Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa - Short Biography

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Sri Ramakrishna was born on 18 February 1836 in the village of Kamarpukur

about sixty miles northwest of Kolkata. His parents, Kshudiram

Chattopadhyaya and Chandramani Devi, were poor but very pious and virtuous.

As a child, Ramakrishna (his childhood name was Gadadhar) was dearly loved

by the villagers. From early days, he was disinclined towards formal

education and worldly affairs. He was, however, a talented boy, and could

sing and paint well. He was fond of serving holy men and listening to their

discourses. He was also very often found to be absorbed in spiritual moods.

At the age of six, he experienced the first ecstasy while watching a flight

of white cranes moving against the background of black clouds. This tendency

to enter into ecstasy intensified with age. His father’s death when he was

seven years old served only to deepen his introspection and increase his

detachment from the world.

 

As a Priest at Dakshineswar Temple

 

When Sri Ramakrishna was sixteen, his brother Ramkumar took him to Kolkata

to assist him in his priestly profession. In 1855 the Kali Temple at

Dakshineswar built by Rani Rasmani was consecrated and Ramkumar became the

chief priest in that temple. When he died a few months later, Ramakrishna

was appointed the priest. Ramakrishna developed intense devotion to Mother

Kali and spent hours in loving adoration of her image, forgetting the

rituals of priestly duties. His intense longing culminated in the vision of

Mother Kali as boundless effulgence engulfing everything around him.

 

Intense Spiritual Practices

 

Sri Ramakrishna’s God-intoxicated state alarmed his relatives in Kamarpukur

and they got him married to Saradamani, a girl from the neighbouring village

of Jayrambati. Unaffected by the marriage, Sri Ramakrishna plunged into even

more intense spiritual practices. Impelled by a strong inner urge to

experience different aspects of God he followed, with the help of a series

of Gurus, the various paths described in the Hindu scriptures, and realized

God through each of them. The first teacher to appear at Dakshineswar (in

1861) was a remarkable woman known as Bhairavi Brahmani who was an advanced

spiritual adept, well versed in scriptures. With her help Sri Ramakrishna

practised various difficult disciplines of the Tantrik path, and attained

success in all of them. Three years later came a wandering monk by name

Totapuri, under whose guidance Sri Ramakrishna attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi,

the highest spiritual experience mentioned in the Hindu scriptures. He

remained in that state of non-dual existence for six months without the

least awareness of even his own body. In this way, Sri Ramakrishna relived

the entire range of spiritual experiences of more than three thousand years

of Hindu religion.

 

Following Other Faiths

 

With his unquenchable thirst for God, Sri Ramakrishna broke the frontiers of

Hinduism, glided through the paths of Islam and Christianity, and attained

the highest realization through each of them in a short span of time. He

looked upon Jesus and Buddha as incarnations of God, and venerated the ten

Sikh Gurus. He expressed the quintessence of his twelve-year-long spiritual

realizations in a simple dictum: Yato mat, tato path “As many faiths, so

many paths.” He now habitually lived in an exalted state of consciousness in

which he saw God in all beings.

 

Worshipping His Wife

 

In 1872, his wife Sarada, now nineteen years old, came from the village to

meet him. He received her cordially, and taught her how to attend to

household duties and at the same time lead an intensely spiritual life. One

night he worshipped her as the Divine Mother in his room at the Dakshineswar

temple. Although Sarada continued to stay with him, they lived immaculately

pure lives, and their marital relationship was purely spiritual. It should

be mentioned here that Sri Ramakrishna had been ordained a Sannyasin (Hindu

monk), and he observed the basic vows of a monk to perfection. But outwardly

he lived like a lay man, humble, loving and with childlike simplicity.

During Sri Ramakrishna’s stay at Dakshineswar, Rani Rasmani first acted as

his patron. After her death, her son-in-law Mathur Nath Biswas took care of

his needs.

 

Contact with Some Notables

 

Sri Ramakrishna’s name as an illumined saint began to spread. Mathur once

convened an assembly of scholars, and they declared him to be not an

ordinary human being but the Avatar of the Modern Age. In those days the

socio-religious movement known as Brahmo Samaj, founded by Raja Ram Mohan

Roy, was at the height of popularity in Bengal. Sri Ramakrishna came into

contact with several leaders and members of Brahmo Samaj and exerted much

influence on them. His teaching on harmony of religions attracted people

belonging to different denominations, and Dakshineswar became a veritable

Parliament of Religions.

 

Coming of the Devotees

 

As bees swarm around a fully blossomed flower, devotees now started coming

to Sri Ramakrishna. He divided them into two categories. The first one

consisted of householders. He taught them how to realize God while living in

the world and discharging their family duties. The other more important

category was a band of educated youths, mostly from the middle class

families of Bengal, whom he trained to become monks and to be the

torchbearers of his message to mankind. The foremost among them was

Narendranath, who years later, as Swami Vivekananda, carried the universal

message of Vedanta to different parts of the world, revitalized Hinduism,

and awakened the soul of India.

 

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

 

Sri Ramakrishna did not write any book, nor did he deliver public lectures.

Instead, he chose to speak in a simple language using parables and metaphors

by way of illustration, drawn from the observation of nature and ordinary

things of daily use. His conversations were charming and attracted the

cultural elite of Bengal. These conversations were noted down by his

disciple Mahendranath Gupta who published them in the form of a book, Sri

Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita in Bengali. Its English rendering, The Gospel of

Sri Ramakrishna, was released in 1942; it continues to be increasingly

popular to this day on account of its universal appeal and relevance.

 

Last Days

 

The intensity of his spiritual life and untiring spiritual ministration to

the endless stream of seekers told on Sri Ramakrishna's health. He developed

cancer of the throat in 1885. He was shifted to a spacious suburban villa

where his young disciples nursed him day and night. He instilled in them

love for one another, and thus laid the foundation for the future monastic

brotherhood known as Ramakrishna Math. In the small hours of 16 August 1886

Sri Ramakrishna gave up his physical body, uttering the name of the Divine

Mother, and passed into Eternity.

 

Source: http://www.belurmath.org/sriramakrishna.htm#Chronology

 

--

Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram