days the spell of that intoxicating joy lingered, and I realized that he had transmitted spiritual power to me....
....[Ramakrishna said one day], "I hope you have continued your practice of meditation." I said, "I try to meditate, sir, but I find I can't."
The Master seemed surprised at my repy and exclaimed: "What do you mean you cannot meditate? Surely you can." He remained silent for a few moments. I was looking at him, waiting for him to say something more. Soon I noticed a change coming over his face and eyes. He looked at me intently. After a little while he said, "Come near me." As I approached the Master, he asked me to stick out my tongue. When I did, he drew a figure on it with his finger. My whole body began to tremble, and I felt an unspeakable bliss within. Then the Master said, "Go to the Panchavati and meditate there." Following his instruction, I slowly moved towards the Panchavati. I walked with difficulty, intoxicated with joy from the Master's touch. Somehow I reached there and sat for meditation. Then I lost all outward consciousness. When I regained my ordinary state of mind, I saw the Master seated by me. He was rubbing my body with his hands. His face shone with a heavenly smile. I was still in an intoxicated mood. He asked me, "Well, how was your meditation?" "It was very good, sir," I replied. Then the Master said, "From now on you will always have deep meditation."
....During my youth I had read the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, and other thinkers. One day I said to the Master: "Sir, what do you know about philosophy? Have you read the works of Kant and Hegel?" He replied: "What are you saying? Throw away all those books. Knowledge of God is not in any book. Those books are all products of ignorance." What a great statement the Master made! Later, finding no way out, I gave up arguing. In the beginning we need faith for God-realization....
Our Master did not have any school education, but he could read and write. In his presence we would feel that our book learning was a very inferior type of education. Of course book learning does refine the intellect to some extent, but of what use is it unless this refined intellect is profitably employed? The Master wanted us to acquire the wisdom that comes from the direct vision of God....
Even looking at him one could see that he observed people in silent amazement. He would say: "People in this world are entrapped by maya and engrossed with impermanent, mundane things. They are so deluded and attached to momentary pleasures that they turn away from eternal bliss."
....As soon as there was any talk on a spiritual subject, he would immediately go into ecstasy. People of all communities derived great pleasure from his holy company, and they would look upon him as their own. He practised universality. He was not bound by any limitations.
The Master's mind soared constantly in the highest realms of the spirit. The world was almost nonexistent to him. When he talked with people of this world, he had to forcibly bring his mind down to a lower plane of consciousness.
The Master was a spiritual dynamo. While chanting the Lord's name he would become intoxicated and lose body consciousness. A piece of live charcoal once touched his body while he was in samadhi but he did not feel it....
When the mind is detached from sense objects, the light of Brahman is seen in all beings. People are scorched by the fire of the world because of attachment to sense objects. As the Master was absorbed day and night in the thought of the Divine Mother, the fire of the world could not touch him. As a result of constant absorption in the Divine, the Master enjoyed perennial bliss. He was overwhelmed with bliss -- sometimes laughing, sometimes weeping in the joy of ecstasy. I never saw him devoid of bliss. It pained him to see us cheerless. He was eager to share with us the eternal joy in which he remained immersed twenty-four hours of the day....
The Master was a wonderful person. I noticed that a wave of spiritual power played on the Master's body all the time. A little power in the brain makes an ordinary person a famous chemist or physicist or politician. On the other hand, a tremendous spiritual current flowed in every centre of the Master's body. What a terrific power he had!....
....That was my last visit to the Master. Afterwards I went to Kankipur [in Bihar] for my last two years of college. The house where I lived is now an ashrama. The day the Master passed away I saw him standing in front of me. I wondered: "How did the Master come here? What is the cause of this vision?" The next day I read of the Master's passing away in the Basumati newspaper.
Once at Dakshineswar the Master said to me: "Do you know why I love you? You boys are my very own. The Divine Mother has asked me to love you." I cannot express how much love the Master had for us... We became intoxicated seeing the Master, and now people are intoxicated just by hearing his name. How blessed they are!
--Swami Vijnanananda
....If brevity is the soul of wit, it is the soul of wisdom also. Sri Ramakrishna possessed all three at once and possessed them to an exceptional degree. The only parallel that suggests itself is Nietzsche. The one lived in the unseen world and the other dwelt on mundane experiences. The one worshipped the God of Love; the other, the God of Power. The one said, "Thy will be done"; the other insisted on the power of the human will. The sentences were discontinuous and unstrung in both cases. They were hard to grasp. But Nietzsche's sentences were long and Sri Ramakrishna's were short. Nietzsche wrote and Sri Ramakrishna spoke....
--Kshirod Chandra Sen
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