Sri Ramakrishna’s Extraordinary Personality

Sri Ramakrishna’s Extraordinary Personality

Swami Saradananda

The Master once told us that the aspirant ultimately attains non-dual knowledge by realizing his identity with the object of his worship, whether he enters the path of devotion or knowledge. As a proof of this, statements of the Master are quoted: “Pure devotion and pure knowledge are the same.” “There (in the ultimate state) all jackals howl alike (all knowers of God speak of the same realization).”  So, although he believed that non-dual knowledge was the Ultimate Truth, he always instructed people living in the world about the teachings of qualified non-dualism (which teaches that all beings and matter are part of Brahman), and also how to love God in a dualistic way. He was disgusted with those people who did not have high spiritual experience or intense love for God and yet maintained with high-sounding words the philosophies of non-dualism and qualified non-dualism. He did not hesitate to condemn such behavior with harsh words. One day the Master asked our friend Vaikuntha Nath Sanyal if he was the Panchadasi and the like books. When he received a negative answer, the Master said with relief, “It’s a good thing you didn’t do it. Some boys read those books, come here, giving themselves relief. They don’t practice anything. They simply come to argue.

It’s a torment for me.”

We did not go to Sri Ramakrishna as devotees. I had joined the Brahmo Samaj and had an atheist attitude and little faith. We did not gather around the Master to create an avatar of him. Gradually we had to recognize his divinity. When we discovered that the Master knew more about us than we knew about ourselves, and that his words came true, we had no choice but to accept him.

One day the Master was sitting in the Panchavati grove when the Divine Mother Durga walked towards him on the Ganges and merged into his body. The Master later said to Hriday: “Mother Durga came, look Her footprints are still visible in the dust.

Sri Ramakrishna experienced the sound of Om that resonated throughout the world. He heard the mystical sound of Om in the song of the birds, the gentle flow of the river and the waves of the ocean. This sound of Brahman is constantly moving like a wave through every place and every sound.

Sri Ramakrishna had a strong, healthy body. Otherwise he would not have been able to practice so many sadhana (spiritual disciplines). He had no regularity in his eating and sleeping. Normally the Master could eat half a pound of rice, but when he was in ecstasy, he sometimes ate a large amount of food, and had no problem digesting it. His body was very delicate and soft. He wore slippers because he couldn’t walk barefoot.

Once during the Master’s samadhi, a doctor placed a stethoscope on his chest but could not find a heartbeat. On another occasion a doctor touched the Master’s eyeball with his finger to check whether his eyelid would blink, and he was convinced that no life could be seen in his body.

Sri Ramakrishna had immense power to transmit and awaken spirituality in the minds of others.

When someone with an occult or supernatural power came near the Master, the Master absorbed the power and the visitor lost it. In fact, occult forces are terrible obstacles to God-realization. Thus, holy association with the Master would remove the obstacle to spiritual growth of the person endowed with such power.

Those who have lived with holy people know how they constantly talk about God, even when they are besieged with dangers and adversities.

We witnessed this in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. He was then suffering from terminal cancer and he lived without food for almost six months. But the people around him experienced a rush of bliss. During this critical time of his life, he gave secret instructions in sadhana to his disciples, answered their vital queries and spread uninterrupted bliss from God. We saw no sign of pain or suffering in him.

[Selected from Ramakrishna as We Saw Him and presented by Mary Saaleman]

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