The Early Years of Sri Ramakrishna - by Swami Nikhilananda

[Guest guest]

The Early Years of Sri Ramakrishna - by Swami Nikhilananda

 

(p.173) Sri Ramakrishna, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kamarpukur.

This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the nineteenth century the

idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengal. Situated far from the railway,

it was untouched by the glamor of the city. It contained rice fields, tall

palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the

village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard, dedicated by a

neighboring 'zemindar' to the public use, was frequented by the boys for their

noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great temple of

Jagannath at Puri, and the villagers, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen,

entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. The dull round of rural life was

broken by lively festivals, the observance of sacred days, religious singing,

and other innocent pleasures.

 

About his parents, Sri Ramakrishna once said, " My mother was the personification

of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about the ways of the world;

innocent of the art of concealment, she would say what was on her mind. People

loved her for her openheartedness. My father, an orthodox brahmin, never

accepted gifts from the sudras[1]. He spent much of his time in worship and

meditation, and in repeating God's name and chanting his glories. (p.174)

Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess Gayatri, his chest flushed

and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his leisure hours making garlands for

the family deity, Raghuvir[2]. "

 

Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandra Devi, the parents of Sri Ramakrishna, were

married in 1799. At that time Khudiram was living in his ancestral village of

Dereypore, not far from Kamarpukur. Their first son, Ramkumar, was born in 1805,

and their first daughter, Katyayani, in 1810. In 1814 Khudiram was ordered by

his landlord to bear false witness in court against a neighbor. When he refused

to do so, the landlord brought a false case against him and deprived him of his

ancestral property. Thus dispossessed, he arrived, at the invitation of another

landlord, in the quiet village of Kamarpukur, where he was given a dwelling and

about an acre of fertile land. The crops from this little property were enough

to meet his family's simple needs. Here he lived in simplicity, dignity, and

contentment.

 

Ten years after his coming to Kamarpukur, Khudiram made a pilgrimage on foot to

Rameswar, at the southern extremity of India. Two years later was born his

second son, whom he named Rameswar. Again in 1835, at the age of sixty, he made

a pilgrimage, this time to Gaya. Here, from ancient times, Hindus have come from

the four corners of India to discharge their duties to their departed ancestors

by offering them food and drink at the sacred footprint of the Lord Vishnu. At

this holy place Khudiram had a dream in which the Lord Vishnu promised to be

born as his son. And Chandra Devi, too, in front of the Siva temple at

Kamarpukur, had a vision indicating the birth of a divine child. Upon his

return, the husband found that she had conceived.

 

It was on February 18, 1836, that the child, to be known afterward as

Ramakrishna, was born. In memory of the dream at Gaya he was given the name of

Gadadhar, the " Bearer of the Mace, " an epithet of Vishnu. Three years later a

little sister was born.

 

Sri Ramakrishna, The Face of Silence

Swami Nikhilananda and Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Edited and with an Introduction by Swami Adiswarananda

Foreword by Dhan Gopal Mukerji II

Sri Ramakrishna - by Swami Nikhilananda, p.173-174

SkyLight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont

ISBN 1-59473-115-2

 

[1] The fourth caste in Hindu society.

 

[2] A name of Rama; the family deity of Sri Ramakrishna.