In the town of Kamarpukur, about 60 miles northwest of Kolkata, Sri Ramakrishna was born on February 18, 1836. Although they were not wealthy, his parents, Kshudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandramani Devi were devout and upright. Ramakrishna, whose birth name was Gadadhar, was adored by the locals when he was a youngster. He had always had a strong aversion to conventional schooling and worldly matters. However, he was a gifted young man who was able to sing and paint beautifully. He enjoyed listening to the sermons of religious men and assisting them. He was frequently observed to be immersed in spiritual thoughts. When he was six years old, he first felt joy while observing a flight of white cranes flying against a backdrop of dark clouds. Age increased our propensity to experience euphoria. When his father passed away when he was seven years old, it did nothing but heighten his sense of isolation and introspection.
As a Priest at Dakshineswar Temple
Sri Ramakrishna was taken to Kolkata by his brother Ramkumar when he was sixteen years old to help him in his work as a priest. Ramkumar was appointed as the temple's main priest when Rani Rasmani's Kali Temple in Dakshineswar was dedicated in 1855. Ramakrishna was named the priest after he passed away a few months later. Mother Kali became the object of Ramakrishna's ardent devotion, and he would spend hours lovingly worshipping her image while neglecting his priestly duties. His deep yearning culminated in a vision of Mother Kali as an endless effulgence encompassing everything in his immediate vicinity.
Strenuous Spiritual Exercises
His Kamarpukur relatives were frightened by Sri Ramakrishna's god-addled condition, so they arranged for him to wed Sarada, a Jayrambati neighboring village girl. Sri Ramakrishna continued his strong spiritual practices unaffected by his marriage and even increased them. He was driven by a great inner desire to encounter all of God, therefore with the assistance of several Gurus, he pursued the various routes outlined in the Hindu scriptures and discovered God along with each one. A magnificent woman by the name of Bhairavi Brahmani, who was an experienced spiritual adept and knowledgeable in texts, made her first appearance at Dakshineswar (in 1861) as a teacher. Sri Ramakrishna successfully completed all of the challenging disciplines of the Tantrik path with her assistance. Three years later, a traveling monk by the name of Totapuri appeared. He helped Sri Ramakrishna achieve Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the highest spiritual experience stated in Hindu scriptures. For six months he continued to exist in this non-dual condition without even the slightest knowledge of his own body. Sri Ramakrishna was able to relive the full spectrum of spiritual encounters from the more than three millennia of Hinduism.
Practicing other religions
With his insatiable quest for God, Sri Ramakrishna quickly traversed the boundaries of Hinduism, the paths of Islam, and Christianity, and gained the highest awareness in each of them. He revered the ten Sikh Gurus and saw the Buddha and Jesus as manifestations of God. Yato mat, tato road was the succinct expression of his twelve-year-long spiritual awakenings. "As many routes, as many religions." He now regularly lived in a condition of heightened consciousness in which he perceived God in all creatures.
Honoring His Wife
His then-19-year-old wife Sarada traveled from the hamlet to be with him in 1872. He greeted her with warmth and showed her how to manage the household while also leading a very spiritual life. In his quarters at the Dakshineswar temple, he offered prayers to her one night in the form of the Divine Mother. They led exemplary pure lives, and their marriage was solely spiritual even though Sarada stayed with him. It should be noted that Sri Ramakrishna was a Sannyasin (Hindu monk) by ordination and that he perfectly upheld the fundamental vows of a monk. He yet had a simple, caring, and youthful life on the outside, much like a layman. Rani Rasmani first served as Sri Ramakrishna's patron during his time in Dakshineswar. Mathur Nath Biswas, her son-in-law, looked after him when she passed away.
Contact with some famous people
The reputation of Sri Ramakrishna as an illuminated saint started to grow. When Mathur once called together a group of academics, they proclaimed him to be not just another person, but rather the Avatar of the Modern Age. At that time, Bengal saw a surge in support for the socioreligious movement known as the Brahmo Samaj, which Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded. Sri Ramakrishna interacted with and had a significant impact on a number of Brahmo Samaj leaders and members. Dakshineswar transformed into a true Parliament of Religions as a result of his message of religious unity attracting followers of many denominations.
Leaving the Devotees
Devotees began to flock to Sri Ramakrishna at this point, much like bees swarm around a fully bloomed flower. They were split into two groups by him. Householders made up the first group. He showed them how to experience God while interacting with the outside world and taking care of their families. He also prepared a group of educated young people, usually from middle-class Bengali families, to become monks who would carry his message to the rest of the world. This group was considered to be the more significant category. Narendranath was the most important of them; subsequently, as Swami Vivekananda, he revived Hinduism and awoke the soul of India while spreading the universal Vedic message throughout the world.
Evangelium of Sri Ramakrishna
Both public talks and books by Sri Ramakrishna are nonexistent. Instead, he opted to speak in plain English and illustrate his points with parables and metaphors based on his observations of nature and everyday objects. The Bengali cultural elite was drawn to his fascinating chats. Mahendranath Gupta, one of his students, took notes during these discussions and later published them in Bengali as a book titled Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. Because of its international appeal and relevancy, its English translation, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, has remained popular since its 1942 debut.
Final Days
The intensity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual life and his tireless service to the never-ending line of seekers revealed information about his health. In 1885, he discovered he had throat cancer. His young disciples took care of him day and night when he was moved to a large suburban villa. He fostered in them a love for one another, which provided the groundwork for the later Ramakrishna Math monastic community. The Divine Mother's name was spoken by Sri Ramakrishna as he left his physical body early on August 16, 1886, and entered into eternity.
Sri Ramakrishna's teachings
The following is a succinct summary of Sri Ramakrishna's message to the modern world, which he conveyed through his life and the conversations he recorded:
Realizing the Ultimate Reality, which is the only thing that can provide a person ultimate fulfillment and everlasting tranquility, is the purpose of human life. All religions are founded on this.
The Ultimate Reality is one, yet it has both personal and impersonal aspects and is denoted by several names (such as God, Ishvar, etc.) in various religious traditions.
The numerous paths outlined in the teachings of the world's religions can lead one to the Ultimate Reality. Insofar as they all ultimately lead to the same goal, all faiths are true.
Achieving mental purity is a prerequisite for discovering the Ultimate Reality; true purity is the absence of lust and greed. External holidays are mere of secondary significance.
Man can defeat his bad tendencies via spiritual activities, and God's grace can atone for the worst of sinners. Therefore, instead of dwelling on one's past transgressions, one should cultivate a positive view of life by placing their trust in God.
Everyone has the capacity to realize God. The homeowners need not give up the world, but instead, they should really pray, practice differentiating between the eternal and the temporal, and maintain their independence. Genuine prayer is heard by God. Success in the spiritual life is a result of having a strong desire (vyakulata).
All people have God inside of them, but how they express this inner Divinity varies. Greater manifestations of God can be seen in saints. Women should be treated with respect because they are unique manifestations of the Divine Mother of the Universe.
Helping the needy should be done as a humble service to God since God dwells in all persons, not out of compassion (which is a condescending attitude).
All misery stems from egoism, which is brought on by ignorance.
The spontaneous creativity (Lila) of God is expressed in life. One must have the patience to endure pleasure and sorrow, success and failure, etc., and they must always submit to God's will.
Sri Ramakrishna's cultural contributions
Spiritual Ideal: One of Sri Ramakrishna's significant achievements is the restoration of the ideal of God realization in the contemporary era. Sri Ramakrishna established the potential of having a direct experience of transcendent Reality in a society where people's faith in conventional faiths has been significantly diminished by the persistent battle of the forces of atheism, materialism, and scientific thinking. His example has helped countless individuals develop or reaffirm their trust in God and the everlasting truths of religion. He (Ramakrishna's) life "enables us to encounter God face to face," as Mahatma Gandhi once said. Everyone who reads the account of their own lives will come to the conclusion that only God is real and everything else is a delusion.
Harmony of Religions: Sri Ramakrishna is more well-known internationally as the leader of this movement. He didn't claim that all religions are alike. He acknowledged the variances across religions but demonstrated that, despite these variations, all religions have the same ultimate purpose, making them all equally genuine and truthful. Sri Ramakrishna is the principal proponent of this viewpoint, which is now referred to as "Pluralism." The distinction of Sri Ramakrishna's perspective is that it was established not on conjecture but on actual practice-based direct experience. The theory of Sri Ramakrishna on religious harmony is extremely significant in the modern world since religious conflicts and the growth of fundamentalism pose a serious threat to the peace, prosperity, and advancement of humanity. According to renowned British historian Arnold Toynbee, "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." Sri Ramakrishna's testimony to the harmony of religions is also mentioned.
The actual link connecting the ancient and modern eras is Sri Ramakrishna. He demonstrated how the values and experiences of the past may still be attained while living a typical modern lifestyle.
Increase in morality: Sri Ramakrishna's focus on sincerity and the renunciation of lust and greed has greatly improved morality in contemporary society. He also purified religion of immoral rituals, showy behavior, miracle-mongering, etc.
Love is divinized when it is raised to the level of the unity of all selves in God by Sri Ramakrishna. Although the Upanishads place great emphasis on the idea of the Supreme Self being one with all beings and existing in them, this idea was rarely used in daily life. Sri Ramakrishna treated everyone with respect because he recognized the Divine in his wife, in his followers, in other people, and even in broken women. Sri Ramakrishna provided evidence for the New Testament proverb "God is Love." Another contribution made by Sri Ramakrishna that is extremely important for the well-being of humanity is the divinization of love and interpersonal interactions.
