Ramakrishna

For other uses, see Ramakrishna (disambiguation).

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Born	(1836-02-18)February 18, 1836 Kamarpukur, West Bengal, India
Died	16 August 1886(1886-08-16) (aged 50) Garden House in Cossipore.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Bangla: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo) (February 18, 1836 - August 16, 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (Bangla: গদাধর চট্টোপাধ্যায় Gôdadhor Chôţţopaddhae), was born in a small Bengali village and became an influential Hindu religious leader. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his prominent disciple Swami Vivekananda—both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance and the Hindu renaissance of the late 20th century. Ramakrishna practiced Vaishnava and Śakti bhakti, Vedanta, Tantra, and other spiritual disciplines and realized that all paths lead to the same ultimate goal. He was considered an avatar or incarnation of God by many of his disciples, and is considered as such by many of his devotees today.

Biography

Birth and childhood

The small house at Kamarpukur where Ramakrishna lived (centre). The family shrine is on the left, birthplace temple on the right

Ramakrishna was born in 1836, in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, into a very poor but pious, orthodox brahmin family. His parents were Khudiram Chattopâdhyâya, and Chandramani Devî. Various supernatural incidents are recounted in connection with Ramakrishna’s birth. It is said that Ramakrishna was named Gadadhar in response to a dream Khudiram had in Gaya before Ramakrishna’s birth, in which Lord Gadadhara, the form of Vishnu worshipped at Gaya, appeared to him and told him he would be born as his son. Chandramani Devi is said to have had a vision of light entering her womb before Ramakrishna was born. Ramakrishna was born as the fourth and last child to his parents.

Gadadhar, as Ramakrishna was known in his early days, was an extremely popular figure in his village. He had a natural gift for the fine arts like drawing and clay modelling. However, he disliked attending school, and rejected his schooling saying that he was not interested in mere "Bread Winning Education". He became increasingly less interested in formal attendance. Though Gadadhar shunned the traditional school system, he showed great desire and ability to learn. He easily mastered the songs, tales and dramas which were based on the religious scriptures. At a very early age he was well versed in the Purāṇas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, by hearing them from wandering monks and the Kathaks — a class of men in ancient India who preached and sang the Purāṇas for the uneducated masses. He learned to read and write in Bengali. He was able to follow Sanskrit even though he could not speak the language. He would visit with wandering monks who stopped in Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. He would serve them and listen to their religious debates with rapt attention. Gadadhar loved nature and spent much time in fields and fruit orchards outside the village with his friends.

At the age of six or seven, Gadadhar had an intense experience of spiritual ecstasy. He was walking along the paddy fields and suddenly looked up to find a flock of white cranes flying with dark thunder-clouds as a background. To him, that was a beautiful sight, he was so absorbed that he lost consciousness of everything outward. He later said that in that state he had experienced an indescribable joy. Gadadhar had experiences of similar nature a few other times in his childhood.

Gadadhar's father died in 1843. This event had a profound effect on the boy and is considered as one of the determinative points in Ramakrishna's religious life. This loss drew him closer to his mother, and he spent his time in household activities, including the daily worship of the household deities. He also became more involved in contemplative activities such as reading the sacred epics.

At the age of nine, Gadadhar was to be invested with the sacred thread. However, contrary to tradition and despite firm opposition from his family, to keep up his promise , Gadhadhar took his first alms — which marks the formal recognition of the boy as brahmi, from a low-caste woman belonging to blacksmith community.

When Ramakrishna was into his teens, the family's financial position worsened. Ramkumar ran a Sanskrit school in Calcutta and also served as a purohit priest in some families. Ramakrishna moved to Calcutta in the year 1852 and started assisting his elder brother in the priestly work.

Priest at Dakshineswar Kali Temple

Dakshineswar Kāli Temple, where Ramakrishna spent a major portion of his adult life.

In 1855 Ramkumar was appointed as the priest of Dakshineswar Kali Temple, built by Rani Rashmoni—a rich woman of Calcutta who belonged to the untouchable kaivarta community Ramakrishna moved in with his brother only after some persuasion, since the temple was constructed by a low caste woman. Ramakrishna, along with his nephew Hriday, became assistants to Ramkumar, with Ramakrishna given the task of decorating the deity. When Ramkumar passed away in 1856, Ramakrishna took his place as the priest of the Kāli temple. He was allotted a room in the northwestern corner of the temple courtyard, where he spent the rest of his life. The name Ramakrishna is said to have been given him by Mathur Babu, the son-in-law of Rani Rasmani.

Bhavatārini Kāli, the deity that Ramakrishna worshipped.

After Ramkumar's demise Ramakrishna became more contemplative. He began to look upon the image of the goddess Kāli as his mother and the mother of the universe. He became seized by a desire to have a vision of Kāli—a direct realization of her reality—and believed the stone image to be living and breathing and taking food out of his hand. At times he would weep bitterly and cry out loudly while worshiping, and would not be comforted, because he could not see his mother Kali as perfectly as he wished. At night, he would go into a nearby jungle and spend the entire night meditating on God, without any consciousness of even his clothes falling off. People became divided in their opinions—some held Ramakrishna to be mad, and some took him to be a great lover of God.

One day, he was so impatient to see Mother Kāli that he decided to end his life. Seizing a sword hanging on the wall, he was about to strike himself with it, when he is reported to have seen light issuing from the deity in waves. Ramakrishna describes his first vision of Kali as follows:

I had a marvelous vision of the Mother, and fell down unconscious.…It was as if houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether; as if there was nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless sea of light; a sea that was consciousness. However far and in whatever direction I looked, I saw shining waves, one after another, coming towards me. They were raging and storming upon me with great speed. Very soon they were upon me; they made me sink down into unknown depths. I panted and struggled and lost consciousness.

… What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother.

After the vision, Ramakrishna surrendered himself more and more to Kali. Childlike, he obeyed what he called the will of the Mother in everything, no matter how trivial or philosophical. People thought he was insane, but he never cared for what the world might think of him. Although Rani Rasmani and her son-in-law Mathur Babu had faith in Ramakrishna and left him free do whatever he liked, they thought that Ramakrishna was suffering from the effects of unduly prolonged continence. So Mathur arranged for prostitutes to visit Ramakrishna, but their attempts to seduce Ramakrishna only failed. He took the prostitutes to be forms of Divine Mother herself.

Marriage

Rumors spread to Kamarpukur that Ramakrishna had gone mad as a result of his over-taxing spiritual exercises at Dakshineswar. Ramakrishna's mother and his elder brother Rameswar decided to get Ramakrishna married, thinking that marriage would be a good steadying influence upon him—by forcing him to accept responsibility and to keep his attention on normal affairs rather than being obsessed with his spiritual practices and visions. Far from objecting to the marriage, Ramakrishna mentioned Jayrambati, three miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur, as being the village where the bride could be found, at the house of one Ramchandra Mukherjee. The five-year-old bride, Sarada, was found and the marriage was duly solemnised in 1859. Ramakrishna was 23 at this point, but the age difference was typical for 19th century rural Bengal. Ramakrishna left Sarada in December 1860 and did not return until May 1867.

Religious Practices and Teachers

After his marriage Ramakrishna returned to Calcutta and took upon himself the charges of the temple again, but instead of toning down, his spiritual fervour and devotion only increased. To get rid of the thought that he belonged to a higher brahmanical caste, he would eat food cooked by the lowest classes and serve the Pariahs—servants and cleaners who belonged to the lowest caste, describing this as follows:

'Sometimes I used to go to the closet of the servants and sweepers and clean it with my own hands, and prayed, "Mother! destroy in me all idea that I am great, and that I am a Brahman, and that they are low and pariahs, for who are they but Thou in so many forms?"'

Similarly, he would take gold and silver coins, and mixing them with rubbish, repeat "money is rubbish, money is rubbish". He later said that "I lost all perception of difference between the two in my mind, and threw them both into the Ganges. No wonder people took me for mad."

He was unable to attend to any external duties, he suffered from sleeplessness, and burning sensations throughout his body. Physicians were consulted, and one of them told, "It seems to me that the patient's condition is due to some kind of spiritual excitement—medicine won't cure him."

Bhairavi Brahmani and Tantra

See also Views on Ramakrishna's Tantra Sadhana

In 1861, Bhairavi Brahmani, an orange robed female ascetic appeared at Dakshineshwar. Her real name was Yogeshwari and she was in her late thirties. Other details about her life before her arrival in Dakshineswar is unknown. She was well versed in scriptures and was adept in Tantric and Vaishnava methods of worship.

Ramakrishna described the Bhairavi about his spiritual experiences and his seemingly abnormal physical conditions. The Bhairavi assured him that he was not mad but was experiencing phenomena that accompany mahabhava—the supreme attitude of loving devotion towards the divine and quoting from the bhakti shastras, indicated that Radha and Chaitanya had similar experiences. The Bhairavi also recommended the cure for Ramakrishna's physical ailments.

The Bhairavi initiated Ramakrishna into the tantric practices, which expose the sense and spirit to all the disturbances of the flesh and imaginations, so that these may be transcended. Under her guidance, he went through a full course of sixty four major tantric sadhanas. He began with mantra rituals such as japa and purascarana and many other rituals designed to purify the mind and establish self-control. The tantric sadhanas generally include a set of heteredox practices called vamachara (left-hand path), which utilize as a means of liberation, activities like eating of parched grain, fish and meat along with drinking of wine and sexual intercourse. According Ramakrishna and his biographers, Ramakrishna did not directly participate in the last two of those activities, that all he needed was a suggestion of them to produce the desired result. Though Ramakrishna acknowledged the left-hand tantric path as another means of spiritual enlightenment, he did not recommend it to anybody. Later, when Narendra asked him about the left-hand path, he would say, "It is not a good path. It is very difficult and often brings about the downfall of the aspirant."

The Bhairavi also taught Ramakrishna the kumari-puja, a form of ritual in which the Virgin Goddess is worshiped symbolically in the form of a young girl. Under the tutelage of the Bhairavi, Ramakrishna also became an adept at Kundalini Yoga. Ramakrishna completed his tantric sadhana in 1863.

Ramakrishna took the attitude of a son towards the Bhairavi. The Bhairavi on the other hand looked upon Ramakrishna as an avatara, or incarnation of the divine, and was the first person to openly declare that Ramakrishna was an avatara. But Ramakrishna was indifferent and unconcerned about people calling him an incarnation.

The Bhairavi, with the yogic techniques and the tantra played an important part in the initial spiritual development of Ramakrishna.

Vaishnava Bhakti

The Vaishnava Bhakti traditions speak of five different bhāvas—different attitudes that a devotee can take up in order to express his love for the God. They are: śānta , the serene attitude; dāsya, the attitude of a servant; sakhya, the attitude of a friend; vātsalya, the attitude of a mother toward her child; and madhura, the attitude of a woman toward her lover. Ramakrishna is known to have practised some of these bhavas

At some point in the period between his vision of Kali and his marriage, Ramakrishna practiced dāsya bhāva—the attitude of a servant towards his master. He started worshiping Rama in the attitude of Hanuman, the monkey-god, who is considered to be the ideal devotee and servant of Rama. In doing so, Ramakrishna completely identified himself with Hanuman, he ate and walked like a monkey, spent much of his time in trees and his eyes got a restless look like the eyes of a monkey. According to Ramakrishna and his biographers, there was even a small growth in the lower part of his spine resembling the tail of a monkey. As a climax to his dāsya experiment, Ramakrishna had a vision of Sita, the consort of Rama, merging into his body.

In 1864, Ramakrishna practiced vātsalya bhāva, the attitude of a mother towards God. During this period, he worshipped a metal image of Ramlālā (Rama as a child) in the attitude of a mother. As he was doing so, his character became filled with motherly tenderness, and he began to regard himself as a woman. His speech and gestures changed to that of a woman. According to Ramakrishna and his biographers, he could actually feel the presence of child Rama as a living God in the metal image.

Ramakrishna later engaged in the practice of madhura bhāva— the attitude of Gopis and Radha towards their lover, Krishna. Ramakrishna, in order to realise this love, dressed himself in women's attire for several days and regarded himself as one of the Gopis of Vrindavan. At the end of this sadhana, he attained savikalpa samadhi—vision and union with Krishna. Ramakrishna said,

"I spent many days as the handmaid of God. I dressed myself in women's clothes, put on ornaments, and covered the upper part of my body with a scarf, just like a woman...Otherwise, how could I have kept my wife with me for eight months? Both of us behaved as if we were the handmaids of the Divine Mother. I cannot speak of myself as a man."

At some point, Ramakrishna visited Nadia, the home of Chaitanya and Nityananda, the 15th-century founders of Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava bhakti. He had an intense vision of two young boys merging into his body.

Earlier, after his vision of Kali, he is said to have cultivated the Santa bhava — the passive "peaceful" attitude — towards Kali.

Totapuri and Vedanta

The Panchavati and the hut where Ramakrishna performed his advaitic sadhana. The mud hut has been replaced by a brick one.

In 1864, Ramakrishna was initiated into sanyassa by a vedantic ascetic, a wandering monk named Totapuri. Ramakrishna described Totapuri as "a teacher of masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice". He addressed Totapuri as Nangta or Langta ("Naked One"), because as a wandering monk of the Naga sect he did not wear any clothing. Totapuri looked at the world as illusory and the worship of Gods and Godesses as fantasies of the deluded mind. Instead, he believed in formless Brahman.

Totapuri first guided Ramakrishna through the rites of sannyasa—renunciation of all ties to the world. Then he instructed him in the teaching of advaita—that "Brahman alone is real, and the world is illusory; I have no separate existence; I am that Brahman alone." Under the guidance of Totapuri, Ramakrishna experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi which is considered to be the highest state in spiritual realisation:

I [Ramakrishna] said to Totapuri in despair: "It's no good. I will never be able to lift my spirit to the unconditioned state and find myself face to face with the Atman." He [Totapuri] replied severely: "What do you mean you can't? You must!" Looking about him, he found a shard of glass. He took it and stuck the point between my eyes saying: "Concentrate your mind on that point." [...] The last barrier vanished and my spirit immediately precipitated itself beyond the plane of the conditioned. I lost myself in samadhi.

Totapuri stayed with Ramakrishna for nearly eleven months and instructed him further in the teachings of advaita. After the departure of Totapuri, Ramakrishna reportedly remained for six months in a state of absolute contemplation. Ramakrishna said that this period of nirvikalpa samadhi came to an end when he received a command from the Mother Kali, "Remain in Bhavamukha; for the enlightenment of the people, remain in Bhavamukha", referring to a state of existence intermediate between samadhi and normal consciousness.

Islam and Christianity

In 1866, Govinda Roy, a Hindu guru who practiced Sufism, initiated Ramakrishna into Islam. Ramakrishna said:

I devoutly repeated the name of Allah, wore a cloth like the Arab Moslems, said their prayer five time daily, and felt disinclined even to see images of the Hindu gods and goddesses, much less worship them—for the Hindu way of thinking had disappeared altogether from my mind.

After few days of practice he had a vision of a "radiant personage with grave countenance and white beard resembling the Prophet and merging with his body".

Seven years later, at the end of 1873 he started the practise of Christianity, when his devotee Shambu Charan Mallik read the Bible to him. For several days he was filled with Christian thoughts and no longer thought of going to the Kali temple. One day when he was sitting in the room he saw on the wall a picture of Madonna and Child Jesus. He felt that the figures became alive and had a vision in which Jesus came and merged with him. In his own room amongst his Divine pictures was one of Christ, and he burnt incense before it morning and evening. There was also a picture showing Jesus Christ saving St.Peter from drowning in the water.

Referring to his experimentation with other religions Ramakrishna said:

"I have practised all religions—Hinduism, Islam, Christianity—and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion—Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well—the same Rama with a thousand names…"

Sarada Devi

Sarada Devi

When the child bride, Sarada Devi attained the age of seventeen or eighteen, as the customs dictated, she had to join her husband, Ramakrishna. She had heard rumours that her husband had become mad, and was in deep grief. Then again she heard that he had become a great religious man.

As a priest he performed the ritual ceremonies, the Shodashi Puja—the adoration of womanhood and considered her as the Divine Mother. Sarada Devi was made to sit in the seat of Kali, and worshipped her with flowers and incense. His view of woman as Mother was not limited to his companion Sarada Devi. He recognised the mother even in the most degraded prostitutes. The marriage was never consummated because he regarded Sarada as the Divine Mother in person.

With respect to Ramakrishna's treatment of her, Sarada Devi said that, "I was married to a husband who never addressed me as 'tui.'(you) Ah! How he treated me! Not even once did he tell me a harsh word or wound my feelings."

Sarada Devi is considered as his first disciple. Ramakrishna referred to his wife as the Holy Mother, and it was by this name that she was known to his disciples. After Ramakrishna's death in 1886, Sarada Devi continued to play an important role in the nascent religious movement.

Influence on Keshub Chunder Sen and Bhadralok

See also: Keshub Chunder Sen

Ramakrishna in samadhi at the house of Keshab Chandra Sen. He is seen supported by his nephew Hriday and surrounded by devotees.

In 1875, Ramakrishna met the influential former Brahmo Samaj leader Keshab Chandra Sen. Sen had seperated from the Brahmo Samaj, and formed his own organisation. Sen had accepted Christianity. Attracted by Ramakrishna's teachings, Keshab Sen publicized them over a period of several years in his journal The New Dispensation. Sen was instrumental in bringing Ramakrishna to the attention of a wider audience, especially the Bhadralok (English-educated classes of Bengal) and the Europeans residing in India.

Following Keshab, other former Brahmos such as Vijaykrishna Goswami started to admire Ramakrishna, propagate his ideals and reorient their socio-religious outlook. Many prominent people of Calcutta—Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Shivanath Shastri and Trailokyanath Sanyal—began visiting him during this time (1871-1885). Mozoomdar wrote the first English biography of Ramakrishna, entitled The Hindu Saint in the Theistic Quarterly Review (1879), which played a vital role in introducing Ramakrishna to Westerners like the German indologist Max Muller. Some former Brahmos proclaimed Ramakrishna's message to the educated public of Bengal through their speeches and writings, published in several newspapers and journals. Newspapers reported that Ramakrishna was spreading "Love" and "Devotion" among the educated classes of Calcutta and that he had succeeded in reforming the character of some youths whose morals had been corrupt.

Ramakrishna also had interactions with Debendranath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath Tagore, and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a renowned social worker. He also met Swami Dayananda.

Not all Brahmos were uncritical admirers of Ramakrishna. Some disapproved of his ascetic renunciation. They measured him according to their own deals of the householder's life. Some could not understand his Samadhi and considered it to be a nervous malady. Upadhyay Brahma­bandhab was originally a critic of Ramakrishna and refused to recognize him as an avatara.

Ramakrishna's influence was not confined to the elite educated class of Calcutta. During his lifetime (1836-86) his ideas and influence spread beyond the intelligentsia to other sections of Bengali society, including the Bauls and the Kartabhajas, and beyond Bengal itself. During his lifetime, however, there was little of an active movement. Ramakrishna played an important role in the Bengali Renaissance as the link between the Brahmo Samaj and the emergence of the Hindu Revival Movement.

Among the Europeans he influenced was Principal Dr. W.W. Hastie of the Scottish Church College, Calcutta. In the course of explaining the word trance in a poem by Wordsworth, Hastie told his students that if they wanted to know the real meaning of it, they should go to Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar. This prompted some of his students, including Narendranath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda), to visit Ramakrishna.

Devotees and Disciples

Main articles: Disciples of Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda

Few Monastic Disciples ( L to R ): Trigunatitananda, Shivananda, Vivekananda, Turiyananda, Brahmananda. Below Sadananda.

Mahendranath Gupta, a householder devotee and the recorder of Sri-Sri-Ramakrisna-kathamrta

Most of his prominent disciples came between 1879-1885. Many were highly educated, atheists and a few of them came to meet him out of curiosity. However, they were deeply influenced by Ramakrishna's teachings and a few became his ardent disciples. Devotees like Surendranath Mitra, a confirmed libertine, first approached Ramakrishna with an intent to "twist his ears" (a gesture of insult), only to end up as an inveterate follower. Ramakrishna had an extraordinary style of preaching and instructing, convincing even the most skeptical visitors.

His chief disciples consisted of:

• Grihastas or The householders—Mahendranath Gupta, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Akshay Kumar Sen and others.
• Monastic disciples who renounced their family and became the earliest monks of the Ramakrishna order—Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda), Rakhal Chandra Ghosh (Swami Brahmananda), Kaliprasad Chandra (Swami Abhedananda), Taraknath Ghoshal (Swami Shivananda), Sashibhushan Chakravarty (Swami Ramakrishnananda), Saratchandra Chakravarty (Swami Saradananda) to mention a few.
• A small group of women disciples including Gauri Ma and Yogin Ma. A few of them were initiated into sanyasa through mantra deeksha. Among the women, Ramakrishna emphasized service to other women rather than tapasya.

As his name spread, an ever shifting crowd of all classes and castes visited Ramakrishna—"Maharajas and beggars, journalists and pandits, artists and devotees, Brahmos, Christians, and Mohammedans, men of faith, men of action and business, old men, women and children". Ramakrishna incessantly conversed with them, mostly about religious matters with his visitors, along with some Sankirtana and bhajans. Ramakrishna used very simple rustic language, parables, apologues and humor, in a style which kept visitors enthralled.

Even though he had a band of dedicated renunciates, he never asked householders to renounce their family life. In preparation for monastic life, Ramakrishna ordered his monastic disciples to beg their food from door to door without distinction of caste. He gave them the saffron robe, the sign of the Sanyasin, and initiated them with Mantra Deeksha.

The Last Days

The Disciples and Devotees at Ramakrishna's funeral

In the beginning of 1885 he suffered from the clergyman's throat, which gradually developed into throat cancer. Ramakrishna was relocated to Calcutta ( Shyampukur ), and the best physicians of that time, like Dr.Mahendralal Sarkar were engaged. But the illness showed signs of aggravation and he was moved to a large garden house at Cossipore on December 11, 1885.

During his last days, he was looked after by his disciples and sarada devi. Ramakrishna was advised by the doctors to keep the strictest silence; but the advice was to no effect and Ramakrishna incessantly conversed with the visitors.

Before his death, it is reported that Ramakrishna said to Naren, "Today I have given you my all and am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By this power you will do immense good in the world and not until it is accomplished will you return to the absolute."

It is reported that when Naren, doubted Ramakrishna's claim of avatara, Ramakrishna said, "He who was Rama, He who was Krishna, He himself is now Ramakrishna in this body"

His condition worsened gradually and he expired on early morning hours of August 16, 1886 at the Cossipore garden house. According to his disciples, this was Mahasamadhi.

After the death of their master, the monastic disciples formed a fellowship at a half-ruined house at Barangore near Ganga, with the financial assistance of the household disciples. This became the first Math or monastery of the disciples, headed by Narendranath Dutta, as indicated by Ramakrishna. The Ramakrishna Mission was in its nascent stage at this point of time.

Teachings

God-realisation

Ramakrishna (1881, Calcutta)

Key concepts in Ramakrishna’s teachings included the oneness of existence and the unity and truth of all religions.

Ramakrishna emphasised that God-realisation is the supreme goal of all living beings. Ramakrishna’s mystical experiences through different religions led him to teach that various religions are different means to reach absolute knowledge and bliss—and that the different religions cannot express the totality of absolute truth, but can express aspects of it.

Kama-Kanchana

Ramakrishna taught that that the primal bondage in human life is Kama-Kanchana (lust and gold). When speaking to men, Ramakrishna warned them against kamini-kanchan, or "women and gold". When speaking to women, he warned them against purusha-kanchana, or "man and gold." Gauri-Ma, one of Ramakrishna's prominent women disciples, said that:

[Ramakrishna] has uttered this note of warning, against gold and sensuality, against a life of enjoyment, but surely not against women. Just as he advised the ascetic-minded men to guard themselves against women's charms, so also did he caution pious women against men's company. The Master's whole life abounds with proofs to show that he had not the slightest contempt or aversion for women; rather he had intense sympathy and profound regard for them.

Avidyamaya and vidyamaya

See also: Avidyamaya and vidyamaya and mayatita

Devotees believe that Ramakrishna’s realisation of nirvikalpa samadhi also led him to an understanding of the two sides of maya, or illusion, to which he referred as Avidyamaya and vidyamaya. He explained that avidyamaya represents dark forces of creation (e.g. sensual desire, evil passions, greed, lust and cruelty), which keep people on lower planes of consciousness. These forces are responsible for human entrapment in the cycle of birth and death, and they must be fought and vanquished. Vidyamaya, on the other hand, represents higher forces of creation (e.g. spiritual virtues, enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, and devotion), which elevate human beings to the higher planes of consciousness.

Harmony of religions

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The logo of Vedanta Provident Society.
एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति — "Truth is one; sages call It by various names." — Rig Veda 1.164.46

Ramakrishna recognised differences among religions but realised that in spite of these differences, all religions lead to the same ultimate goal, and hence they are all valid and true. Amiya P. Sen writes that the deep foundations in bhakti or devotion and faith in God makes Ramakrishna's teachings look universalistic and not his culturally determied forms. The distinguished British historian Arnold J. Toynbee has written: “… Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna’s testimony to the harmony of religions: here we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family–and in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.”

Dharm P.S. Bhawuk in his journal, Culture’s influence on creativity: the case of Indian spirituality wrote:

In view of this definition of creativity, Ramakrishna, indeed, demonstrated creative genius in bridging all religions by

practicing each of them. He may very well be the first, if not the only, person to practice the major religions of the world to come to the conclusion that they lead to the same God. His contribution to humanity is particularly significant for the world

after the bombing of the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Clearly, Islam is not to be blamed for the incident of September 11, and no religion should be blamed for any act of terrorism, because we know from the life of Ramakrishna that all religions lead to the same God.

Other teachings

Ramakrishna’s proclamation of jatra jiv tatra Shiv (wherever there is a living being, there is Shiva) stemmed from his Advaitic perception of Reality. This would lead him teach his disciples, "Jive daya noy, Shiv gyane jiv seba" (not kindness to living beings, but serving the living being as Shiva Himself). This view differs considerably from what Ramakrishna’s followers call the "sentimental pantheism" of, for example, Francis of Assisi.

Ramakrishna, though not formally trained as a philosopher, had an intuitive grasp of complex philosophical concepts. According to him brahmanda, the visible universe and many other universes, are mere bubbles emerging out of Brahman, the supreme ocean of intelligence .

Like Adi Sankara had done more than a thousand years earlier, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa revitalised Hinduism which had been fraught with excessive ritualism and superstition in the Nineteenth century and helped it become better-equipped to respond to challenges from Islam, Christianity and the dawn of the modern era. However, unlike Adi Sankara, Ramakrishna developed ideas about the post-samadhi descent of consciousness into the phenomenal world, which he went on to term "vignana". While he asserted the supreme validity of Advaita Vedanta, he also stated that "I accept both the Nitya and the Leela, both the Absolute and the Relative."

Parables

Parables formed a very important part of Ramakrishna's teachings. Like Christ, Ramakrishna conveyed his spiritual and moral messages through tales and parables.

The Parable of the Greatest Devotee

Once upon a time conceit entered into the heart of Narada and he thought there was no greater devotee than himself. Reading his heart, the Lord said, "Narada, go to such and such a place, a great devotee of mine is living there. Cultivate his acquaintance; for he is truly devoted to me." Narada went there and found an farmer who rose early in the morning, pronounced the name of Hari (God) only once, and taking his plough, went out and tilled the ground all day long. At night,. he went to bed after pronouncing the name of Hari once more. Narada said to himself "How can this rustic be a lover of God? I see him busily engaged in worldly duties and he has no signs of a pious man about him." Then Narada went back to the Lord, and spoke what he thought of his new acquaintance. There upon the Lord said, "Narada,take this cup of oil and go round this city and come back with it. But take care that you do not spill even a single drop of it." Narada did as he was told, and on his return the Lord asked him, "Well, Narada, how many times did you remember me in the course of your walk round the city?" "Not once, my Lord," said Narada, "and how could I, when I had to watch this cup brimming over with oil?" The Lord then said, "This one cup of oil did so divert your attention that even you did forget me altogether. But look at that rustic, who, though carrying the heavy burden of a family, still remembers me twice every day."

The Parable of the Pandit who could not swim

Once several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them, a pandit, was making a great display of his erudition, saying that he has studied various books—the Vedas, the Vedanta, the six systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, 'Do you know the Vedanta?' 'No, revered sir.' 'The Samkhya and the Patanjala?' 'No, revered sir.' 'Have you read no philosophy whatsoever?' 'No, revered sir.' The pandit was talking in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence, when a great storm arose and the boat was about to sink. The passenger said to the pandit, 'Sir, can you swim?' 'No', replied the pundit. The passenger said, 'I don't know the Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can swim.'

Ramakrishna’s impact

The marble statue of Ramakrishna at Belur Math

Born as he was during a social upheaval in Bengal in particular and India in general, Ramakrishna and his movement played a leading role in the modern revival of Hinduism in India, and on modern Indian history.

On Hinduism

His career was an important part of the renaissance that Bengal, and later India, experienced in the 19th century. Hinduism faced a huge intellectual challenge in the 19th century, from Westerners and Indians alike. The Hindu practice of murti came under intense pressure specially in Bengal, then the center of British India, and was declared intellectually unsustainable by some intellectuals. Response to this was varied, ranging from the Young Bengal movement that denounced Hinduism and embraced Christianity or atheism, to the Brahmo movement that retained primacy of Hinduism but gave up idol worship, and to the staunch Hindu nationalism of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Ramakrishna’s influence was crucial in this period for a Hindu revival of a more traditional kind, and can be compared to that of Chaitanya's contribution centuries earlier, when Hinduism in Bengal was under similar pressure from the growing power of Islam.

Among his contributions is a strong affirmation of the presence of the divine in an idol. To the many that revered him, this reinforced centuries-old traditions that were in the spotlight at the time. Ramakrishna also advocated an inclusive version of the religion, declaring Joto mot toto path (meaning As many faiths, so many paths). He was given a name that is from the Vaishnavite tradition (Rama and Krishna are both incarnations of Vishnu), but was a devotee of Kali, the mother goddess, and known to have followed various other religious paths including Tantrism, Christianity, and Islam.

On Indian Nationalism

Ramakrishna’s impact on the growing Indian nationalism was, if more indirect, nevertheless quite notable. A large number of intellectuals of that age had regular communication with him and respected him, though not all of them necessarily agreed with him on religious matters. Numerous members of the Brahmo Samaj respected him. Though some of them embraced his form of Hinduism, the fact that many others didn't shows that they detected in him a possibility for a strong national identity in the face of a colonial adversary that was intellectually undermining the Indian civilisation. As Amaury de Riencourt states,"The greatest leaders of the early twentieth century, whatever their walk of life -- Rabindranath Tagore, the prince of poets; Aurobindo Ghosh, the greatest mystic-philosopher; Mahatma Gandhi, who eventually shook the Anglo-Indian Empire to destruction -- all acknowledged their over-riding debt to both the Swan and the Eagle, to Ramakrishna who stirred the heart of India, and to Vivekananda who awakened its soul." This is particularly evident in Ramakrishna’s development of the Mother-symbolism and its eventual role in defining the incipient Indian nationalism.

Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission

See also: Apostles of Ramakrishna and Belur Math

Vivekananda, Ramakrishna’s most illustrious disciple, is considered by some to be one of his most important legacies. Vivekananda spread the message of Ramakrishna across the world. He also helped introduce Hinduism to the west. He founded two organisations based on the teachings of Ramakrishna. One was Ramakrishna Mission, which is designed to spread the word of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda also designed its emblem. Ramakrishna Math was created as a monastic order based on Ramakrishna’s teachings.

The temples of Ramakrishna are called the Universal Temples. The first Universal temple was built at Belur, which is the headquatress of the Ramakrishna Mission. Daily arathi, pooja and devotional singing are conducted everyday. The arathi song — Khandana Bhava Bandha written by Swami Vivekananda and rendered in the classic Dhrupad Music style.

Apart from celebrating the Hindu festivals, other festivals like Christmas, Buddha Purnima are celebrated.

Works related to Ramakrishna

Painting by Franz Dvorak

Philip Glass

In 2006, composer Philip Glass wrote The Passion of Ramakrishna — a choral work as a "tribute to Ramakrishna". It premiered on September 16, 2006 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California, performed by Orange County’s Pacific Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carl St. Clair with the Pacific Chorale directed by John Alexander.

Franz Dvorak

Franz Dvorak (1862–1927), a painter from Prague, inspired by the teachings of Ramakrishna made several paintings of Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi.

Views on Ramakrishna

Biography and Stages of Life

Since the 1976 publication of Walter Neeval's essay "The Transformation of Ramakrishna", scholars have thought of Ramakrishna's image as going through three discrete transformations. The first transformation, which occurred during Ramakrishna's life, was from a local village madman into a divine avatar. The next transformation, occurring after his death and conducted by his most famous disciple Swami Vivekananda, was from a mystical ecstatic into the founder of a universalistic religious movement. The third transformation, this one also engineered by Vivekananda, was from a quietistic mystic into a social reformer.

Legacy

Many great thinkers of the world have acknowledged Ramakrishna's contribution to humanity. Max Müller, who was inspired by Ramakrishna, said:

Sri Ramakrishna was a living illustration of the truth that Vedanta, when properly realised, can become a practical rule of life... the Vedanta philosophy is the very marrow running through all the bones of Ramakrishna’s doctrine.

Leo Tolstoy saw similarities between his and Ramakrishna's thoughts. He described him as a "remarkable sage". Romain Rolland considered Ramakrishna to be the "consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million people." He said:

Allowing for differences of country and of time, Ramakrishna is the younger brother of Christ.

Mohandas Gandhi wrote:

Ramakrishna's life enables us to see God face to face. He was a living embodiment of godliness.

Sri Aurobindo considered Ramakrishna to be an incarnation, or avatar, of God on par with Gautama Buddha. He wrote:

When scepticism had reached its height, the time had come for spirituality to assert itself and establish the reality of the world as a manifestation of the spirit, the secret of the confusion created by the senses, the magnificent possibilities of man and the ineffable beatitude of God. This is the work whose consummation Sri Ramakrishna came to begin and all the development of the previous two thousand years and more since Buddha appeared has been a preparation for the harmonisation of spiritual teaching and experience by the Avatar of Dakshineshwar.

Christopher Isherwood also considered Ramakrishna to be an incarnation of God.

Jawaharlal Nehru described Ramakrishna as "one of the great rishis of India, who had come to draw our attention to the higher things of life and of the spirit." Subhas Chandra Bose was also influenced by Ramakrishna. He said:

The effectiveness of Ramakrishna's appeal lay in the fact that he had practised what he preached and that... he had reached the acme of spiritual progress.

Philosopher Arindam Chakrabarti called Ramakrishna "The practically illiterate, faith-bound, emotional, otherworldly esoteric Ramakrishna who prayed to the Goddess: "May my rationalizing intellect be struck by thunder!" And yet in his

...views about the nature of ultimate reality, the relation between the self and the body, ways of knowing truth, moral and social duties of human beings and metatheoretical explanations of why mystics disagree...Ramakrishna was no less a philosopher than Buddha or Socrates.

Chakrabarti then contrasts Ramakrishna's talkativeness with Buddha's reticence, and makes seven comparisons between Ramakrishna and Socrates. He then analyzes a song that Ramakrishna was fond of ("The Dark Mother Flying Kites") and pulls out six philosophical elements: a nondualistic metaphysics, a spiritualistic ethic, the doctrine of karma, a playful goddess, the possibility of moksha, and the theory of psychological causation.

Ramakrishna's Language

Ramakrishna used rustic colloquial bengali in his conversations. Ramakrishna had an extraordinary style of preaching and instructing, conveying to even the most skeptical visitors to the temple. Christopher Isherwood writes, —

Ramakrishna had a gift for words, as his parables and his conversation show; nor was he at a loss when assailed by intellectual philosophers. Another side of Ramakrishna which seems to me important is that he had a sense of fun, and that he was joyous.

Scholars like Max Muller, A.W. Stratton, opine that few religious practices and sayings of Ramakrishna which are natural to a Hindu, may sound strange, offensive and abominal to the western mind. Max Muller gives an example,

Unless we remember that harem means originally no more than a sacred and guarded place, the following saying will certainly jar on our ears:

'The Knowledge of God may be likened to a man, while the Love of God is like a woman. Knowledge has entry only up to the outer rooms of God, but no one can enter into the inner mysteries of God save a lover, for a woman has access even into the harem of the Almighty' (172).

Regarding Ramakrishna's language, Max Muller writes, "His speech at times was abominably filthy. For all that, he was, as you say, a real Mahâtman, and I would not withdraw a single word I wrote in his praise". Muller writes that the language may sound filthy, because of the plain speaking among oriental races, where certain classes of men walk stark naked, and the languages too is not likely to veil what for the west requires to be veiled and the directness of speech which would be most offensive in west is not regarded in that light in India. Muller further argues that, the charge of intentional filthiness or obscenity cannot be brought against Ramakrishna. Giving the examples of classical poems like Bhartrihari, the Bible, Homer in Shakespeare, Muller argues that few of the sayings may have to be bowdlerized. Scholars like Amiya P. Sen argue that certain terms that Ramakrishna may have used only in a metaphysical sense are deliberately invested with new, contemporaneous meanings.

In the book Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Experience and Expression, Peter Heehs wrote —

In 1944 an English translation was published under the title The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The first full-scale Bengali biography of Ramakrishna was Swami Saradananda's Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga, which was translated into English as Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master. Both books include accounts by Ramakrishna himself of his experiences. Critics have claimed that these two books do not reveal all that Ramakrishna said, veiling in particular the tantric foundations of his Sadhana. Other have noted that the translations turn his vigorous and occasionally coarse Bengali into English of near-Victorian propriety. To be sure, the existing texts do not give all that Ramakrishna said, and the rendering into do not convey as much as the Bengali originals. Nevertheless, the accounts of M and Saradananda remain documents of considerable value, which have allowed Ramakrishna to speak to a worldwide audience in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with something of immediacy with which he spoke to his disciples at the end of the nineteenth.

Medical viewpoints on Ramakrishna's Samadhi

Ramakrishna entered samadhi (ecstacy) several times a day, over a period of many years till his death. When this came on him, he became unconscious. He would sit in a fixed position for a short time, or for hours, and would then slowly return to consciousness. When he was in this condition, the best doctors could find not trace of pulse or of heart beat. It is also said that he already had the power of introducing samadhi in others.

Dr.Mahendralal Sarkar , a renowned physician of Calcutta, who treated Ramakrishna during his final days is one of the first hand witnesses who examined Ramakrishna during his samadhi. Dr. Sarkar was a rationalist, who did not share the religious views of Ramakrishna, nor did he see him as an avatara He was present during several ecstasies of Ramakrishna and studied them from a medical point of view. The doctor observed that the stethoscopic examination of the heart and the condition of the eyes during samadhi showed all the symptoms of death. Even on the occasion of Ramakrishna's death, it was perceived as the normal samadhi. Ramakrishna had experienced samadhi daily for many years. In the process, his whole physical organism had been transformed; it was extraordinarily sensitive and delicate.

According to Professor Somnath Bhattacharyya, a psychoanalyst and psychologist, Ramakrishna's samadhi states were accompanied by very profound inward withdrawal of consciousness, and remarkable physiological changes, consistent with the highest stages of meditative absorption as documented in Hindu Tantra, Yoga and Buddhist literature.

Religious Practices and Experiences

The Oceanic feeling

Ramakrishna's experiences of Samadhi were termed as Oceanic feeling by Romain Rolland. Scholars note that the same term was adapted by Freud in his book Civilization and its Discontents.

Scholars have noted similarities between Ramakrishna's oceanic feeling and other religious personalities:

• St. Paul, after a similar experience, was struck blind.
• Suso, a German mystic of the fourteenth century, suffered at the time of his awakening so greatly in body that it seemed to him that none even in dying could suffer so much in so short a time.
• Richard Rolle of Hampole has recorded that his heart burned with a sensible fire, "truly not imaginingly."
• St.Theresa of Avila.

Swami Vivekananda

One of first disciples to look at Ramakrishna's ecstasy and experiences as pathological and hallucinations and to question Kali as the "mother of universe" as Ramakrishna preached, was his most ardent and prominent disciple—Swami Vivekananda. When he first approached Ramakrishna, he was an iconoclast, the hater of superstitions and idols,and was against the worship of Kali. During the initial days, Vivekananda regarded Ramakrishna's experiences as "creations of sick brain, mere hallucinations" and did not accept him as an avatara. Vivekananda regarded the Advaitist Vedantism of identity with absolute as blasphemy and madness. After a period of revolt, Ramakrishna was accepted as a guru.

Referring to the practice of Madhura Bhava, by his guru, years later in 1896 in one of his speeches My Master, Vivekananda said,

One of the Sâdhanâs was to root out the sex idea. Soul has no sex, it is neither male nor female. It is only in the body that sex exists, and the man who desires to reach the spirit cannot at the same time hold to sex distinctions. Having been born in a masculine body, this man wanted to bring the feminine idea into everything. He began to think that he was a woman, he dressed like a woman, spoke like a woman, gave up the occupations of men, and lived in the household among the women of a good family, until, after years of this discipline, his mind became changed, and he entirely forgot the idea of sex; thus the whole view of life became changed to him.

Referring to the teaching of Kama-Kanchana, Vivekananda said,

Man is a soul, and soul is sexless, neither man nor woman. The idea of sex and the idea of money were the two things, he thought, that prevented him from seeing the Mother. This whole universe is the manifestation of the Mother, and She lives in every woman's body. "Every woman represents the Mother; how can I think of woman in mere sex relation?" That was the idea: Every woman was his Mother, he must bring himself to the state when he would see nothing but Mother in every woman. And he carried it out in his life.

Romain Rolland

In his book The Life of Ramakrishna (1929), Romain Rolland, argues that Ramakrishna's experiences were not pathological. Rolland also argues the inapplicability of psychoanalysis on Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and other mystics. Rolland had correspondence with Freud. In his letter of December 5, 1927, Rolland indicated that he was researching a book on the Hindu saints Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The references to Freud and psychoanalysis in these books are considered as direct response to Civilization and Its Discontents.

Leo Schneiderman

Leo Schneiderman, in this work Ramakrishna: Personality and Social Factors in the Growth of a Religious Movement (1969) says the following on Ramakrishna's samadhi:

Ramakrishna's "bizarre" behavior must be judged within its proper cultural context. Because Ramakrishna was a Brahmin priest who combined the performance of traditional religious functions with demonstrations of divine possession, especially in samadhi, he could appeal to a wide clientele. He was both an exemplar of Redfield's "great tradition" of Hinduism, and of village shamanism, sublimated to a very high plane. Thus, Ramakrishna's trances and other dramatic manifestations, including, perhaps, even his psychotic behavior, were not truly aberrations from the standpoint of the non-Sanskritic popular culture.

Walter G Neevel

Walter G. Neevel in his essay — "Transformation of Ramakrishna" (1976) which studies Ramakrishna's ecstasy writes:

…It is clear that his ability to enter into trances so easily derived largely from his esthetic and emotional sensitivity — his capacity to so appreciate and identify with beauty and harmony in what he saw and did that he would become totally overcome by ecstasy.

Narasingha Sil

In 1991, historian Narasingha Sil wrote Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: A Psychological Profile, an account of Ramakrishna that argues that Ramakrishna's mystical experiences were pathological and originated from alleged childhood sexual trauma. Narasingha Sil links Ramakrishna's teaching of Kamini-Kanchana to traditional rural Bengali misogyny. Sil also says that Ramakrishna made his wife into a deity in order to avoid thinking of her as sexual.

Other scholars, most notably psychologist Sudhir Kakar, argued that Sil's study to be simplistic and misleading. Sil's theory has also been argued as reductive by William B. Parsons, who has called for an increased empathetic dialogue between the classical/adaptive/transformative schools and the mystical traditions for an enhanced understanding of Ramakrishna's life and experiences.

Bengali Scholars - William Radice, Dr.Jean Openshaw argue that Sil's works are unreliable. Openshaw terms Sil's book as "virulently antagonistic "psycho-biography" of the saint". Radice in his review of Sil's book argues, that Sil manipulates his sources and misuses Kathamrita and Vivekananda's writings to suport his hypothesis. Radice argues that another weakness of the book is the ridicule of Ramakrishna's ecstasy and terming it as pathological is not supported by any clear view. Openshaw argues that Sil's book discredits the saint, "through a heady mix of tendentious argument, speculation and innuendo".. Openshaw argues that the "sleight of hand" in the book should be seen in light of another psychoanalytically based book, Kali's Child, with which Sil's own work is dangerously easy to identify. Openshaw argues that Sil's potrayal of Ramakrishna as homosexual which is attribued to sexual abuse in childhood is based "on no evidence". Openshaw argues that the evidence used by Sil could not have "escaped so many sophisticated first hand witnesses".

Dr.Jeanne Openshaw

Dr.Jeanne Openshaw, a senior lecturer in Religious Studies, and who specializes in the area of Bengali Vaishnavism and Culture, argues that the behavior or religious practices of Ramakrishna are not necessarily abnormal. Openshaw argues that from the context of devotional Bengali Vaishnavism, where femininity represents the highest attainable condition, the cultivation of femininity by men in various ways is not necessarily abnormal, nor can it necessarily be taken as a sign of homosexuality. Openshaw writes that in rural Bengal, male celibacy, and conservation of semen are considered important. Openshaw argues that Ramakrishna's attempt to see all women as mothers rather than as sexual partners, cannot be termed as homoerotic tendencies.

Sudhir Kakar

In 1991, Sudhir Kakar wrote "The Analyst and the Mystic" Gerald James Larson wrote, "Indeed, Sudhir Kakar...indicates that there would be little doubt that from a psychoanalytic point of view Ramakrishna could be diagnosed as a secondary transsexual." Kakar sought a meta-psychological non-pathological explanation that connects Ramakrishna's mystical realization with creativity. Kakar also argues that culturally relative concepts of eroticism and gender have contributed to the Western difficulty in comprehending Ramakrishna.In 2003, Sudhir Kakar wrote a novel, Ecstasy, in which an aspiring sadhu in 20th century India endures sexual molestation as a child, and has a feminine appearance and ambiguous sexuality. According to the author, the characters were modelled on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.

Somnath Bhattacharyya

Somnath Bhattacharyya, in his work Kali's Child: Psychological And Hermeneutical Problems further elaborates on the views related to transvestite and transsexuality traits of Ramakrishna. Bhattacharrya argues that dressing up in a feminine attire as a part of a legitimate and culturally accepted sadhana for a short period of time does not amount to transvestism, since Ramakrishna also dressed like a Shakta and a Vaishnava during his Shakti and Vaishnava sadhana days and like a Muslim during his Islam sadhana, which were male attires. Bhattacharrya argues that Ramakrishna's dressing habits were inline with this religious practice. Bhattacharrya also argues that Ramakrishna cannot be termed as a secondary transsexual.

Jeff Kripal

Main article: Kali's Child

In 1995, postmodernist author Jeffrey Kripal wrote Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna, which he called a psychoanalytic study of Ramakrishna. William Parsons described Kali's Child as a book "which performs a classic Freudian interpretation by seeing symptoms of repressed homoeroticism in the visions and acts of Ramakrishna, but then, in exemplifying the interdisciplinary approach of this dialogue, legitimates Ramakrishna’s religious visions by situating psychoanalytic discourse in a wider Tantric worldview."

The book caused intense controversy among both Western and Indian audiences which still persists unresolved. The book came into limelight and created controversy in India after a scathing review written by religious scholar Narasingha Sil was published in The Statesman. The review also produced a great deal of angry correspondence.

In 1998, the second edition of Kali's Child was brought out, in which Jeffery Kripal claimed that he had corrected the translation errors. Further, In 1999, Brian Hatcher argued that although some scholars had their misgivings, the overall verdict of religion scholars and of experts on South Asian culture regarding Kali's Child has been approving, and at times highly laudatory.

However, the deductions of Kali's Child and psychoanalytical credentials of Kripal were questioned by several scholars, including Jean Openshaw, Gerald Larson, Hugh B. Urban, Narasingha Sil, Swami Tyagananda, Swami Atmajnanananda, Somnath Bhattacharya, Huston Smith, Alan Roland, Pravrajika Vrajaprana, William Radice, Rajiv Malhotra.

Swami Tyagananda's Kali's Child Revisited or Didn't Anyone Check the Documentation? argues the presence of serious errors in Kali's Child. Copies of Kali's Child Revisited were distributed at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and subsequently published in the journal Evam.

Kripal's translations, his conclusions, and his authority to apply psychoanalysis to Ramakrishna were questioned by several scholars, including Alan Roland, Huston Smith, and Somnath Bhattacharya.

Kripal responded to the criticisms in journal articles and postings on his website, but stopped participating in the discussion in late 2002.

J.S. Hawley

John Stratton Hawley, Professor of Religion at Barnard College, in his paper The Damage of Separation: Krishna’s Loves and Kali’s Child examines the following:

• Is it right to think of the religious and erotic realms as overlapping, particularly when a homosexual dimension is involved.
• Second, if Hindus and Hinduism are the subject, should non-Hindus refrain from speaking?

In this study, J.S.Hawley, revisits the Kali's Child debate highlighting one of its central terms — the vyakulata feeling of Ramakrishna. J.S.Hawley argues that neither the gopis’ torment nor Ramakrishna’s must be allowed to devolve to a bodily level. Hawley further argues that communities of people who respond to different sexual orientations should not indiscriminately impose their thoughts on religious communities.

Alan Roland

Attempts by modern authors to psychoanalyze Ramakrishna are questioned by practicing psychoanalyst Alan Roland, who has written extensively about applying Western psychoanalysis to Eastern cultures, and charges that psychoanalysis has been misapplied to Ramakrishna. Roland decries the facile decoding of Hindu symbols, such as Kali’s sword and Krishna’s flute, into Western sexual metaphors—thereby reducing Ramakrishna’s spiritual aspiration to the basest psychopathology. The conflation of Ramakrishna’s spiritual ecstasy, or samadhi, with unconscious dissociated states due to repressed homoerotic feelings is not based on common psychoanalytic definitions of these two different motivations, according to Roland. He also writes that it is highly questionable whether Ramakrishna’s spiritual aspirations and experiences involve regression—responding to modern attempts to reduce Ramakrishna’s spiritual states to a subconscious response to an imagined childhood trauma.

Kelley Ann Raab

While most of the studies have been conducted from either a primarily psychoanalytic perspective or from the perspective of a devotee, Kelley Ann Raab's work — Is There Anything Transcendent about Transcendence? A Philosophical and Psychological Study of Sri Ramakrishna, focuses upon Ramakrishna from both a philosophical perspective and a psychoanalytic perspective. The study argues that neither a purely psychological explanation nor a solely philosophical account of his visions is adequate to understand his madness or his godliness, but that together psychology and philosophy can deepen our understanding of Ramakrishna and find a common meeting ground. Raab argues that,

• By philosophical analysis of Ramakrishna's devotional mysticism and tantric underpinnings, his visions and behavior were in keeping with his culture and tradition.
• By psychological analysis of Ramakrishna's behavior, he broke through dualistic thought patterns defining gender, humanity, and God by dressing as and imitating a woman.

Ramakrishna's Tantra Sadhana

Several scholars have expressed different views on Ramakrishna's tantric sadhana, which consisted of heterodox practices but not limited to the Vamachara — "left hand path", which involves drinking wine, eating rotten flesh, sexual intercourse and Kularnava, Mahanirvana and Kamalakala Vilasa which are termed as "right-handed path" involving celibate vegetarian lifestyle, japa, breath control, concentration, meditation. Depending on an aspirant's disposition, Tantra prescribes a particular method for spiritual practice. In general, the Tantras classify people into three major groups pasu (animal), vira (hero), divya (godlike). According to Saradananda, Ramakrishna was in the vira stage during the practice of vamachara. Elizabeth U. Harding writes that the Tantra practices are aimed at rousing the Kundalini and peircing the six chakras. Elizabeth argues that Tantra is one of the paths for God-realization and cannot be branded as sensualism.

Christopher Isherwood writes that the object of the tantrik disciplines is "to see, behind all phenomena, the presence of God and to overcome the obstacles to this insight — attraction and aversion". Further Isherwood argues that words which normally carry sensual associations suggested higher meanings to Ramakrishna in his exalted state. For example, the word yoni, which normally means the female sex-organ, would mean for him the divine source of creation. According to Isherwood, for Ramakrishna the most unconditionally obscene words were scared to him as the vocabulary of the scriptures during the tantra sadhana. Religious scholars note that the word linga represented purusha, and yoni represented prakruti.

Neevel argues that, Ramakrishna's followers tend to be apologetic about his taking up tantric practices because of the eroticism that has discredited tantric schools in general and those of Bengal in particular. Neevel argues that the infulence of tantra on this spiritual development is underestimated.. Ramchandra Datta one of the early biographers of Ramakrishna is reported to have said, "We have heard many tales of the Brahmani but we hesitate to divulge them to the public."

In Kali's Child, Jeffery Kripal argues that "Ramakrishna's world, then, was a Tantric world". Kripal further argues that Ramakrishna's Tantric practices were "omnipresent, defining virtually every point along Ramakrishna's spiritual development." However, other scholars — Swami Tyagananda, Somnath Bhatacharyya, Hugh B. Urban, Narasingha Sil, William Radice argue that Kripal's conclusions are incorrect.

Notes on Biographical sources

Ramakrishna never wrote down the details of his own life. Sources for his life and teachings come from the writings of his disciples and live witnesses. Ramakrishna's recorded sayings mainly come from the last four years of his life.

• The book Sri Sri Rāmakrishna Kathāmrita by Mahendranath Gupta under the pseudonym M., belongs to this class of evidence. Mahendranath Gupta recorded his daily interactions with Ramakrishna in his dairy which were subsequently published as Sri-Sri-Ramakrishna-Kathamrta in 5 Volumes in bengali. The information in these volumes is available with "stenographic precision".
• Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadever Jivan-vrittanta (1880) by Ram Chandra Dutta, is one of the earliest published biography of Ramakrishna. Religious scholar, Narasingha Sil and Jeffery Kripal argue that Datta's Jivanvrttanta is the most scandalous biography of Ramakrishna, "containing the lurid details of his sadhana as well as his quite suggestive encounters with his patron Mathur." They cite a letter written by Swami Vivekananda in 1884 asking to "Avoid all irregular indecent expressions about sex etc...because other nations think it the height of indecency to mention such things, and his life in English is going to be read by the whole world" and calling Ramchandra Dutta's translation a "bosh and rot". They also argue that Ramchandra Dutta faced a possible law suit from Swami Vivekananda. However, Swami Atmajnanananda and Pravrajika Vrajaprana argue that as of 1995, this book has been published in nine Bengali editions. Kripal later withdrew these arguments.
• In 1887, Akshay Kumar Sen wrote Ramakrishna's life in verse — Sri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi in Bengali. Akshay Kumar Sen later wrote Padye Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Dever Upadesh and Sri Sri Ramakrishna Mahima.

• Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga by Swami Saradananda. The book was begun in 1909 and left partially incomplete at the author's death in 1927. Swami Saradananda is considered an authority both as a philosopher and as an historian on Ramakrishna. The book provides authentic information on Ramakrishna.
• My Master, speeches by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. While scholars like Sil argue that Ramakrishna is a product of Vivekananda's "Mythmaking and Propaganda", other scholars have expressed the opinion that Vivekananda has presented a accurate picture of Ramakrishna.
• Biographic works from householder disciples include, Mahendranath Dutta's Sri Ramakrishner Anudhyan, ("Sacred Memories of Sri Ramakrishna"), Satyacharan Mitra's 1897 Sri Sri Ramakrsna Paramahamsadeber Jiboni o Upadesh ("The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa"), and Sureshchandra Datta's 1886 Sriramakrsnadeber Upades ("Teachings of SriRamakrishna").

• Max Muller's book Râmakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898) is one of the earliest works by a Western scholar on the life of Ramakrishna and a relatively independent source of biography..It is based on first-hand evidence, analysed in "broad and clear critical spirit". Max Muller based this book on the testimonies of Swami Vivekananda and several independent witnesses, both favorable and unfavorable to Ramakrishna. Scholars consider this book to be "containing the just criticism needed for a true valuation of Ramakrishna's personality and teaching". Max Muller, regarded Ramakrishna as The Real Mahatman.

• Romain Rolland's book : Life of Ramakrishna (1929) is another biographic work which is based on direct disciples of whom Romain Rolland writes —"I have received glowing testimony at their hands. I have talked with some among them, who were the companions of this mystic being - of the Man-Gods- and I can vouch for their loyalty. Moreover, these eye-witnesses are not the simple fishermen of the Gospel story; some are great thinkers, learned in European thought and disciplined in its strict school.", and independent eye-witnesses of Ramakrishna who were alive at his time. He had consulted the Christian missionaries who had interview Ramakrishna.

• The English translations of Kathamrita were published by Swami Nikhilananda in his book The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The book provides authentic information about Ramakrishna. The book was voted as one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by the American scholars convened by HarperCollins publishers, However, scholars argue that the book has been bowdlerized.. Kripal argues that although Nikhilananda calls it a literal translation, he "substantially altered Gupta's text, combining the five parallel narratives", "as well as deleting some passages which he claimed were "of no particular interest to English-speaking readers.". However other scholars Sil, Swami Tyagananda, Somnath Bhattacharrya, Swami Atmajnananda argue that Kripal's observations are incorrect. They also argue that Nikhilananda's translations were faithful and took into consideration the western decorum.

• Life of Sri Ramakrishna, compiled from various authentic sources (1925) by Swami Madhavananda is also one of the primary sources of Ramakrishna's biography and a reliable source which contains first hand accounts of his disciples, live witnesses.

References

• Bhattacharyya, Somnath. "Kali's Child: Psychological And Hermeneutical Problems". Infinity Foundation. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
• Hixon, Lex. Great Swan: Meetings With Ramakrishna. Burdett, N.Y: Larson Publications. ISBN 0-943914-80-9.
• Isherwood, Christopher (1980). Ramakrishna and His Disciples. Hollywood, Calif: Vedanta Press. ISBN 0-87481-037-X. (reprint, orig. 1965)
• Kripal, Jeffery J. (1995). Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna. University of Chicago Press.
• Muller, max (1898). Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings. Great Britain: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. ISBN 81-7505-060-8.
• Nikhilananda, Swami (1942). The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center. ISBN 0911206019.
• Rajagopalachari, Chakravarti (1973). Sri Ramakrishna Upanishad. Vedanta Press. ASIN B0007J1DQ4.
• Ramaswamy, Krishnan (2007). Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America. Delhi, India: Rupa & Co. ISBN 978-8129111821. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Rolland, Romain (1929). Life of Ramakrishna. Vedanta Press. ISBN 978-8185301440.
• Saradananda, Swami (2003). Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play. St. Louis: Vedanta Society. ISBN 978-0916356811. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Saradananda, Swami (1952). Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master. Sri Ramakrishna Math. ASIN B000LPWMJQ. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Tyagananda, Swami. "Kali's Child Revisited or Didn't Anyone Check the Documentation?". Infinity Foundation. Retrieved 2008-03-15.

Further reading

• Ananyananda, Swami (1981). Ramakrishna: a biography in pictures. Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta. ISBN 978-8185843971.
• Chetanananda, Swami (1990). Ramakrishna As We Saw Him. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St Louis. ISBN 978-0916356644.
• Hourihan, Paul. Ramakrishna & Christ, the Supermystics: New Interpretations. Vedantic Shores Press. ISBN 1-931816-00-X.
• Olson, Carl (1990). The Mysterious Play of Kālī: An Interpretive Study of Rāmakrishna. American Academy of Religion (Scholars Press). ISBN 1-55540-339-5.
• Satyananda, Saraswati. Ramakrishna: The Nectar of Eternal Bliss. Devi Mandir Publications. ISBN 1-877795-66-6.
• Torwesten, Hans (1999). Ramakrishna and Christ, or, The paradox of the incarnation. The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. ISBN 978-8185843971.

External links

• The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
• A chronology of the life of Ramakrishna
• Ramakrishna Kathamrita literally, The Nectar of Ramakrishna’s Words
• Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings by Max Müller
• My Master- from Vivekananda's 1896 Lectures on Ramakrishna
• Works of Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda
• Official website of the Headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
• Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna