Ramakrishna Paramahansa
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Teachings
Complete surrender brings divine union
Amitava Basu, March 26, 2019: The Times of India
People worship God through practising rituals passed on from generation to generation. During prayer, people usually ask God for rewards in consideration of a promise if the reward is received. Mundane thoughts often cause distraction. Wholehearted devotion is generally lacking.
Following rituals of worship does draw attention towards God and helps to focus the mind to an extent. Sticking lifelong only to the worship rituals does not enable realisation of the true Divine. What is needed is unwavering devotion.
Devotion means faith and surrender. When prayers are chanted with total concentration on God, doors open up. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa narrated a story to his disciples to explain what devotion means. A milkmaid living on the other side of a river used to supply milk to a priest. Owing to irregular boat service, the milkmaid could not supply milk on time. She was once rebuked by the priest for being late. The milkmaid replied, “I start early from the house, but have to wait for long for the boatman for which reason I arrive late to your place.”
The priest sermonised, “There are people who cross the ocean of by uttering the name of God, and you can cross the river in a similar way.” The simple milkmaid was glad on learning this easy means of crossing the river. From the next day, she started to reach the priest’s place on time. life One day the priest asked her, “How is it that you are no longer late?” The milkmaid responded, “As you advised, I cross the river by chanting the name of the Lord and do not wait for a boat.”
The priest could not believe her. He said, “Can you show me how you cross the river?” The milkmaid took him with her and began to walk over the river reciting the name of God. Looking behind she saw the priest uttering the name of God but trying to hold his cloth to avoid getting wet by water. She asked the priest, “Don’t you have complete faith?” Concluding the story, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa told his disciples absolute faith and total surrender to God makes Him your companion. There will be no need to seek anything from Him. He will take full care and give what is needed and protect from all harm and danger. It is vital to rise from a ritual follower to the level of having resolute trust and complete surrender, like the milkmaid.
In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna told Arjuna, “Relinquishing all ideas of righteousness, surrender exclusively unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.”
To achieve this level of devoutness, the potential way is to love and serve all beings without discrimination. God resides in every being. Serving people selflessly erodes ego, quenches worldly desires, fosters devotion, and develops total trust in the Divine. Swami Vivekananda said, “One who serves humankind serves God.”
Rituals are not necessarily redundant. Practising rituals is the initial stage of cleansing the mind and is a slow, evolving process to move towards God. Over time, one needs to elevate from the kindergarten level of rituals to the ultimate stage of oneness with God through the path of selfless love and service, which leads to complete surrender to the Almighty and eventually unites with the Omnipresent, the Omnipotent, and the Omniscient.
On religion
Raghunandan Trikannad, Take The Cue From Ramakrishna’s Teachings, July 12, 2018: The Times of India
Although we human beings have evolved over millennia to create great advancements in science and technology, communication and medicine, for example, it appears as if we have not succeeded in achieving happiness and satisfaction through the very objects we have created.
Unable to communicate with fellow beings, we are trapped in the vicious circle of desire, struggle, jealousy, greed and misery. We have created walls of fear and hatred because of the psyche of separation, on the basis of certain physical or social factors like language and skin colour. By allegiance to a particular religion or “ism”, we have digressed from the very purpose of religion, which is to strengthen universal bonding and establish harmony. Faith in all these temporary things has robbed us of that eternal factor, love.
In times like this, when everything seems dark, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s teachings can serve as a beacon of light that can guide us through the darkness. His message is reflected in his own life and in the voice of Swami Vivekananda.
Religion is misunderstood to mean only dogmas, doctrines, books and rituals. And in this sense, there is more of religion today, than ever before. We have built walls of separation around ourselves. We have turned our back on the larger picture and we tend to get embroiled in narrow situations, engaging in violence and brutality. In the name of religion, we are fighting with our fellowmen rather than bonding together in positive ways.
Every religion teaches us to rise above baser nature through practice of sense control and sacrifice; to be humane by increasing the compassion and brotherhood quotients and strive to become divine by manifesting love and experiencing oneness with the whole universe. Ramakrishna practised Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and experienced a godly, super-consciousness state, whichever path he chose.
In his conversation with devotees, recorded in the ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’, he persuades us to give up lust and greed, to help us rise above our baser instincts. He would say that human-created differences such as caste, creed and religion can be removed by only one means, by love for God. Those who love God do not belong to any particular caste, creed or religion.
Swami Vivekananda, his greatest spokesman, says: “Never quarrel about religion. All quarrels and disputations concerning religion simply show that spirituality is not present. Religious quarrels are always over the husks. When purity, when spirituality goes, leaving the soul dry, quarrels begin.” Talking about spirituality, he says, “Each soul is potentially divine. The goal of life is to manifest the divinity within. Do this either through work or worship, psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all these, and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, dogmas, rituals, books, temples and forms are but secondary details.”
Ramakrishna taught these sublime truths by simple analogies, illustrating them with parables. His teachings are effective, conveying the message of harmony and love to humankind, not only because of their simplicity, but also because they came out of his personal experiences and came straight out of his divine heart. For, he taught only those truths which were practised by him, thus giving us another lesson in life, that is, the integration of thought, word and action, which is very difficult to be find these days.
When Ramakrishna Left The World
Seema Burman
The Times of India 2013/08/16
Years ago i was in a temple for Janmashtami celebrations. I asked a devotee if she knew the time of Krishna’s departure and she was aghast. “We celebrate the coming of God, not His leaving. For us He is still living with us.’’ ‘‘Then why are you celebrating Krishna’s arrival?’’ i asked impudently and she scolded me for illogical arguments. In the case of a Self-realised guru, their ashrams do observe the date of departure of the saint – not in sorrow but with happiness that he came into the world to guide them. Ramakrishna left his body during the early hours of August 16, 1886 at the Cossipore garden house.Until the very end his message was that God-realisation is the supreme goal of all living beings.
Ramakrishna taught that kaminikanchana – lust, for women and gold – were obstacles to God-realisation and many misunderstood his words. Saints who have talked about these two being obstacles have had to face immense criticism. Kamini and kanchana are dominant in one’s catalogue of desires. It comprises of hidden attractions which Tulasi said will lead to hell, on a path paved with desires, anger, attachment and greed. Thakurji cautioned women against men as the idea was to give instructions on overcoming the mind.
Ramakrishna experienced the essence of all religions and found them applicable and leading to God. His phrase, ‘jatra jiv tatra Shiv’ – where there is a living being, there is a Shiva, teaching, ‘Jive daya noy, Shiv gyane jiv seb’ – not just kindness to living beings, but serving living being as Shiva Himself – inspired Vivekananda’s work. After 25 years of waiting, the purest of disciples began coming to Ramakrishna. Sixteen spiritual souls assembled in his refuge against the blazing desires of the world. They wanted to go on pilgrimages to find God, but he explained, ‘‘What a man seeks is very near him. Still he wanders about from place to place.’’
Ramakrishna is said to have learned from many gurus, the most prominent among them being Bhairavi Brahmani who taught him 64 methods of tantra and Tota Puri who led him to nirvikalpa samadhi. In addition, by practising the teachings of Islam, Christianity, and all emotions he found the same result, the same realisation and the same bliss. He declared, ‘‘As many faiths, so many paths.’’ His sadhana shook up the entire spiritual world. Devotees of various sects and religions flocked to him to get their doubts cleared and he remained awake for as much as 20 hours a day. In daasya bhava as Hanuman, he saw Sita merging in his body, in vatsalya bhava he had a vision of baby Rama, in madhurya bhava, as gopi, his body acquired feminine traits and he experienced union with Krishna (savikalpa samadhi). In kirtan, he found Chaitanya and Nityananda as two young boys merging in his body. Right from childhood, whether it was the beauty of Nature’s white milky cranes against a thunderous black cloud, or purity of holy songs and mantras, enacting the role of Shiva in a drama, or going to Divine Mother’s temple, everything related to the Cosmos sent him into samadhi. His samadhi showed that for a true seeker, all arguments about God were useless.
Ramakrishna’s experience still bewilders seekers. True, one need not consider dates of their departure because as Thakur told Ma Sarada, ‘‘I have not passed away, I have gone from one room to another.’’
