Ramakrishna Paramahamsa cuts the image of divine mother!

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Dear spiritual brothers and sisters,

Ramakrishna paramahamsa was a

great devotee of divine mother.In addition to being a Devotee (an

inherently dualistic relationship), Ramakrishna also attained

mergence in the absolute (i.e. complete non-dualism). This came

through a meeting with an advanced practitioner of Advaitha (Oneness

with God) by the name of Totapuri.

 

The wandering monk had attained the ultimate mergence in Nirvikalpa

Samadhi after strenuous meditation extending over 40 years. After

mergence, he wandered freely seeing Brahman everywhere, oblivious to

the joys and sorrows of the world. Totapuri saw only the formless

and impersonal Absolute. He was not a devotee of God in the sense

Ramakrishna was. On meeting Ramakrishna, he recognized a man of some

spiritual attainment and he asked him if he would like to learn

Vedanta. Ramakrishna replied in his simple way that he would have to

go "ask his Mother" and in a subsequent conversation with the Divine

Mother she said, "Yes, my son. That is why I have brought him here."

So Totapuri initiated him, and began to teach him Advaitha

philosophy.

 

Totapuri's teaching on Advaitha

 

Brahman is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free,

beyond the limits of time, space and causation. Though apparently

divided by names and forms through the inscrutable agency of Maya

(illusion), that enchantress which makes the impossible possible,

Brahman is really one and undivided. When a seeker is merged in the

beatitude of Samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name

and form - the production of Maya. Whatever is within the domain of

Maya is unreal; give it up. Dive deep in the search for Self and be

firmly established in It through Samadhi. You will then find the

world of name and form vanishing into nothing, and this puny ego

merging into cosmic consciousness.

 

Then Totapuri asked Ramakrishna to withdraw the mind completely from

all objects and dive into the Atman. This he was used to doing to

have ecstatic communion with the Divine Mother. But when he tried to

go to a still higher plane, there She always was, blocking his way

to a vision of the formless absolute by presenting Her own charming

form to his sight. Totapuri pressed a pointed piece of glass between

his eyebrows and told him to concentrate all his energies at that

point. Sri Ramakrishna once again concentrated intensely, and when

the vision of the Mother appeared before him, he used his

discrimination as a sword to severe the image in two and soared into

the heights of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Totapuri closed the doors and

left him in that state and to his utter amazement, he remained rigid

and lost to the outer world for three days. At the end, in

disbelief, Totapuri reentered and slowly began to bring his disciple

back into waking consciousness by chanting a sacred mantra - Hari

OM. He was astonished that Ramakrishna had attained in one day what

it had taken him forty strenuous years to accomplish.

YOURS YOGICALLY,

DATTU