The Boyhood of Sri Ramakrishna - by Swami Nikhilananda

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Boyhood

 

(p.175) Gadadhar grew up into a healthy and restless boy, full of fun and sweet

mischief. He was intelligent and precocious and endowed with a prodigious

memory. On his father's lap he learned by heart the names of his ancestors and

the hymns to the gods and goddesses, and at the village school he was taught to

read and write. But his greatest delight was to listen to recitations of stories

from Hindu mythology and the epics. These he would afterward recount from

memory, to the great joy of the villagers. Painting he enjoyed; the art of

molding images of the gods and goddesses he learned from the potters. But

arithmetic was his great aversion.

 

At the age of six or seven Gadadhar had his first experience of spiritual

ecstasy. One day in June or July, when he was walking along a narrow path

between paddy fields, eating the puffed rice that he carried in a basket, he

looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful, dark thunder cloud. As it spread,

rapidly enveloping the whole sky, a flight of snow-white cranes passed in front

of it. The beauty of the contrast overwhelmed the boy. He fell to the ground,

unconscious, and the puffed rice went in all directions. Some villagers found

him and carried him home in their arms. Gadadhar said later that, in that state,

he had experienced an indescribably joy.

 

Gadadhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident profoundly

affected him. For the first time, the boy realized that life on earth was

impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango orchard or

into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed in his own

thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the discharge of her

household duties. He gave more attention to reading and hearing the religious

stories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks

and pious pilgrims who would stop at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. (p.176)

These holy persons, the custodians of India's spiritual heritage and the living

witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the world and all-absorbing love of

God, entertained the little boy with stories from the Hindu epics, stories of

saints and prophets, and also stories of their own adventures. He, for his part,

fetched their water and fuel and served them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was

observing their meditation and worship.

 

At the age of nine Gadadhar was invested with the sacred thread. This ceremony

conferred upon him the privileges of his brahmin lineage, including the worship

of the family deity, Raghuvir[1], and imposed upon him the many strict

disciplines of a brahmin's life. During the ceremony of investiture, he shocked

his relatives by accepting a meal cooked by his nurse, a sudra[2] woman. His

father would never have dreamed of doing such a thing. But, in a playful mood,

Gadadhar had once promised this woman that he would eat her food, and now he

fulfilled his plighted word. The woman had piety and religious sincerity, and

these were more important to the boy than the conventions of society.

 

Gadadhar was now permitted to worship Raghuvir. Thus began his first training in

meditation. He so gave his heart and soul to the worship that the stone image

very soon appeared to him as the living Lord of the Universe. His tendency to

lose himself in contemplation was first noticed at this time. Behind his boyish

lightheartedness was seen a deepening of his spiritual nature.

 

About this time, on the Sivaratri night, consecrated to the worship of Siva, a

dramatic performance was arranged. The principal actor, who was to play the part

of Siva, suddenly fell ill, and Gadadhar was persuaded to act in his place.

While friends were dressing him for the role of Siva--smearing his body with

ashes, matting his locks, placing a trident in his hand and a string of

rudraksha[3] beads around his neck--the boy appeared to become absentminded. He

approached the stage with slow and measured step, supported by his friends. He

looked the living image of Siva. (p.177) The audience loudly applauded what it

took to be his skill as an actor, but it was soon discovered that he was really

lost in meditation. His countenance was radiant and tears flowed from his eyes.

He was lost to the outer world. The effect of this scene on the audience was

tremendous. The people felt blessed as by a vision of Siva himself. The

performance had to be stopped, and the boy's mood lasted till the following

morning.

 

Gadadhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young friends. The

stage was set in the mango orchard. The themes were selected from the stories of

the Ramayana[4] and the Mahabharata[5]. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the

roles, having heard them from professional actors. His favorite theme was the

Vrindavan[6] episode of Krishna's life, depicting those exquisite love stories

of Krishna[7] and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys. Gadadhar would play the

parts of Radha[8] or Krishna and would often lose himself in the character he

was portraying. His natural feminine grace heightened the dramatic effect. The

mango orchard would ring with the loud kirtan[9] of the boys. Lost in song and

merrymaking, Gadadhar became indifferent to the routine of school.

 

In 1849 Ramkumar, the eldest son, went to Calcutta to improve the financial

condition of the family.

 

Gadadhar was on the threshold of youth. He had become the pet of the women of

the village. They loved to hear him talk, sing, or recite from the holy books.

They enjoyed his knack of imitating voices. Their woman's instinct recognized

the innate purity and guilelessness of this boy of clear skin, flowing hair,

beaming eyes, smiling face, and inexhaustible fun. The pious elderly women

looked upon him as Gopala, the Baby Krishna, and the younger ones saw in him the

youthful Krishna of Vrindavan. He himself so idealized the love of the 'gopis'

for Krishna that he sometimes yearned to be born as a woman, if he must be born

again, in order to be able to love Sri Krishna with all his heart and soul.

 

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.175-177

SkyLight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont

ISBN 1-59473-115-2

 

Notes:

 

[1] Raghuvir - A name of Rama; the family deity of Sri Ramakrishna.

 

[2] Sudra - The fourth caste in Hindu society.

 

[3] Rudraksha - Beads made from rudraksha seeds, used for rosaries.

 

[4] Ramayana - A famous Hindu epic.

 

[5] Mahabharata - A celebrated Hindu epic.

 

[6] Vrindavan - A town on the bank of the Jamuna river associated with Sri

Krishna's childhood.

 

[7] Krishna - One of the Ideal Deities of the Vaishnavas, regarded by the Hindus

as a divine incarnation.

 

[8] Radha - Sri Krishna's most intimate companion among the gopis or milkmaids

of Vindavan, playmates of Sri Krishna.

 

[9] Kirtan - Devotional music, often accompanied by dancing.