– Dhanalakshmi
Sri Ramakrishna was born in the year 1836 to Chandramani Devi and Khudiram Chatterjee in a village called kamaarpukur at Bengal. He was affectionately called as Gadhadhar by his parents. He was a smart and active child. Everybody in the village liked him. He then became the priest of Dakshineswar Kali temple built by Queen Rasamani Devi. Elders like Totapuri and Bhairavi Brahmani voluntarily gave him spiritual knowledge. He had the privilege of seeing Mother Kali in person because of his unshakable faith. This vision had changed the life of Narendra Nath.
Sri Ramakrishna was able to give direct and truthful answer to Naren, who was raising the question, ‘Is there anyone, who had the Dharshan of God. Narendra often came to Dakshineswar. For about five years Naren met Ramakrishna and got his doubts cleared. After giving Diksha to Naren, Sri Ramakrishna informed his disciples, hence forth Naren would guide you all. With this version his soul reached the Lotus feet of goddess Kali. Sri Ramakrishna transferred all energy to Narendra. When Naren raised the question, what am I going to do with this energy, Ramakrishna replied Mother Kali will lead you at the right time. Sri Ramakrishna had even household disciples. Let us know a few important people.
Surendra Nath Mitra.
When Sri Ramakrishna was alive, he has served him a lot. Even after the demise of Guru Ramakrishna, Surendranath made the arrangements for the the stay at Baranagar (Barrackpore) to Swami Vivekananda and other disciples and also helped them a lot. Baranagar is a place where we had first Ramakrishna Mutt. The credit goes to Surendra Nath Mitra says Naren.
Let us know about Mahendra Gupta.
He is the person, who hid his name under the alphabet ‘Ma’ and gave us the three parts of Ramakrishnarin “Amudha Mozhigal”. Mahendra Nath was married and had two children. Heard about Ramakrishna through a friend, he came to meet Sri Ramakrishna. When he came to meet Ramakrishna he was seated alone on the cot. Ma bowed before him and sat on the floor. When Rama Krishna asked him, “have you got married?”, he replied with a guilty feel yes. When Ramakrishna asked him whether your wife is educated, Ma replied, “my wife is an uneducated person”. Immediately, Ramakrishna asked, “are you a schalor”? This question totally changed Ma, the very next moment, he came out of his proudness. After this incident, he came to meet Ramakrishna often. Whenever he came to Ramakrishna he has listened to him speaking to his disciples and noted everything with date and time. After the demise of Ramakrishna many requested Ma to give the “Golden words of Ramakrishna in the form of books. So, he gave three parts of “Ramakrishnarin Ponmozhikal” (Ramakrishna’s amritavachan). Whenever we read this, we feel the presence of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna never ever instructed his married disciples to leave their family, he often says the married people to fulfil their duties as per Hindu Dharma and he also adds that it is very difficult to think of God Almighty along with our household works. Keshav, is the head of Brahma Samaj. He too was dedicated to Ramakrishna.
The women of Keshav’s family were listening to the Amritavacahan, standing beside the partition. Keshav was utmost attracted towards Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and so as an expectant, he wished to drench himself from the river of devotion. Ramakrishna with his hearty laugh commented not to do so, If, done, what would be the consequences faced by the people standing behind the partition, so not to get immersed and reach the shore intermittently. Everyone laughed including Keshav. Referring about Ramakrishna, he had neither been a stage performer nor a teacher, but he knew only Goddess, Ambigai. Ramakrishna would surely help the people when they turned out with some queries and doubts with simple stories. His innocence and elegant appearance attracted everyone. Many scholars came to him with various doubts and felt happy with his satisfying replies. Though Ramakrishna Paramahamsar had not received any formal education, he was able to transform the lives of people and quench the thirst of Narendranath in finding God’s presence. Even though Girish Chandragosh was able to spread spiritualism through his skit, he was able to come out of his evil addiction. But realized that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the true incarnation of God himself. Similarly he had inspired many more in his life.
Once a theft occurred in Dakshineshwar temple. In accordance with the incident, the Queen Rasamani Devi’s son- in law, Madhurbabu reached the spot. He was an ardent devotee of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He couldn’t tolerate the theft occurred. He then spoke looking at the idol, “God, you couldn’t protect your own jewel, how could you save us then?” Ramakrishna who was standing beside yelled at him with anger, “Madhurbabu, how can you speak so? Jewels remain precious and expensive only to you and me not for God.” God is the only creator, Soil and Gold remain similar to his vision. He is in the thief and all that had been stolen. It is not the duty of God to protect jewels. Madhurbabu realized his mistakes.
One fine day, pooja was being performed at Kali temple, The Queen Rasamani Devi came to perform pooja. All of a sudden, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa slapped her and said with rage: “Even after coming here, will you be in your own thoughts?”. Others were completely frozen seeing that and got scared to think about the next moment.
The Queen Rasamani was not furious at the incident, on the contrary, she sought for apologies confessing that it was wrong for her to think of things without thinking about the deity, even standing in front of the deity.
On 2nd February, Saturday, 1884, some devotees from Sivapur came to meet Sri Ramakrishna. He told them very essential things about spitituality, as they had come from a long distance. Let’s see them. One of the devotees asked him, “Why Lord engages us in domestic life”? Ramakrishna rerplied that, Once, he gives us the Lord’s pleasure, then no one will engage in domestic life, then creation will not continue”.
Once a merchant was arranging the bags of rice, he also spreaded some sugar-coated puffed rice. Throughout the night, the enchanted rats would be busy eating the sugar coated puffed rice, they would not even go to find out where the rice was. This is how Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa explained the devotees to his question.
This is one of the frequent questions asked by the devotees, “What is the way to attain Moksha?” “Always think of God and get rid of arrogance,” replied the Guru Nath. “How can one be thinking of the Lord in this world always? the devotees will ask. “The rich people’s housemaid would nurse, bathe, and nickname her master’s child, but she knew that the child was not hers and she would always be thinking of her own child in her hometown. Like this, we should always think of God even during our household works. In due course of time this becomes habitual and Our minds will remember the Lord even when we die. That is what will pave the way for us to attain bliss, said Guru Nath.
Naren was transformed as Swami Vivekananda by Guru nath. He said, “Naren will create a great revolution in this world as he has the fire of wisdom.” Today we all witness that his words have come true. “Ma” who was financially insecure, got a well-paying job after Guru Nath’s death and later ran his own school. Gurunath has completely made poverty disappear from Ma’s life. Narrator concludes the article by saying that if I can turn obstacles into steps and live a contented life (both in family and teaching) it is because of Guru Nath’s graceful light.
(Author is Principal of Sri Krishna Vivekananda vidyalaya, Pazhaverkadu Tamilnadu.)
और पढ़ें : Life of SRIMAD BHAGVAD RAMANUJACHARYA