My Guru, Sri Ramakrishna, the Master
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I spent my childhood off Ramakrishna Beach in Vizag.
The first major painting of my life was of the Master. Sri Nemani Krishnamurthy గారు helped me paint it.
The Master entered my life through The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, which i bought at the Mylapore Math the evening of March 14, 1992. Thought that the date/time was fitting: 3.14 (.1992.6:54), the most famous irrational number.
In the Gospel, i found that there was no limit to the love of the Master. His cheerfulness, His humor, and His harmony (any day better than tolerance) drew Him to me in no uncertain manner. After 20+ years, the Gospel is as fresh as ever.
It's not at all surprising that the Gospel is listed in 100 Best Spiritual Books of the 20th Century.
Audio Snippets
Audio snippets (each less than 2 minutes) from various books on the Master (please see below) are available on gDrive here. If you can't navigate down folders, please use Private Browsing on your browser.
Many thanks to WhatsApp the Wonder App, which makes it so easy to create and share them. More on that here.
Books
Here are some books on the Master: (please click the images to see more details in a new tab/window)
Here are some snippets from these books.
Chapter &
Pages (Location)
21-22
39-40
101 (middle)
282 (top)
436 (middle)
470 (bottom)
…
… (…)
Snippet
He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anāhata Śabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight supernatural powers of Yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of the divine Māyā, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging from the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
During this period Sri Ramakrishna suffered several bereavements. The first was the death of a nephew named, Akshay. After the young man's death Sri Ramakrishna said: "Akshay died before my very eyes. But it did not affect me in the least. I stood by and watched a man die. It was like a sword being drawn from its scabbard. I enjoyed the scene, and laughed and sang and danced over it. They removed the body and cremated it. But the next day as I stood there (pointing to the southeast verandah of his room), I felt a racking pain for the loss of Akshay, as if somebody were squeezing my heart like a wet towel. I wondered at it and thought that the Mother was teaching me a lesson. I was not much concerned even with my own body - much less with a relative. But if such was my pain at the loss of a nephew, how much more must be the grief of the householders at the loss of their near and dear ones!"
MASTER: "Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge."
"Another day I saw rice, vegetables, and other food-stuff, and filth and dirt as well, lying around. Suddenly the soul came out of my body and, like a flame, touched everything. It was like a protruding tongue of fire and tasted everything once, even the excreta. It was revealed to me that all these are one Substance, the non-dual and indivisible Consciousness."
HARI: "Why is there so much suffering in the world?"
MASTER: "This world is the lila of God. It is like a game. In this game there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. The game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation."
…
HARI: "But this play of God is our death."
MASTER (smiling): "Please tell me who you are. God alone has become all this — maya, the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles. 'As the snake I bite, and as the charmer I cure.' It is God Himself who has become both vidya and avidya. He remains deluded by the maya of avidya, ignorance. Again, with the help of the guru, He is cured by the maya of vidya, Knowledge."
The Master makes a nice subtle joke on Himself:
PUNDIT (to Hazra): "You live in his company day and night. You must be very happy."
MASTER (with a smile): "This is indeed a great occasion for me. Today I have seen the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight. (All laugh.) Do you know why I referred to the moon of the second day? Sita once said to Ravana, 'You are the full moon and Rama is the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight.' Ravana did not understand the meaning of these words. He thought Sita was flattering him and became exceedingly happy. But Sita meant that Ravana had reached the fullest limit of his power and prosperity, and that thenceforth he would wane like the full moon. Rama, on the other hand, was like the moon of the second day. He would wax day by day."
many more to be added
…
Chapter &
Pages (Location)
Cooking for the Master
20 (middle)
The Photographs of Sri Ramakrishna
465 (middle)
Snippet
Holy Mother narrates:
One day the Master and Hriday [Ramakrishna's nephew] were eating together. Lakshmi's mother and I would cook at Kamarpukur. She was an excellent cook. The Master tasted something she had prepared and remarked, "Hridu, the person who cooked this is a specialist." Then he ate something that I had cooked and said, "And this one is a quack." At this Hriday replied, "True, but the quack is at hand and you have only to call her, whereas the specialist is very expensive and not always available. The quack is at your beck and call at all times." The Master said, "Quite right. She is always there."
"Devotion to God may be said to be 'green' so long as it doesn't grow into love of God; but it becomes 'ripe' when it has grown into such love.
"A man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but one with 'ripe' bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate covered with black film is retained. On the other hand, thousands of images may be reflected on a bare piece of glass, but not one of them is retained. As the object moves away, the glass becomes the same as it was before. One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction unless one has already developed love of God."
By The New Astrology of the High Priestess, Suzanne White, Sri Ramakrishna born on Thursday, February 18, 1836 is an Aquarius Monkey. Check out some predictions for Aquarius / Monkey, The Major Player. You'd think she had written them for the Master:
A person of exceptional breadth and depth arises from the union of Aquarius and Monkey. The natural detachment of Aquarius assists the Monkey in forging his destiny without cumbersome sentiment or extraneous emotion. Monkey gives the visionary Aquarian a sound sense of fact and helps him to deal with the present. The combination is harmonious and promising.
He or she will be aggressively verbal. Words are the vehicle of this clear-thinking soul. Also, an air of revolution, or at least a sensitivity to social change or breakthrough, colors every Aquarius/Monkey creation. He or she may choose to exercise power over others, but if so, the goal is never power for itself. Rather, the Aquarius/Monkey seeks to lead or advise, judge and guide his fellows towards a more perfect world where truth gets more air time than falsehood.
The basic methods of the Aquarius/Monkey have to do with zeroing in on human behavior, be it fictional or real, and synthesizing events into a digestible form. The ideal is verisimilitude. The plan is to so cleverly reflect real life by means of a unique personal vision that finally teaches human beings about themselves. History, literature, the law, journalism, and cinema are all possible vehicles for this person's huge talent.
The Aquarian's natural clarity and the Monkey's brilliance join hands in this sign. They are strong, hard-working people who long to achieve the unlikely, and often do. Too, they are versatile. An Aquarius/Monkey poet doesn't necessarily only write poetry. He or she may also design skyscrapers or own an elephant farm in Africa. The Aquarius/Monkey is most of all a doer. He cares more for his work and the advancement of the human race than he does for material wealth or celebrity. As long as the Aquarius/Monkey is professionally active, he is content.
This character is, moreover, zealous. In some signs dedication can take on fanatical proportions. But not here. the Aquarius/Monkey is a cool customer. If he is zealous, it is because he wants to get more done than is humanly possible in a normal eight-hour workday. So the Monkey born in Aquarius frequently works a twelve-hour day. "He's killing himself", clucks his mother-in-law. "She'll die young at this rate", worries the anxious boyfriend. "But", thinks the wiry Aquarius/Monkey, "so what? At least I have contributed my view, set down my picture of the world." Accomplishment, for the Aquarian Monkey, is what life is all about.
This native is born into the perpetual state of being out on a limb. He or she takes chances. These people are not in the least afraid to dream up or plan great deeds. They are essentially self-confident and have great personal integrity. Aquarius/Monkeys are wise and gifted. What's more, they are noble people, whose dignity impresses friend and enemy alike. They are clever tacticians and always prefer to make a deal rather than to confront an adversary head-on in a lawsuit or duel.
...
© Suzanne White 1986-2013. All rights reserved.
দেহ রাখছেন ঠাকুর রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহৡস দেব (deh rakhchen thAkur rAmkrishna paramahansa deb)
The Master and His Disciples at His Mahasamadhi on Monday, August 16, 1886
Though i have seen the top portion of this photo many times, the part with the Master has always been excised / removed from it. By the time of his Mahasamadhi, He was nothing more than a bag of bones.
Kali, the Old Mother, is inexorable. Seeing the cancer ravage His body, one of the disciples attending on Him remarked: "If this is not crucifixion, I don't know what is"!
From SRI RAMAKRISHNA, By Swami Nikhilananda:
| Swami Vivekananda begged him to pray to God for the cure of his ailment. Such a prayer for his own physical body was an impossibility for Sri Ramakrishna. But at the earnest importunity of his disciple, he relaxed. After a while he said to Swami Vivekananda, "Yes, at your request I prayed to the Mother, '0 Mother, on account of pain I cannot eat anything through this mouth. Please relieve my pain if it be Thy pleasure.' She showed you all to me and said, 'Why, are you not eating through all these mouths?' This is a demonstration of how the realization of God frees the soul from the limitations of the body.
From The Gospel of the Holy Mother:
| Another occurrence was her experience at Tarakeswar Siva Temple where she had gone to pray and seek Divine remedy for the Master's illness, which had been declared incurable by medical men. For two days she lay before the Deity without food or drink, supplicating for some remedy. During the night of the second day she was startled to hear a sound resembling the breaking of a pile of earthen pots at one blow. She woke up from her torpor, and the idea flashed in her mind: <b>"Who is husband and who is wife? Who is my relative in this world? Why am I about to kill myself?"</b> Freed from all personal attachments, her mind was full of an intense spirit of renunciation. She had another vision in which she saw that the image of Mother Kali was bent to one side. When she asked the Deity, "Mother, why do you stand like that?" she got the reply, "It is because of this (pointing to the Master's diseased throat). I also have it in my throat" All such experiences prepared her mind for the exit of the Master from his earthly sojourn, which took place on the 16th August, 1886.