It was dusk turning to night. In the streets of Srirangam some boys were in heated discussion on sundry topics. Suddenly some feud cropped up between the two of them. One was myself and the other was one boy, a little older than myself. The topic was 'Can one see God?'
My opponent was vehement that one cannot. I was categorical that such a thing was really possible. Have I not read in an old text book of 1941, my father's high school reader, in an essay on Sri Ramakrishna, the golden saying of Sri R that if a person sincerely weeps for God for three days, surely he will see God? What more certainty one needs? And what this boy is saying it cannot be? I became an intense advocate for Sri Ramakrishna's words and the issue went to an old lady, grandma of one of our friends. She heard him out first. And again I was stating my case and presenting references from that old high school reader and the assurance of the Sage of Dakshineswar. What she thought escapes me even now. But she pronounced me as the victor and hastily went into her quarters. From that moment, knowingly unknown to me, I was slowly being won over by 'Ramkishto'.
In the following years I was buying little books of him, Vivekananda and others. And in my ninth standard, I had already started one 'Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Sangam' gathering my little associates and juniors, conducting regular evening congregations of us, small boys only, much to the dismay of un-understanding elders and street-folks. Of course the venture was short lived. But my 'sangam' with Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Holy Mother and Sister Nivedita was growing day by day in the company of a new friend Dilip. Why I have chosen this photo with this angle of space before Sesharayar mandapam is for the reason, that exactly in the sands shown I was having a very deep thought on Sri Ramakrishna's message when I was returning from the Ranga Vilas shop after buying small booklets of Advaita Ashrama and Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam. That was when I was doing my 8th standard. Half trouser maharaja ! It has been a continuing education all through down this time and I am still lingering with my inexpert engagement with their spiritual message. And why not?
Imagine you are going to a remote village. There you come across one innocent person, whom even the locals treat as a simpleton. What will be your reaction towards him and his gestures and expressions. He will appear totally queer and you will look at him with all sympathy, because you have heard that he is quite artless and innocent and even mad seen in practical terms and not only that on seeing directly and forming initial opinions you also come to like conclusions about him. But suddenly while talking to him and hearing him talk you, all of a sudden, realise that somehow he had been to the best scientific research institution and knows about the modern physics theory of multiverse. How did he come to know that? How did he first of call go there? But confidently he says and tries to explain to you in his own bizarre, uneducated and illiterate tongue. You can only laugh at his expressions, which are very local and slang. But you feel there is a ring of truth in his claims and that he is terribly sincere both in his claims and also in his reporting. JUST think about your own reactions at this moment and retain that impression fast in your mind.
That mad man of Dakshineswar, that Chota Chatterji, who had been a priest of Kali temple there, would have created exactly like impressions on the mind of the young modern boy of Calcutta, Noren, or Narendranath. And what would have been the mindset of Narendra at that moment and many years following before he was able to see the full personality of the villager. It is a short story in itself !
We can derive immense benefit only by understanding Sri Ramakrishna. But mostly we exhaust ourselves by worshiping and prayers. Not that such worship should not be done but understanding him more and more is what is needed if we want to transform really. By saying that he was God Incarnate we can scarcely understand him. We have to take him as a man and approach him and fail in that attempt.
Sarat Chandra, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, has done an act of wonderful Daanam, 'giving to others the spiritual knowledge'. He recorded his conversations with Swamiji. In one of the conversations, he is asking, perhaps representing all of us:
“Disciple :—Did Sri Ramakrishna out of his own lips ever say that he was God, the all-perfect Brahman?”
And what was Swamiji's reply?
”Swamiji:—Yes, he did so many times. And he said this to all of us. One day while he was staying at the Cossipore garden, his body in imminent danger of falling off for ever, by the side of his bed I was saying in my mind, “Well, now if you can declare that you are God, then only will I believe you are really God Himself.'' It was only two days before he passed away. Immediately, he looked up towards me all on a sudden and said, “He who was Rama, He who was Krishna, verily is He now Ramakrishna in this body. And that not merely from the standpoint of your Vedanta !”* At this I was struck dumb.
"Even we haven't had yet the perfect faith, after hearing it again and again from the holy lips of our Lord himself —our minds still get disturbed now and then with doubt and despair—and so, what shall we speak oi others being slow to believe? It is indeed a very difficult matter to be able to declare and believe a man with a body like ours to be God Himself. We may just go to the length of declaring him to be a “perfected one,” or a “knower of Brahman.” Well, it matters nothing, whatever you may call him or think of him, a saint or a knower of Brahman, or anything. But take it from me, never did come to this earth such an all-perfect man as Sri Ramakrishna ! In the utter darkness of the world this great man is like the shining pillar of illumination in this age I And by his light alone will man now cross the ocean of Samsara I"
If even such a soul like Swami Vivekananda expresses the difficulty in such a manner, you should not blame me then, if I run into dejected moods of negation and doubt. Poor me! Manifestation of Divinity in human being! Not a wonder if Sri Krishna calls this knowledge special and Raja Vidya Raja Guhyam, the great secret and the great science.
Srirangam Mohanarangan
***
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