Bhagavan Sri Ramakrsna & Amma

[Guest guest]

Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!!

 

Namaste darling sisters and brothers!!!

 

thank you Ranjeesh for your lovely, if "strange" input (actually it's

kind of sweet...your strange little "idioms"...)...on Sri Ramakrsna!

 

You said:"Amma used to tell her children to read Sri Ramakrishna's

book , even to her sannyasins . ( I don't remember the Title , which

is autobiography cum teachings of Sri Ramakrishna in 2 volumes

published by Sri ramakrishna Ashram itself ) & Amma has a lot of

Children who were Ramakrishna devotees."

 

this is quite interesting ...and refers quite nicely to those four

Mantras that quoted last night, re Amma and Bhagavan....there is a

quite a discussion at times over just WHO Amma is...or rather WAS and

IS...

 

Obviously Ottoor Unni Namboodiripad, the Poet who wrote Amma's Names

believed what He had written, and he seemed to believe that BOTH Sri

Ramakrsna AND Sri Sarada Devi had somehow been reborn as

Ammachi...this is NOT the first time that this has been claimed about

a great Spiritual figure in India...we have only to recall Sri

Gauranga...or Sri Hari Chaitanya (another name for the same Mahatma)

He was believed and still is believed, by the Vaisnavas to have been

BOTH Sri Krsna AND Srimati Radharani...in ONE body...sometimes he

would exhibit Radha's devotion for the Lord, and other times he would

manifest a kind of Krsna Bhava....so it is NOT unheard of...

 

and if we think really about the Mahatmas, we MUST realise that they

are NOT people like you and i...they are a DIRECT Manifestation of the

Divine Consciousness...which in itself has NO Attributes, as i

discussed yesterday...so we could say that really Sri Ramakrsna and

Sri Sarada Devi WERE NOT SEPARATE BEINGS although they APPEARED to be

to their devotees and to us using our "eyes"...but when we use our

"spiritual" eye it is much easier to understand that underneath those

two "rupas", there was ONLY ONE CONSCIOUSNESS in the depths of

being..that consciousness being the Cosmic Consciousness of the Divine

Mother Kali...Who in reality is ALL OF US TOO>>>>>>BUT we just DON'T

understand this, being conditioned in our 20th century materialistic

way...so we see them as THREE SEPARATE individuals...Sri Ramakrsna,

Sri Sarada Devi, and Divine Mother Kali...(four if we include

Ammachi)...but really there is ONLY ONE...and She is known as Maha

Kali...or Adi ParaSakti...the Original Supreme Power...in this

understanding ALL THE CREATION is NONE OTHER THAN Mother KALI>>>>>

 

all the beings are infused with HER CONSCIOUSNESS...even the material

reality is spun from Her "dreams" of Bliss....

 

so in a real deep way, it is impossible really to think of the

Mahatmas or even us, as "separate" individuals....

 

That being said, i think it is interesting that you pointed out that

Amma insisted that Her children read the Sri Ramakrsna

Kathamrita....the GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRSNA....and that you say that

MANY of Her devotees WERE devotees of Sri Ramakrsna...because my LIVED

experience is that BEFORE i met Amma, Bhagavan came back into my life

thru the sweet words of Lex Hixon's Paraphrase of a few chapters from

the Gospel....

 

as i have posted before, i had been reading that "Great Swan" and then

picked up the Gospel...was crying all the way thru it, i was so moved

by it....i felt that somehow Sri Ramakrsna was my very OWN ....and i

remember as i said, mourning with a friend, that i had been born too

late to be with Him in this life...just as i had mourned as a child

that i had been born too late to be with Jesus!...(and several of Sri

Ramakrsna's devotees were Disciples of Jesus according to the official

stories...even the NAMES were given of those who used to be with

Jesus...)...so i and a friend were mourning our terrible luck...as i

had said before...and LONGING so intensely to meet "someone" like

Him...within 5 months of that mourning, i was in front of Ammachi!!!

and my prayers of longing were answered...LITERALLY!!!!!

 

She set the whole thing UP!!!! She found me those books on Sri

Ramakrsna, Who i totally fell in love with (Bhagavan...and still i am

much loving Him in His previous incarnation!)...and felt totally

connected to....so Amma didn't HAVE to tell me to read those

books...She gave them to me before i met HER!!! and i had eagerly

DEVOURED them as a starving man would eat food.

 

Actually i felt even at the time, that Sri Ramakrsna was introducing

me to His Beloved Mother Kali thru these books, and i understood that

He was teaching me how to relate to Divine Mother...and showing me the

"real" Mother Kali...the Sweet Loving Mother of us all....instead of

focussing on the strange appearance of this Divine Mother.

 

So to make a longer story shorter...i FEEL like i WAS ONE of those Sri

Ramakrsna Devotees, who has come back to be with His Ammachi...and who

now realises that Bhagavan WAS really an AVATARA of Mother Kali...not

just a devotee of Hers, but indeed, Herself, Who came "incognito" to

announce Her imminent "rebirth" in the modern world...Who came to

"prepare" the way for the next incarnation, when She would REALLY make

a big splash in this world....and in that preparation She started a

whole new "cult" the Sri Ramakrsna "cult" (i don't mean that

badly)...and She reinvigorated the worship of the Divine Mother in

India too...

 

As well, She prepared the way in the west by sending Her two Loving

sons, Swami Vivekanandaji in 1893, and Swami Yoganandaji (that was his

title then)...in 1920...both of whom were fervent Devotees of the

Divine Mother Bhavatarini Kali Ma...both of whom DIDN'T Stress that

Mother here, because She was a little too "wild" for those Americans

and British, but privately they were MAJOR DEVOTEES of Bhavatarini

Kali Ma...Vivekananda said that Bhagavan towards the end, passed all

of his "power" to his disciple, that from then on, his life wasn't his

own (the disciple, Naren). From then on, he felt that the Divine

Mother Kali had taken over his life...and even his body...and that She

was making him do all this work...ceaselessly labouring on Her behalf,

until his dearly demise at the age of almost 40...He said that She

drove him all around the world...across America and thru Europe...that

it was the Mother who arranged it all...and gave him the energy to do

it...he was suffering from diabetes at the time too....and there were

no effective treatments at the time... i have OFTEN wondered if our

darling Big Swamiji, Swami Amritaswarupanandaji, was originally Naren,

also known as Swami Vivekanandaji...He certainly reminds ME of that

Great Soul...the beautiful singing voice, which could melt stones and

cure disease....the amazing Devotion to Guru...his LION like

Demeanour...Naren too, was a real LION of the Dharma...

 

i think your statement, Ranjeesh about the neck clutching is exactly

correct...it has nothing to do with the throat cancer of Sri

Ramakrsna...Amma does this When She is calling out to the Lord...or to

the Mother...it is an idiomatic way of expressing Her Devotion, and

Her longing for Darshan...and as you said it is a lesson for us....so

that we see how REAL Bhakti is...

 

so that's it for my wandering around in recollection land for the

moment...it was just that those statements R. had made re. Amma

wanting Her devotees to read those very books that She had "passed" to

me even BEFORE i met Her, which galvanized me into yet another

Amma-Sri Ramakrsna rant.

 

Has anyone else read "Sri Ramakrsna the Great Master" by Swami

Saradananda...it is the most sweet, detailed biography of

Bhagavan...told by one of His own devotees...with much Love, and

respect...and throws a lot of light on the Great Master's life...it's

also in two volumes...You can now get the Gospel of Sri Ramakrsna in

only ONE large volume, unabridged, or a smalle pocket book sized,

abridged version...both are very precious and i would recommend

them...there is also a most wonderful biography of Bhagavan by Richard

Schiffmann, an Ammachi Devotee....it is really good too..

Also there is the MOST wonderful book on Mother Kali called "Kali" by

Elisabeth "Usha" Harding...She is a great devotee of the Mother

Herself...and has been instrumental in bringing Mother Kali's Murti (a

smaller copy of Bhavatarini Kali Ma...called Dakshineswari Kali Ma...)

to America...and establishing a regular worship of Her in

California...Currently they are trying to get funds together to build

a real temple for Her...but She was staying in Usha Harding's place

for a while as there was no temple for Her...

 

it is true that when i have read the Gospel of Sri RK and compared it

with Amma's Awaken Children, i felt that they were EXACTLY the

same...i got the identical feeling from reading both of them...

 

May Amma bless all of Her darling Children always, with Pure Love of

Her lotus Feet.....

 

In that Divine Mother's Love,

and in Her Service,

 

as ever,

your own self,

 

visvanathan

 

Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!!