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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
THE JOURNEY OF A SPIRITUAL ENTREPRENEUR
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
THE JOURNEY OF A SPIRITUAL ENTREPRENEUR
Rakesh Tripathi
BLOOMSBURY INDIA
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First published in India 2019 This edition published 2019
Copyright © Rakesh Tripathi, 2019
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To my parents, Radhey Shyam and Kamla Tripathi, my wife Jyotsna and son Siddhant
May we work together in peace and harmony and enjoy the fruits of our efforts by sharing with others
May our study be vigorous and fruitful
May we not be jealous of others achievements
May peace prevail on earth
(Taittiriya Upanishad, II.i.1)
CONTENTS
Foreword by Dr Karan Singh
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Vivekananda’s Childhood and Early Life
2. Meeting Sri Ramakrishna
3. The Beginnings of the Ramakrishna Order
4. The Parivrajaka’s Trail
5. The Parliament of Religions
6. Exploring the West
7. Swami Vivekananda’s Global Outreach
8. The Homecoming
9. The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission
10. Across Europe and America Again
11. The Mahasamadhi
12. Linguistic Aspects in Swami Vivekananda’s Discourses
13. Mapping Hinduism in Swami Vivekananda’s Discourses
14. Swami Vivekananda in Contemporary Indian Media
References
Index
About the Author
FOREWORD
SSwami Vivekananda thus had three great achievements to his credit. The first was a virtual rearticulation of Hinduism based on the immortal teachings of the Vedanta.
This was long overdue, because at the time Hindus were sunk in superstitions and iniquitous social structures, particularly vis-à-vis women and dalits. Vivekananda’s teachings and writings came as a breath of fresh air that helped to sweep away centuries of stagnation and impart a new dynamism to this most ancient of all religions.
wami Vivekananda was one of the most outstanding figures in the religious and spiritual history of the world. His apprenticeship with the spiritual genius Sri Ramakrishna, his subsequent travels throughout India where he was deeply distressed to see the condition to which she had been reduced after centuries of foreign rule, and then his dramatic appearance at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893 are all part of the saga of his life. Thereafter, he returned to India and founded the Ramakrishna Mission which continues its valuable service to society down to the present day.
Secondly, his advent at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, as well as his lectures in Britain, were the first occasion for an exposition of the true foundation of Hinduism for the Western world, and marked the beginning of a whole series of Hindu saints and scholars who visited the West to propagate their doctrine. This distinguished list includes, among others, Parmahans
Yoganada who set up the Self-Realisation Fellowship in California, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with his Transcendental Meditation, Prabhupada Swami who founded Iskcon which today is active around the world, Swami Sachidananda who created a spiritual community in Yogaville, Carolina, on a beautiful sight overlooking the Lotus Temple, the first Inter-faith Temple in the world, Swami Chinmayananda whose Chinmaya Mission now is spread widely across America, and recently Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living and Sadhguru Vasudev’s Isha Foundation. All of this flowed from Swami Vivekananda’s path-breaking initiative.
Thirdly, his Foundation of the Ramakrishna Mission marked a new dimension in the long ecclesiastic tradition of India. He gave the Mission a clear mandate — Atmano Mokshartham Jagat Hitaya Cha—work for your own salvation, but also for the welfare of society. This spirit of service dedicated to the divine pervades the Ramakrishna Mission which now has hundreds of branches in India and around the world. Its work in the field of education, health services and disaster relief is well known. It also introduces millions around the world to the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna & Swami Vivekananda.
Hundreds of books have been written on Swami Vivekananda. In Swami Vivekananda: The Journey of a Spiritual Entrepreneur, Shri Rakesh Tripathi has dealt, at length, with the fascinating life and work of Swami Vivekananda and his rearticulation of Vedanta as the bedrock of Hinduism. It is a valuable addition to the voluminous literature on Swamiji, and will be welcomed not only in India but for all those who are interested in Swamiji’s life and work.
Never before has Vedanta been more important than today, and Swami Vivekananda’s exposition and writings can be a source of great inspiration, especially to younger generations. With all the tension around us, it is important that apart from our outer activities, we should follow an inner path because the outer turnmoil, in some ways, reflects the fractured and fragmented state of the human psyche. Swamiji has clearly set before us the four-fold path of Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga and Raj yoga which individually and collectively can give deeper meaning and significance to our lives and also have a positive effect on the society. I commend Shri Rakesh Tripathi for his contribution.
Karan Singh
21 November 2017
PREFACE
Swami Vivekananda or Narendranath Dutta was born around the time when the country was going through some of the greatest transitions. It had been barely five years that the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 had been successfully crushed by the British East India Company. It was the First War of Independence that India had lost. Before that, the last phase of the Mughal rule under Aurangzeb had been a period of suppression, especially in matters of religion and economy. His successor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, could not carry forth his legacy.
The British who primarily came to India for trade and commerce could clearly see that as a nation, India lacked a unified and stable social, political and economic order. This gave them sufficient leeway to consolidate their position by annexing regional kingdoms and bringing India under the British rule. Gradually, they began to interpret the Indian society, culture, religion and everything that could draw their attention. Describing the historical background of the eighteenth century India in his book Modern Religious Movements in India, celebrated Indologist J.N. Farquhar (1915:3) observed that ‘the terrific convulsions of eighteenth century had more than undone all that had been recovered. Learning almost ceased; ordinary education scarcely existed; spiritual religion was to be met only in the quietest places; and a coarse idolatry with cruel and immoral rights held all the great centres’.
By projecting such an image of the Indian society, Farquhar wanted to stress that its age-old spirit had died down and it was beyond the capacity of Indians to revive the social spirit and culture of their land. However, despite being considered an authority on modern religious movements in India, Farquhar failed to take into account some of the most significant religious developments of those times. He seems to have grossly underestimated the force and vitality of the Indian social spirit and culture which remained at a low ebb for a couple centuries.
He had apparently overlooked the fact that there was resurgence of Hinduism—the driving force of the Indian social spirit and culture—which had guided its followers through the ‘dark centuries’1 . Hinduism had been
revived in a new light by Swami Vivekananda. He not only brought Hinduism out of the veils of mysticism but also propagated it as a universal religion and won worldwide recognition for it.
Vivekananda, after receiving training under Sri Ramakrishna, set out on the path of self-realisation and experienced that it did not mean withdrawing into solitary caves but to translate and advance the wisdom of ancient scriptures in practical ways to serve humanity. He was an ardent supporter of industrial and material development but emphasised that it should go hand-in-hand with one’s value system. In most of his speeches, Vivekananda laid a lot of emphasis on character-building and he firmly believed that to have a ‘fully functional personality’, it was highly desirable to have the synthesis of all the four yogas—Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Raj yoga and Karma yoga—for leading one from a state of ignorance to the state of manifestation of inner divinity as each yoga involved the cultivation of one of the faculties such as reason, feeling, or will power. He admired the Western spirit of reasoning and said that one should not simply believe in what one is told. One must validate the ‘truth’ before believing it. This is where Vivekananda tried to bring in the best of the East and the best of the West together. It is in him that we find a perfect combination of the four yogas. The establishment of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission also perfectly exemplify this. No doubt that brother-monks contributed immensely to building an institution of the stature that the Ramakrishna Order has today, but it was Swami Vivekananda’s spiritual enterprise that brought it to the forefront, not just in India but around the globe. True to its motto, the Order has been incessantly working towards spiritual, social and economic upliftment of people, irrespective of their religion, the colour of their skin or the economic class they belong to.
Today, even after 130 years of his Chicago lecture, the world is surrounded by numerous problems: economic exploitation, civil unrest, religious strife, terrorism, poverty, corruption, financial turmoil, unethical conduct and armed conflicts. When the greatest minds of this century seek resolution to these problems, their ideas resonate with the ideology of Swami Vivekananda and often, the solutions are derived from his ideas. The
monk’s contribution therefore assumes an eternal dimension, necessitating a study afresh of the monk, his making and his contributions.
Being a modest effort in this direction, I hope this book will provide some insight into how we can tread the quest for the highest developments in the material world through realisation of the potentially divine self.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor V. Prakasam and Professor Kalyani Samantray for encouraging me to give shape to my years of study in the form of a book on Swami Vivekananda.
I am grateful to Dr Karan Singh, an eminent philosopher-statesman of our times, for writing the foreword of this book. I am indebted to Swami Vibhatmananda, Manager, Advaita Ashrama, for his kind consent towards the inclusion of several pictures of Swami Vivekananda and other eminent personalities associated with him, which have made the book livelier. I also owe my thanks to Ms Kavitha Harish and Professor Kaushal Verma of the Archives and Publications Cell, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for allowing me access to the rare archival documents. I am also thankful to Mr Sunil Pandey, Vice-Principal, National High School, Kolkata, for the wonderful pictures he captured across the different locations of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, with due permission from the Math authorities. I am grateful to Ms Moira Rankin, Senior Archivist, Archive Services, University of Glasgow, for permitting me to use Professor William Hastie’s picture in this book.
I remain thankful to my friends, Mr Aritra Das and Mr Ravi Vishwakarma, for bringing me in touch with the right people who could appreciate the potential of this work, especially Mr Praveen Tiwari, Publisher, Bloomsbury, for his keen interest in the book right from the initial stages, Mr Nitin Valecha, Manager, Acquisition, for the excellent professional coordination at his end, and Ms Shreya Chakraborti, Manager, Editorial Services, and Ms Ananya Sharma, copyeditor, for the meticulous editing at their end.
I am ever grateful to Poojya Gurudev H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji, a great spiritual leader and humanitarian, also the Founder of the Art of Living Foundation and Sri Sri University, for his kind blessings for this work. I am highly indebted to Ms Rajita Kulkarni, President, Sri Sri University, Dr Nand Lal, Vice Chancellor, Sri Sri University, and Mr Narendra Lamba, Director Operations, Sri Sri University, for their kind support and encouragement when the book was in progress at initial stages.
I am very thankful to Professor Martha Roth, Chauncey S. Boucher Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, and Mr Ryan Goodwin, Digital Editor, University of Chicago, and Mr Jason Smith, photographer, for helping me with the photograph of the establishment of the Vivekananda Chair at University of Chicago in January 2012.
My wife Jyotsna and son Siddhant have extended their full support, right from the beginning. It is because of their care and attention that I could complete my work with utmost devotion and dedication. I am ever thankful to them for their unstinted support. Siddhant shares a very special relationship with this book as it has, once again, brought him closer to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature. I hope it helps him imbibe the values that make one a better human being. This book would not have been possible without the blessings of my parents, Dr R.S. Tripathi and Mrs Kamla Tripathi. It is largely the way I have been brought up that reflects my concern for society and I shall ever remain thankful to them for endowing me with the ability to think beyond the usual self and work in larger interest of the society.
Rakesh Tripathi
1
VIVEKANANDA’S CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE
Humanity needs dreamers for whom the selfless development of mankind is so enchanting that it becomes impossible for them to come out of its spell. Such men lead life free from material care for they desire no wealth or material profit, but the service of mankind, a chance to serve the poorest of the poor. Vivekananda was one such man.
Swami Vivekananda was born as Narendranath Dutta on 12 January 1863 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to an affluent family, well known for philanthropy, scholarly leanings and independent spirit. Narendranath, fondly addressed as Narendra or Naren, was actually the sixth child among the ten children of Bhuvaneswari Devi and Vishwanath Dutta. Unfortunately, some of those elder to him died in infancy while others at a young age when he was struggling between the material and spiritual worlds. The ones who survived included his elder sister Swarnamayee, who lived till the age of seventy-two, and two younger brothers, Mahendranath and Bhupendranath, both of whom lived for more than eighty years of age.
Naren’s mother considered him a boon from Lord Shiva and named him Vireswara at birth. It was only later that he was given the name Narendranath. Even as a young boy, he possessed immense energy and was restless most of the time.
Narendra’s parents were indeed gifted people whose virtues influenced his early years. Even as a child, he had a fancy for wandering monks and as his personality evolved, it brought out in the process, his innate virtues which were a combination of discipline and saintliness. On one occasion, after achieving fame as ‘Swami Vivekananda’, he expressed his gratitude towards his mother in particular, saying that ‘I am indebted to my mother for whatever knowledge I have acquired’. Owing to the strong moral and cultural foundation given by his parents, Narendra also inherited their scholarly leanings, as a result of which he developed eclectic tastes, varied interests and the ability to recognise the misery of human life.
Family
Vivekananda’s father Vishwanath Dutta was a lawyer of great repute at the High Court of Calcutta. Those were the days when legal matters mostly required the knowledge of Persian and English and his profession brought him in close contact with these two languages, making him quite proficient in both. Added to this, Vishwanath was not only a very hospitable man but also a generous host who held many social gatherings at his palatial residence where he would recite the poetry of Hafiz or quote from the Bible while entertaining his friends, which were similar in their essence of human thought.
Vishwanath’s highly successful legal practice helped him earn a fortune, most of which was spent on socialising and helping needy relatives whose count never ceased until his death. He was very fond of cooking and travelling and enjoyed a hectic social life. It seems Narendra prominently inherited both these hobbies from his father. There are accounts which tell us that Vishwanath liked to prepare rare dishes and share them with his guests. So far as travel was concerned, he undertook long journeys to meet his professional commitments. Apart from that, Vishwanath also personally enjoyed it, especially when there were occasions to go on long tours. On one particular trip, the family went to Raipur where Vishwanath encouraged Naren to interact with renowned scholars on intellectual topics generally
considered too difficult for the children of his age. This served to enable in Narendra the art of discussion by grasping the heart of the matter, perceiving truth in the widest sense and confining it to the issue being discussed.
Vivekananda’s mother, Bhuvaneswari Devi, epitomised womanhood in accordance with Hindu traditions. She was the mother of a large household and conducted herself with utmost dignity and grace. She had memorised large portions of the great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and often used to narrate them to Narendra. Apart from this, she devoted most of her time to sewing and singing. Much like her husband, she too had a kind disposition and was a source of refuge for the poor and despised. Submitting herself to the will of God, she remained calm and exhibited dignified detachment in the midst of many arduous duties. By virtue of these distinguished traits, she commanded respect among one and all, not only in the family but also in society at large.
Naren acquired these attributes and they served him well in life and constituted an integral part of his personality. Even after he acquired worldwide fame as Swami Vivekananda, he still used to take great delight in cooking at the Math2 during the initial years of its establishment, though occasionally. Narendra’s father was an agnostic when it came to religion and used to mock social conventions of his time. Nevertheless, he was a kind-hearted man and often went out of the way to support many of his parasitic relatives who survived on his benevolence. Taking advantage of his largesse, they swindled much of the wealth he left behind.
Initial Education
Narendra received initial education from his mother who introduced him to the Bengali and English alphabets. He joined a primary school at the age of six but was soon pulled out on account of using vulgar words which he had learnt in the company of his friends. His parents then appointed a private tutor who was given the responsibility of teaching Narendra and some other children from the neighbourhood. During these days, Narendra was given a
considerable grounding in Sanskrit and English. Being a quick learner, he demonstrated scholarly abilities. He was also endowed with precocious abilities which helped him develop a keen memory.
In 1871, at the age of eight, Narendra joined the Metropolitan Institution to continue his primary education. His exceptional intelligence shone even in school and soon he was recognised by one and all. There, he also made some friends for lifetime. This included Rakhal (Swami Brahmananda) and Baburam (Swami Premananda). Being ingrained in tradition by his parents right from the beginning, Narendra exhibited a passion for purity and regarded himself as a brahmachari who worked hard, prized ascetic disciplines, held holy things in reverence and enjoyed clean words, thoughts and acts. Even at a young age, he was fearless and never believed in anything unless he would prove so. He followed the path of truth without bothering about the result and retained these traits even later in life. Such an upbringing played a significant role in shaping his personality, especially in making him the ‘warrior saint’ as he popularly came to be known later. As a young boy, the question of discrimination between human beings on account of caste or class in society pinched him. The sight of separate tobacco pipes for clients in his father’s office in accordance with orthodox Hindu customs left him bothered as to why one human being should be considered superior to another.
At school, though Narendra showed initial reluctance in learning English, apparently because of its foreign origin, he soon took it up with great interest. He did not confine himself to acquiring knowledge, but he would also play a variety of games with his friends. Some of these were the ones he invented or improvised, mainly with the aim of keeping himself occupied. After a few years, when Narendra was at the threshold of adolescence, his temperament showed a marked change. He became keener on intellectual matters and started reading newspapers, books on modern history, classical literature and philosophy. Apart from this, music became his favourite pastime and he also started attending public meetings.
Adolescence and Higher Studies
In 1879, Narendra joined the famous Presidency College in Calcutta for higher studies but later moved to Scottish Church College in the city. He evinced keen interest in Western philosophies, particularly in the mystical and analytical speculations of the Aristotelian school, those of Herbert Spencer, Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte. Along with John Stuart Mill’s Three Essays on Religion, he also studied the ancient and modern history of European nations. His devotion to literature and philosophy helped him make headway in rhetoric. Through such a study, he gained the power of thought, penetrating discrimination and the spirit of search. He subjected everything to the demands of reason and logic, applied reasoning in his discussions of the doctrines of the Upanishads and Vedanta, and demanded that his freedom of belief be respected regardless of its character. The apparent contradictions in the way Hinduism manifested in the society influenced his impressionable mind. He protested against the prevalent social evils and religious customs that were unreasonable and set out in search of the higher truths in life.
During Narendra’s student days, Professor William Hastie, the principal of the college, had conducted one of his classes on English Literature and lectured on William Wordsworth’s The Excursion. Hastie had used the word ‘trance’ and further said that an exalted experience of this kind was a rare phenomenon, especially in modern times, and it could be best explained by Sri Ramakrishna, a priest at Dakshineswar as he was the only one who had realised that blessed state; and upon visiting him one might understand what trance was. It was here that Narendra heard of Sri Ramakrishna for the first time. Narendra was an ardent learner. Impressed with his intellect, Professor Hastie remarked, ‘Narendranath is really a genius. I have travelled far and wide but I have never yet come across a lad of his talents and possibilities, even in German universities, amongst philosophical students. He is bound to make his mark in life’
(The Life of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. I, 48).
Fascination for Mysticism and Spiritual Leaning
Narendra’s paternal grandfather Durgaprasad Dutta had renounced the world in search of God soon after the birth of his only son Vishwanath. Apparently, this was why the very sight of wandering monks and mendicants left Narendra exalted; monks, ascetics, beggars and bauls were all welcomed by him. Early in life, he took to playing the game of meditation with his friends. His personal attributes of selflessness and kindness supported his spiritual leanings, and with the passage of time, his devotion for the fraternity of mendicants increased. Unknowingly, he felt a longing to be one of them.
2
MEETING SRI RAMAKRISHNA
Unquenched Spiritual Thirst
Unlike the patronage Hinduism received at the hands of Akbar when the Mughal Empire was at the height of its glory, it lost its vitality and dynamism under Aurangzeb’s rule and was suppressed, leaving it with a highly stratified caste system even before the British came. Guided by selfish interests, the priestly class controlled the religious life of the people with meaningless rituals, dogmas and elaborate ceremonies, supplanting in the process, the invigorating philosophical teachings of the ancient scriptures like the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The exploitation of the masses did not stop here. Whatever was left of them was snatched, wilfully by the zamindars in the name of rent or taxes. The masses were thus materially and spiritually deprived. The fall of the Mughals and the gradual accession of British traders to the helm of affairs was a long transitory stage marked by chaos in almost every sphere of life in India, be it social, political, religious or economic. Having evaluated the consequences of fighting local rulers who could not think beyond the boundaries of their states, the commercially and militarily aggressive British did not delay their conquest of India. The introduction of the English language in the education system of India was a natural consequence of this conquest.
A large section of youth in Calcutta who came under the spell of the new wave of scientific and rational learning introduced by the British also
came to realise the many shortcomings of their society. The newly introduced system of education began to sharply focus on the drawbacks of society as evident from Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s letter to the Governor General of India pleading for establishing institutions ‘to instruct the natives of India in mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy and other useful sciences, which the nations of Europe have carried to a degree of perfection that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world’ (Selections from Educational Records, Part I, National Archives of India, 1965, 98-101)
This called for large-scale reforms to save the society from rotting further and was the beginning of the discovery of a new form of Hinduism. These were the years when Narendra gained his formative views on Hinduism. This was also the turning point in his life. His spiritual quest first led him to the Brahmo Samaj, one of the leading reformist and religious movements of the time, and then to Sri Ramakrishna, whose association stirred his innate spiritual yearning.
Brahmo Samaj
The Brahmo Samaj captured the imagination of the educated youth of Bengal. Being essentially intellectual and eclectic in character, the Samaj was born out of the need of the times and was not rooted in any sort of spiritual experience. It broke away from rituals, idol worship and priestcraft that had become the face of orthodox Hinduism and exhorted its followers to dedicate themselves to the worship and adoration of the eternal, the unsearchable, the immutable being, who is the author and the preserver of the universe, discarding in the process, many of the conventions of Hinduism. Influenced by Western ideology, the Samaj aimed at the emancipation of women through widow remarriage, the abolition of child marriage and spread of mass education. It upheld the primacy of reason by vehemently opposing the uncritical acceptance of scriptural authority.
Its progressive ideas appealed to the contemporary youth, including Narendra, and initially drew them into becoming its members. Though Narendra accepted its doctrine of monotheism and ‘personal God’3 , it could not satisfy his deep spiritual yearning. He wanted to experience Godrealisation and as such did not accord any significance to material pursuits as he wanted to know the ultimate truth; that is, if God existed. His mind was full of questions. Rational thinking made him question everybody and everything about the existence of God and approach many religious leaders in the process. He felt the need of being guided at this point so that he could see and experience what was only heard of so far.
In all eagerness, Narendra approached Devendranath Tagore, one of the learned leaders of the Samaj and asked him, ‘Sir, have you seen God?’ Tagore’s answer did not offer him any solace and neither did the answers from all others whom he met with this question. Not receiving a satisfactory response, Narendra felt disappointed and thought that God was merely a creation of weak minds; lofty terms like vision and realisation of God were all but wild poetic imaginations. This was until he met Sri Ramakrishna.
Spiritual Orientation
The transformation from a mere child mesmerised at the very sight of yogis and fakirs to a young man who sought reason in religion and further to a patriot-saint was a long journey Narendra undertook. As he matured, his temperament changed and he started showing a keen interest in intellectual matters. Possessed by an inner spiritual urge, he delved deep into Indian Sanskrit scriptures, read serious books on history and literature, and attended public meetings. The wide gulf between what Narendra read and what he saw led to disenchantment, and soon, his inborn tendency towards spirituality and respect for the ancient traditions and religious beliefs came in conflict with his argumentative nature. His sharp intellect hated superstition and questioned practising a faith without sufficient knowledge of the traditions or scriptures or why a certain ritual was performed.
Narendra was unable to find an answer to how to reconcile the presence of evil in nature with the goodness of an omnipresent creator? David Hume’s skepticism and Herbert Spencer’s doctrine of the unknowable made him a settled agnostic. His real problem was: If God really exists, it must be possible for one to see Him. While Narendra was inching closer to identifying the path of spirituality for himself, his family was busy finding him a suitable match so that he would marry and settle down in life. They were quite upset when they came to know that Narendra was unwilling to get married. At this point, one of his relatives, Ramchandra Datta (also a follower of Sri Ramakrishna) who had come to visit Vishwanath, said to Narendra, ‘If you really want to cultivate spirituality, then visit Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar.’
Narendra’s search for God-realisation ended in his meeting Sri Ramakrishna as he replied in affirmation to Narendra’s question. His response stirred Narendra’s spiritual yearning.
Meeting Sri Ramakrishna
Narendra met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time in November 1881 at the house of Surendranath Mitra, one of Sri Ramakrishna’s devotees where he had been invited by Ramachandra Datta to entertain the visitors with his melodious devotional songs. His rendition left everyone mesmerised, including Sri Ramakrishna. Impressed with his devotion, Sri Ramakrishna made a few inquiries and asked Narendra to visit him at Dakshineswar. Though he was quick to accept the offer, he immediately asked Sri Ramakrishna if he would help him in his spiritual quest, to which he agreed. Later, when Narendra met Sri Ramakrishna, he seized upon the opportunity to have a personal conversation with the latter. Seated in a room at Dakshineswar, Narendra asked Sri Ramakrishna the same old question, ‘Sir, have you seen God?’ Without a moment’s hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna replied, ‘Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to Him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth and property,
but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him.’ Sri Ramakrishna’s reply left Narendra amazed. Finally, here was a man who asserted that he had seen God (The Life of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 1, 60).
Sri Ramakrishna’s reply resonated in Narendra’s mind a number of times and he felt these words to be some sort of divine utterance which came from the depths of an inner experience that was beyond doubt. So forceful was the impact of this soulful utterance that he could not quickly reconcile with the developments in this new episode and found himself wavering between a state of bewilderment and that of inner peace.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa
Born on 18 February 1836 in Kamarpukur, a village in Hooghly district, in West Bengal, Sri Ramakrishna came from a poor Brahmin family. He grew up in the countryside and did not show much inclination towards formal education. He was simply not interested in such an education as he felt that its sole purpose was to earn bread and butter. As such, he chose to remain illiterate all his life. He had innate spiritual leanings which found expression through devotional songs and the company of wandering monks. When his father died, the family was in straitened circumstances. This compelled him to join his brother as a priest in Calcutta at the age of sixteen. As his spiritual insight deepened, he felt a longing for Godrealisation.
Ramakrishna soon took up the duties of a priest at the Kali Temple in Dakshineswar where Kali was worshipped as the Divine Mother. Despite his ignorance of the scriptures and intricate worship rituals, he poured his heart and soul into his prayers, mostly in the form of devotional songs. Gradually, an all-consuming passion for the vision of God deprived him of his physical needs, including food and sleep. Yet, the mere sight of an idol did not satisfy his spiritual yearning and its intensity increased to an extent that its effect on his health was clearly visible. Ramakrishna was forced to return to Kamarpukur to recuperate where his mother proposed that he
should get married and settle down in life. Conceding to her demand, he was soon married to Saradamani, a girl of five from Jayrambati. Even after marriage, he decided to pursue his spiritual pursuits and made his intentions clear to his wife. Despite her tender age, she agreed to help Ramakrishna wholeheartedly in his religious pursuits without any botheration and contributed to it significantly later.
While Ramakrishna was engaged in communion with God, he could experience the visible presence of God by all the names known, be it Rama, Kali or the gods of other religions such as Christ and Muhammad. Through his initiation into the monastic life by an austere sanyasi, Totapuri, Ramakrishna was able to realise complete oneness with Brahman, the undifferentiated absolute—as a father, mother, friend and the beloved— through the culmination of his spiritual endeavour. He went on to worship Saradamani as the manifestation of the Divine Mother of the universe and surrendered at her feet as he got enlightened. According to Mahendranath Gupta, who was popularly known as M, Sri Ramakrishna ‘began to practise the disciplines of Isla¯m’4 under the guidance of his Mussalman guru (Muslim guru) towards the end of 1866 and ‘began to listen to readings from the Bible’5 in 1874 by Shambhu Charan Mallick, one of his devotees. When he attained the same results, he became convinced that the other two paths also led to God-realisation, much the same way.
Initially, people looked at Sri Ramakrishna with a sense of bewilderment, almost to the extent of considering him insane as he progressed on the path of God-realisation. This young priest soon transformed himself into a selfless devotee and then to an ascetic, finally becoming a realised soul. Differing in faith, intelligence and social position, people were drawn towards him as he had proved that his illiterate wisdom was more powerful than the ones prescribed and followed by learned men.
For Ramakrishna, religion meant realisation. He believed that religion was tangible and could be experienced outright provided one had the willingness. He did recognise the individuality of different religions, yet declared that all religions led to the same God and that there was harmony between them. He spoke of the Vedas and the Upanishads as maps that
pointed the way to a direct perception of God, helping the seeker find the path and move towards the goal of realisation by directly seeing or experiencing, thus making the scriptures valid. He signified universal harmony based on the Vedas and the Upanishads and was able to generate deep spiritual wisdom derived from his own spiritual practices and experiences.
Material-Spiritual Conflict in Narendra
As Narendra busied himself in spiritual pursuits in Sri Ramakrishna’s company, he found himself in the middle of a deep crisis that shook his belief in God. His father Vishwanath passed away and the family was dispossessed of all its riches. Many of their relatives whose survival earlier depended solely on Vishwanath’s benevolence had now turned owners of the big mansion that was once home to his family. Everything that the family owned was at stake and they were in a miserable condition. Naren’s mother and his siblings remained closely attached to him despite the fact that he relentlessly remained engaged in spiritual pursuits. He also took the onus of resolving legal disputes which kept troubling his family after his father’s demise. He was mostly present during the court proceedings involving the dispute over their ancestral home as some of his distant relatives claimed it to be theirs.
Narendra was now torn between pursuing his spiritual ambitions on the one hand, and on the other, he would think of how to arrange two square meals a day so that his family could survive. He was the eldest surviving son in the family and going by tradition, it was his foremost duty to ensure the family’s survival. It was not easy to take a decision at this point. Despite failing to get a job, he could not resist believing in God as monastic life had cast a spell on him.
Impelled by his spiritual leanings, Narendra felt an urge to renounce the world and become a wandering monk, an experience that would bring him closer to understanding the misery of human life. When Sri Ramakrishna asked him to pray before Kali for material wealth for the family, Narendra
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