Birth Anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna

This year we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna. It is the 175th birth anniversary. Though it is the 175th, I feel Ramakrishna and his messages are still alive and much relevant in today’s turbulent world. Last year when I visited Belur Math, and also the Dakshineswar temple, both situated at the opposite banks of river Ganga (locally called Hugli), I could still feel the marvels created by the great souls like Ramakrishna, and his disciple Swami Vivekananda. Hundreds of thousands of people throng to these places every day, and seek noble teachings preached by them, and ennoble their lives.

Ramakrishna did not know how to write. He was in the conventional sense an illiterate. He could not write his name correctly. The museum in the premises of Belur Math show how he was born in a modest family, a family of priests (if I remember correctly), and he did not have enough means to realize the dream of being educated and being a babu. I read somewhere when as a child he was walking in the field, he saw a group of birds flying in the sky and he had a divine realization. There are many such interesting stories one can come across in the life of this child, later one of the greatest apostles of truth, honesty and innocence.

After Ramakrishna’s death, when his wife Sarada Devi, in order to follow Hindu tradition, decided to wipe out the red vermillion on head, and taking out bungles, Ramakrishna suddenly appeared alive and said to her that I am not dead, I am alive; the Lord that is Rama, the Lord that is Krishna, in this body is Ramakrishna. Hence, no need to appear like a widow. The great soul, the image of simplicity, even his saintly frame, as I see in photographs and paintings, his discourse with his disciples, his gestures in the air showing three fingers, are something which are markers of the great mysticism which Ramakrishna embodied. And this mysticism is not something pure chimera or fantasy, but something that changed and moulded lives of millions, including the atheist Narendra, later became Swami Vivekananda. There is a story that whenever Ramakrishna touched coins, he felt pain and his fingers became crooked. His yet to be disciple Narendra doubted this, and put a coin under his bed, and the Saint pained and his fingers became crooked. These are some of the stories, which invoke curiosity towards further delving deep into the lives of these great men. The western philosopher Romain Rolland has written a beautiful book on Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna himself has told thousands of stories, with full of meanings, full of lessons for his followers, and even non-followers to learn and mould their lives.

The great saint was no preacher of fundamentalism or exclusivism. There is a beautiful story how this great saint practiced all religions. He practiced Christianity and Jesus came to him. He practiced Islam and realized God, and then he could realize and preached that God can be realized in every religion. It is not the religion but the individual’s faith in practicing the religion that is more important. He used o say – to realize God, one needs to have a child like simplicity. He, in this context, used to give the example of a baby cat or a baby monkey. In the case of baby monkey the mother cat bites and lifts the baby gently to shift it from one place to other. The baby is not afraid, and is fully dependent on her mother. Similarly, the seeker must have complete faith and surrender that whatever the mother, the God, will do, will do for the good. The baby monkey clutches the mother’s body so tightly that it goes with mother from branch to branch without falling on the ground. Similarly, the seeker must have that much unshakable faith and that persistence in God that she will go wherever He takes her. Ramakrishna used to say if you have absolute faith, even an iota of absolute faith; you can jump the Himalayas or swim across the seas. It may appear churlish to the cynic, but it is the fact which Ramakrishna realized, and also realized by his disciples and followers.

Here I remember the concept which Plato gave, that we know everything innately, but gradually we come to know that we know things. Ramakrishna was the messenger of God, who had realized God directly; hence for him the formal education, formal initiation was matter of no importance. It is said that while his guru Totapuri took 40 years to realize God, Ramakrishna realized it only in three days. He was the person beyond the images of the world, beyond the human calculation; he was in fact Jivan Mukta, to quote Shankara’s terminology. He was in this world, but beyond this world. When I visited the temple he was the main priest in later part of 19th century, and when I saw his room, he was staying; it was the experience that made me realize that we have the world where such people came and went, but they left an indelible print, a rich heritage for future generation to follow and cultivate. Perhaps, on his birth anniversary, it will be the greatest tribute to Ramakrishna, to believe in honesty, truth and virtues, and then try to implement those values in our lives.