Re the 'ecstasies' of Ramakrishna

[Guest guest]

The following anecdote is related in the Gaudiya (Bengali magazine of the

Gaudiya Matha) 17.27-28.488-489.

 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati once related how Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

had been asked to test Ramakrishna; it seems that he himself was also

present at that time. One day N. Datta, a great friend of Srila

Bhaktivinoda, upon meeting the latter related to him, "We know only

Mahaprabhu, but my son has gone and associated with some Mayavadi. He is

glorifying this human, Ramakrishna, as a new avatar, as a new Mahaprabhu.

Please grace my house once and test this person. Is his guru real or an

imposter? I will have faith in whatever you say." On the day that

Ramakrishna was due to visit his house, N. Datta brought Bhaktivinoda

Thakura there. N. Datta said to Ramakrishna, "My friend who is a great

Vaisnava, the very life of Mahaprabhu, has come here." Seeing him,

Ramakrishna began singing ya're dekhile nayana jhure, ta'ra du'bhai eseche

re ("Those two brothers-Gaura and Nitai-have come, upon whom seeing one

cries"), then fell down as if unconscious. Bhaktivinoda was in another room.

Ramakrishna was on the adjacent veranda in that state while Bhaktivinoda was

present. A few moments later some rasagullas were brought to Ramakrishna. He

ate them and others took the remnants. No one was bold enough to offer any

to Bhaktivinoda. A little while later some untouchable item was brought. At

first Ramakrishna refused, but then took a little. At that time the

Visva-vaisnava-sabha had already been established and Bhaktivinoda Thakura

was teaching Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu there. Returning there Bhaktivinoda

Thakura tested this act against the touchstone of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. He

proved the falsity of the impersonalist sampradaya by the statements of the

Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, in which pratibimba, chaya-ratyabhasa (dim

reflections and shadows of attraction for Krsna) and so on are never equated

with the symptoms of prema.

 

(See also Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Bhakti-tattva-viveks ch. 2)