More About Ramakrishna

By Swami Prabhananda

All the great personages of the past, who have left an indelible mark on the trail of events in the history of mankind, become a centre around which gathers, with the passage of time, a mass of legends and myths. These, more often than not, are later assumed to be facts that cannot be verified. The historicity of many of these legends begins to be questioned then, be they related to the life of a Christ, a Buddha or a Moses. Sri Ramakrishna, the latest in the line of these Great Masters, is an exception to this historical dilemma, as he appeared just a century ago. Even today researches succeed in discovering hitherto unknown truths about him, and these can be easily verified. The author of this book has brought to light some fresh findings on Sri Ramakrishna that will be extremely interesting for all his devotees and admirers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Advaita Ashrama (Ramakrishna Math)
• Release date: Jan 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9788175058835

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MORE ABOUT

RAMAKRISHNA

MORE ABOUT

RAMAKRISHNA

Swami Prabhananda

(PUBLICATION HOUSE OF RAMAKRISHNA MATH)

5 DEHI ENTALLY ROAD • KOLKATA 700 014

Published by

The Adhyaksha

Advaita Ashrama

P.O. Mayavati, Dt. Champawat

Uttarakhand - 262524, India

from its Publication Department, Kolkata

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.advaitaashrama.org

© All Rights Reserved

First Print Edition, September 1993

Second Print Edition, June 2006

First ebook Edition, July 2018

ISBN

978-81-7505-077-8 (Paperback)

978-81-7505-883-5 (ebook)

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

Who Gave the Name ‘Ramakrishna’ and When?

The Kali Temple at Dakshineswar and Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna’s Interaction with Sikhism

Sri Ramakrishna and Islam

Sri Ramakrishna’s Interaction with Christianity

A Unique Painting

Glimpses of Pages from an Account-Book

Sri Ramakrishna Cast His Whole Secret to the Winds

The Last Few Days in the Life of Sri Ramakrishna

The First Hundred Years of the Immortal Gospel

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the Life of M.

Illustrations

Sri Ramakrishna

The Genealogical Table

Rani Rasmani

The Seal used by the Rani

Radhakanta Temple at Tollygunge

The Navaratna Temple at Chitpore Road

The image of Krishna that Sri Ramakrishna repaired

Mathurmohan Biswas

Dakshineswar Temple Compound

Map of Dakshineswar Temple Complex

Kuthibari

Sri Ramakrishna’s room

Northside view of Sri Ramakrishna’s room

Guru Nanak

Guru Govind Singh

Golden Temple, Amritsar

Mollapara Mosque, Dakshineswar

Dargah at Sarati Mayapur

Geratala Mosque, Calcutta

Gazi Pir, Dakshineswar

Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus

A Portrait of Christ

Osmond Memorial Church, Calcutta

Cathedral Church, Calcutta

Holy Trinity Church, Calcutta

The Unique Painting

A page from the Account-Book

A page from the Account-Book

An early picture of the Cossipore Garden-House

Sri Ramakrishna’s Room at the Garden-House

First edition of the Kathamrita

‘M.’ (Mahendra Nath Gupta)

A page from M.’s Diary of the Kathamrita

A page from M.’s Diary of the Kathamrita

Preface to the Second Edition

Two chapters from the first edition of this book—‘Sri Ramakrishna’s Visit to East Bengal’ and ‘Early History of the Ramakrishna Sangha’—have been omitted from this edition and put in other volumes. In their place, three new chapters—(a) ‘The First Hundred Years of the Immortal Gospel’; (b) ‘Glimpses of Pages from an Account-Book’; and (c) ‘The Kali Temple at Dakshineswar and Sri Ramakrishna’—have been included. These last two chapters are translations of original Bengali articles that appeared in the Udbodhan, while the first is based on two lectures, one delivered at the Vedanta Society of Sacramento on 11 September 2002 and the other at the Vedanta Society of St. Louis on 29 September 2002. All three of these chapters, however, have appeared as separate articles in either the Pra­buddha Bharata or the Vedanta Kesari. Again, another small change made in this edition is that the chapters have been slightly rearranged to make the total presentation more meaningful.

May 2006

Preface to the First Edition

Throughout history man’s search for the meaning of his existence has resulted in the revelation of God in various forms and aspects. In different social contexts these revelations inspired the formation of countless religions, including such major ones as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.

The diversity of religious beliefs thus created engendered exclusiveness, dogmatism, and fanaticism, all of which predictably led to distrust and dissension, indeed, at times, wars and genocide among advocates of the various faiths. This ongoing battle of religions has, in every age, driven various individuals to the rejection of all religious thought.

Repulsed by the seeming irreconcilability of various religions, and critical of the narrow orthodoxy of their own traditional faith, the intelligentsia of Calcutta, the capital of British India in the late 19th century, became steeped in materialism, scepticism, and atheism. Upon this scene entered Sri Ramakrishna, and the sceptics could only stand and observe in awe this living evidence of the perfection religious practice can produce.

The God-seekers found him a being of superhuman insight, travelling each different path, upholding the value and sanctity of each tradition, and verifying the same God in each religion. He declared that God reveals himself to seekers in various forms and aspects, and that every path, followed sincerely, will lead the practitioners of all religions to the same one God. He concluded, saying, ‘As many faiths, so many paths.’

Rabindranath Tagore, paying tribute to this unique contribution of Sri Ramakrishna, wrote, ‘The manifold revelation of the joy infinite has given form to a shrine of unity in your life.’

Men and women from far and near, irrespective of colour or creed, today stream to the ‘shrine of unity’ to pay obeisance and to comprehend the truth of ‘unity in diversity’ as elucidated by Sri Ramakrishna, and to derive inspiration and guidance for living in this present strife-torn society.

Endowed with the enlightenment gained through the intense practice of numerous and divergent religions, Sri Ramakrishna, like the police sergeant patrolling the city at midnight, goes his rounds in the dark night of materialism and excess, carrying a lantern in his hand. He is able to see everybody’s face, and he can light the faces of the citizens so that they can see one another. But none can see his face nor truly fathom the depth of his experience unless he turns the light upon himself. When a devotee sincerely prays to him, he compassionately reveals himself. Thus the heretofore unpublished information and little known facts in this book have been revealed.

The chapters of this book were originally published in Prabuddha Bharata and Vedanta Kesari, two English-language journals of the Ramakrishna Order, over a period of years as independent articles. They have been brought together in this book form to facilitate wider circulation. Some repetition has been retained in order to develop the continuity and progression of the text.

The author owes a deep debt of gratitude to the senior Swamis of the Order for their unfailing inspiration and encouragement. He is also very grateful to the many devotees, friends, and co-workers who have helped in the collection of materials, taking of photographs, and editing and typing of the manuscript.

September 1993

Who Gave the Name ‘Ramakrishna’ and When?

AS THE CUCKOO heralded the advent of spring into the village of Kamarpukur, in the district of Hooghly, the grove around the house of Kshudiram Chattopa­dhyay reverberated with the notes. The first few cuckoos drew calls from the village boys and it soon became a sporadic riot of songs. In this idyllic setting, shortly before dawn on 18 February 1836, the blowing of conch shells announced the birth of the third son of Kshudiram. Remindful of his vision of Vishnu in Gaya, (*) Kshudiram most often referred to this son as ‘Gadadhar’, or simply, and affectionately, ‘Gadai’. However, it is evident that the child’s authentically given name was ‘Ramakrishna’, the name by which the world would come to know him.

Now he is known worldwide by the name of ‘Rama­krishna’, and is worshipped by millions as an Incarnation of God. But during his lifetime, even though his spiritual attainments were already widely recognized, he was better known by a different title. It seems strange to us today, but there was nothing strange about it, for Sri Ramakrishna, the man, was utterly unconcerned with name and fame. No doubt, any surmise that he might have later taken for himself the name Ramakrishna is preposterous. It may not be out of place to mention here one incident. One day, when asked by Girish Chandra Ghosh, ‘Who are you, sir?’, Sri Ramakishna, in an ecstatic mood, replied, ‘Some say I am Ramprasad, some others say Raja Ramakrishna. I stay here at Dakshineswar’. Saint Ramprasad and Raja Ramakrishna are historical characters, but Sri Ramakrishna’s fame far outshines theirs.

Sri Ramakrishna was introduced to the educated public of Calcutta in 1875 by the great Brahmo leader, Keshab Chandra Sen. The Indian Mirror in its issue dated 28 March 1875, announced the first meeting of the Brahmo leader with the saint of Dakshineswar. The Mirror published a report on 20 February 1876, mentioning ‘Ramakrishna, a Hindu devotee known as a Paramhamsa . . .’ Similarly, the popular Brahmo journals Dharmatattwa and Sulabh Samachar introduced him as ‘Ramakrishna Paramhamsa’ or ‘Paramhamsa Ramakrishna’. But towards the latter part of his life and in subsequent years he was called simply ‘Paramhamsa’ or ‘Paramhamsa of Dakshineswar’ by the Dharma­­tattwa, Vedabyasa, Sakha, the Theistic Quarterly Review, etc. Just by way of illustration we refer to the Indian Mirror dated 21 August 1886, wherein it was announced, ‘Ramakrishna Bhattacharji, better known in the Hindu community as Paramhamsa of Dakshineswar. . . .’ The Dharmatattwa in its issue of 16 September 1886, declared, ‘Mother-worship of God has been transmitted to Brahmo Samaj from the life of Paramhamsa’. ‘Paramhamsa had the unique power of seeing through men’. ‘Paramhamsa was fond of eating jilapi’, etc. Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, too, in the October-December number of the Theistic Quarterly Review wrote, ‘Each form of worship . . . is to the Paramhamsa a living and most enthusiastic principle of personal religion.’

As was his wont, Sri Ramakrishna could not appreciate such publicity about him. He gave vent to his feelings when he said to Keshab Chandra one day: ‘Why do you write about me in your paper? You cannot make a man great by writing about him in books and magazines. If God makes a man great, then everybody knows about him even though he lives in a forest. When flowers bloom in the deep woods, the bees find them, but the flies do not. . . . I don’t want name and fame. May I always remain the humblest and the lowliest of the lowly!’ (1) Needless to mention that neither Keshab Chandra nor his followers paid heed to Sri Ramakrishna’s counsel.

In The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna one comes across the frequent use of ‘Paramhamsa’ by Sri Ramakrishna’s acquaintances. Keshab Chandra addressed him as ‘Paramhamsamasay’, Gauri Pundit of Indes was fond of addressing him as ‘Paramhamsababu’, and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar called him ‘Paramhamsa’. Some, out of deep reverence, used to call him ‘Paramhamsadeva’. In fact, Sri Ramakrishna during his lifetime and even sometimes after his passing away was popularly referred to as ‘Paramhamsa of Dakshineswar’, or ‘Paramhamsamasay’, or simply ‘Paramhamsa’ by his intimate disciples. Even in the early writings of Swami Vivekananda, we find more often than not the use of ‘Paramhamsa’. To cite two examples, he wrote in a letter dated 30 November 1894, ‘The writer perhaps thought . . . and keeping the very language of Paramhasma;. . .’ (2) he wrote on 27 April 1896; ‘. . . if anyone accepts Paramhamsa Deva as Avatara etc., it is all right; . . . in point of character, Paramhamsa Deva beats all previous record.’ (3) Other direct disciples too, in the early days of the Sangha, used the word ‘Paramhamsamasay’ to denote their Master, and it was later substituted by ‘Thakur’, ‘Sri Thakur’, ‘Srijee’, etc. Most of the early biographers, too, used the word ‘Paramhamsadeva’ to signify Sri Ramakrishna. Even the Master’s ‘Boswell’, M., (†) in his diary used to write ‘Paramhamsa’ or simply ‘P’ to indicate Sri Ramakrishna, and in his early writings also the word ‘Paramhamsa’ occurred frequently. Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar, too, used to write in his diary ‘Paramhamsa’ to signify Sri Ramakrishna. Ashwini Kumar Dutta in his letter addressed to M. wrote, ‘I arrived at Dakshineswar in a country boat and . . . asked someone where the Paramhamsa was.’ Similarly, in his letter addressed to Max Muller, Pratap Chandra Mazumdar wrote in September 1895, ‘Each form of worship which we have tried to indicate above is to the Paramhamsa a living and most enthusiastic principle of personal religion.’

It is, however, not difficult to trace the origin of the use of ‘Paramhamsa’ to identify Sri Ramakrishna. The Tattwamanjari, in its August-September 1886 issue, wrote: ‘The visiting ascetics used to address Ramakrishna as Paramhamsa and it is presumed that Totapuri gave him this title. Also, during his training in other disciplines of spiritual practices he got different titles representing respective sects, but he kept them secret from others and did not disclose. . . .’ Circumstantial evidence too suggests that after Totapuri’s visit to Dakshineswar in 1864-65, the name ‘Paramhamsa’, though in early days sparsely used by visiting ascetics, became quite popular. Earlier still, he had come to be known as ‘Mad Brahmin’, ‘Young Brahmin’, ‘Bhatta­charyya, the young’, etc. In this connection it may be pertinent to record that his nickname ‘Gadadhar’ remained practically unknown at Dakshineswar.

The question naturally arises when and how the ‘Paramhamsa of Dakshineswar’ came to be known as ‘Ramakrishna’. The answer is apparently shrouded in mystery. Nonetheless, it may be noted that during his lifetime and soon thereafter, he was sometimes mentioned in some journals as ‘Ramakrishna’ or ‘Ramkrishna’. Wide use of this name, however, could first be noted in the writings of Max Muller, C.H. Tawney, William Digby, and few others; and also in the later issues of the Indian Mirror.

Now, who gave him the name ‘Ramakrishna’, and was it done on any special occasion? There are a number of distinctive views on this, prominent among them being the following:

(a) Ram Chandra Dutta, in his book Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsadever Jivanvrittanta [Bengali] (p. 2-3), published in 1890, wrote: ‘In his childhood Paramhamsadeva was lean and thin. . . . Everybody used to call him Gadai, but his true name was Ramakrishna. . . . Gangavishnu’s mother used to address him as Gadhadhar.’

(b) Swami Saradananda, in his famous biography, Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master, wrote: ‘He (Kshudiram) then performed the birth-ceremony and named the boy Shambhuchandra, after the sign of the zodiac under which he was born; but in memory of his remarkable dream, he decided to call him Gadadhar, by which name he was afterwards known.’ (4) However, in a later portion of the volume he observed: ‘One can understand how he attained Jatismarattva, as a result of which he had the immediate knowledge that the One, who had manifested Himself as Rama and Krishna in past ages and did good to humanity, had again assumed a body and manifested Himself in the present age as Ramakrishna.’ (5) In this rather mystical interpretation, the author seems to suggest that the name ‘Ramakrishna’ was practically a divine revelation to him. But in footnote to page 289 of the same volume, the author has written, ‘Some among us say that Totapuri gave the name Ramakrishna to the Master when he initiated him into sannyasa. Others say that Mathurmohan, who was a great devotee of the Master and served him wholeheartedly, called him first by that name. The first opinion seems to us to be reasonable.’

(c) Another biographer, Sister Devamata, in her book Sri Ramakrishna and His Disciples, claimed that it was Totapuri who first gave Gadadhar the name ‘Ramakrishna’ (p. 43). Her source was evidently Swami Ramakrishnananda.

(d) On the other hand, another biographer, Vaikuntha­nath Sannyal, in his book Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilamrita [Bengali] (p. 63) contradicted Devamata’s view saying that staunch Advaitin that he was, Totapuri did not bother about the change of name of his disciple. The author claimed that it was Mathurmohan who had bestowed on him the name ‘Ramakrishna’.

(e) Akshay Kumar Sen, however, in his magnum opus Sri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi [Bengali] (p. 7) simply mentioned that the name ‘Ramakrishna’ was given to him by his guru. (‡) Naturally, the question arises: Who among his gurus—Kenaram Bhattacharya, Bhairavi Brahmani, Totapuri, or some other guru—awarded this world famous name to the Saint of Dakshineswar?

(f) A significant and divergent view has been held by Priyanath Sinha, also known as Gurudas Burman, in his book entitled Sri Sri Ramakrishna Charit (Bengali), which relied for its information on Hridayram’s reminiscences as recorded by the monks of the Baranagore Math in an exercise book. Here the author observed: ‘The boy was named Ramakrishna. But Kshudiram, remembering his dream, loved to call him Gadadhar or Gadai, and others too followed suit.’ (Part I, p. 10). But, curiously enough, Hridayram has been held responsible for the claim that Totapuri or Mathurmohan had conferred on Gadadhar the name ‘Ramakrishna’.

(g) Another biographer, Dr. Sashibhushan Ghosh, moved a step forward and threw a new light on the subject. Sashibhushan, who met Sri Ramakrishna in his youth, was very friendly with the direct disciples and was appointed an under-secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Association, when it was formed in May 1897. He writes: ‘The boy was named Gadadhar by his father for some special reasons. His relations as well as the villagers used to address him as Gadadhar. That the name Sri Ramakrishna was in keeping with the family’s tradition will be evident from the genealogical chart of the family. Swami Saradananda wrote that Shambhuchandra was his name after the sign of the zodiac. But the horoscopes prepared by Ambika Acharya and Narayan Jyotirbhushan suggested the name Shambhuram after the sign of the zodiac. . . . As he was born under a sign of the zodiac of Kumbha lunar constellation, the boy was to be christened with a name having either ga or sa as its first letter, claimed the astrologers. Therefore his name according to the sign of zodiac could have been either Shambhuram or Gadadhar. The name Gadadhar, which was given by Kshudiram for some special reason, was also supported by the astrologers. But there is no proof that Kshudiram gave him either the name Shambhuram or Shambhuchandra.’ (6) Based on the genealogical chart, the author however held the view that the boy got the name ‘Ramakrishna’ in keeping with the tradition of the family.

Whatever be the claims of the different authors, it remains a fact that Shambhuram or Shambhuchandra, the name prescribed by the astrologers, was never in use, whereas the name ‘Gadadhar’, supported both by Kshudiram’s vision at Gaya and the calculation of astrologers, was in use all through.

Brahmachari Akshaychaitanya in his book Thakur Sri Ramakrishna [Bengali] (p. 17) has put forward another mystical hypothesis. According to him, the Master’s statement ‘He who was Rama and Krishna is now Ramakrishna’ reveals his true nature as well as his name. By His divine will this was revealed in the heart of the boy’s Rishi-like father, Kshudiram. Thus the author hints that Sri Ramakrishna himself initiated the idea and subsequently Kshudiram by the divine will gave his child the name.

Over and above these, Swami Kalikrishnananda Giri, in his book Sri Ramakrishner Sri Guru Bhairavi Yogeshwari (Bengali), has put forth the claim that the name ‘Ramakrishna’ was given to him at the time of his initiation into tantrik disciplines by Bhairavi Yogeshwari. To establish his claim the Swami suggested that in addition to other points Bhairavi Yogeshwari came to Dakshineswar first in 1855 or 1856 when Rasmani was alive (p. 59), but he has failed to present any dependable testimony in support of this novel suggestion. Also, no authoritative biographer of Sri Ramakrishna agrees with the viewpoint of Swami Kalikrishnananda Giri, and we, therefore, cannot entertain his viewpoint. Hence, Bhairavi Brahmani cannot be given the honour of having conferred on the Master the name ‘Ramakrishna’.

Many a biographer of Sri Ramakrishna has been caught betwixt and between the claims made in favour of Totapuri and Mathurmohan. How are we to resolve the dilemma of these two claims, made more complicated by being buffeted by the claim of Swami Kalikrishnananda? M. wrote a short biography of Sri Ramakrishna, (7) and mentioned that Bhairavi Brahmani and Totapuri came to Dakshineswar in 1859 and 1866 respectively, whereas Swami Saradananda mentions in Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master the corresponding years as 1860-61 and 1864-65 respectively. From the Deed of Endowment executed by Rani Rasmani on 18 February, 1861, it is learnt that Ramakrishna Bhatta-charya, a priest in the temple of Radhakantaji, was, in 1858, granted a monthly salary of Rs. 5 and some perquisites. This document proves beyond doubt that Paramhamsadeva was known as ‘Ramakrishna’ before the arrival at Dakshineswar of either Bhairavi Brahmani or Totapuri. As regards the claim made by the Life of Sri Ramakrishna published by Advaita Ashrama (p. 44, footnote) to the effect that Mathurmohan gave the name ‘Ramakrishna’, we should consider one important fact. The author of the Great Master writes that Mathurmohan got a firm conviction ‘that the Master was surely not an ordinary man; that the Master . . . was no other than the Mother of the universe Herself who, out of compassion for him, was residing in his body. It was from this time on that he believed that the One present in the stone image in the temple had perhaps assumed a body and was accompanying him wherever he went as it was written in the horoscope.’ (8) And this conviction grew in him only after he had a vision of Shiva and Shakti at the same time in the body of the Master. This happened sometime in 1860-61. (9) Further, the document, earlier referred to, mentioning ‘Ramakrishna Bhattacharya’ in 1858 annuls the claim that the name was given by Mathurmohan. We can therefore safely conclude that none of the three persons—Bhairavi Brahmani, Totapuri, or Mathurmohan—could be given the credit of conferring on ‘Paramhamsadeva’ the name ‘Ramakrishna’.

Genealogical Table

On the other hand, there is an evidence which proves beyond doubt that the name ‘Ramakrishna’ was given to him by his father Kshudiram. First, the members of the family were traditionally devoted to Sri Rama and were worshippers of Sri Rama. Once Sri Ramakrishna himself said, ‘My father was a worshipper of Rama. I, too, adopted the mantra of Sri Rama.’ (10) And for this very reason the names of most of the male members of this family were either affixed or prefixed by ‘Rama’. [See the Genealogical Table.] It was in the fitness of things that Gadadhar too got a name prefixed by ‘Rama’.

Second, one may raise his eyebrows when one finds several of the Master’s manuscripts like Subahur