He appeared in a society where the educated were spineless, religious repugnant, thinkers myopic, and rulers rude. He had no truck with them. He was rather independent and original. He ingeniously left his mark on everything he did. He was, in a word, unprecedented in character. He was matchlessly nonconventional, intelligent, spiritual, thinker and lover. He was overwhelmingly dynamic and amazingly adventurous in his endeavours. He drew knowledge directly from Nature, grew religious out of his rigorous Sadhana, developed into an intensive thinker in the wake of his keen search after truths, and was above all, loving by dint of the Love of God he had accomplished. His wisdom was complete and comprehensive by virtue of the knowledge of God he acquired working extremely hard putting his life at stake. Consequently, there was no room for confusion and conundrum in him. He held men essentially equal and society graded, religion one and paths to reach it many. The space and scope of his contribution to the world was boundless for the riches he possessed were sublime. He is believed to have retrieved India’s lost self esteem and glory, uniquely grappling with ominous odds. Scholars think humanism found its finest expression in him. That’s how one perhaps paints Sri Ramakrishna in plain words.
He is, indubitably, invincible. Now there is no power on earth to reckon with his power. He is fast occupying the mental arena of all and sundry everywhere. He is unstoppable because his way is not destructive but impeccably constructive, having to do with the participation of all classes, communities and countries. Its hallmark is “acceptance”. He has thus been able to create an ethos of trust across his admirers from various faiths and nations.
Rise of Sri Ramakrishna happened from the midst of the masses of rural India. But he exploded among the rootless “denationalized” intellectuals of the city of Calcutta. He jolted them out of their cosy zone of exclusiveness. So they recoiled to malign him taking resort to untruth variously. For example, one B. Mazoomdar said in his book “Prof. F. Max Muller on Ramakrishna” that Ramakrishna was not a scholar of religion, knew neither English nor Sanskrit, nor even his mother tongue Bengali properly; and, before coming in touch with Keshav Chandra Sen, he was an idolater. But writers like Mazoomdar, though too proud of their education and learning, could never gauge that what they perceived as Sri Ramakrishna’s weakness was his strength in fact. The same tomfoolery is being still ironically pursued occasionally by some authors such as Kripal, as he did, although to no effect, in his book “Kali’s Child” a few years ago! Sri Ramakrishna doesn’t react and follows, as it were, the policy of silence, considering silence a supple repartee to eliminate them summarily.
Sri Ramakrishna was established as a world teacher in his lifetime itself. He left no stone unturned to see a truth, whether it was social or religious. Right from his childhood to his demise he was an open book to read and learn. His twelve long years of arduous spiritual expedition through numerous domains of typical faiths and encounters with countless men and women of different natures and walks of life, hitherto untried by any other, concluded on the invention of a truth that was panacea for a world of rancour and strife. That truth was, indeed, a distinct repetition of India’s age-old forgotten message of harmonious coexistence and peaceful social progress in other words, upon which his chief disciple had afterward elaborated for the benefit of mankind at large.
Interpreting him, Swami Vivekananda had said with all confidence: “Ramakrishna has no peer; nowhere else in this world exists that unprecedented perfection, that wonderful kindness for all that does not stop to justify itself, that intense sympathy for man in bondage.” He had also said that “his life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious thought”.
If it be so, Sri Ramakrishna’s practice of Islam and Christianity were legitimately as per the Indian religious thought and action. But what is unprecedented about him is that none before him dared to do so in the modern time or earlier. He was born an orthodox Brahmin in a conservative milieu and worshiped gods and goddesses with all devotion. Yet, he didn’t have the slightest hunch if he was doing anything incorrect and contrary to the Indian way of life which is popularly known as Hinduism. This was proof enough that there is absolutely no place for religious parochialism in the perennial culture of India. There was certainly an urgent need for its emphatic reminder in the modern time with evidence that Indians were convinced in the light of their realization that faiths are only paths to the same goal.
India is a multi-racial and multireligious nation, a multi-purpose civilization founded on the principle of “give and take” from the ancient period. Besides, the liberty to practice one’s faith in one’s own way was never curbed in India in the past. Accepting another’s faith to examine its content had also not given one to feel that one was betraying one’s mother faith in any way. One was never looked down upon by one’s co-religionists for it. Everyone believed that one had the right to satisfy one’s curiosity.
Sri Ramakrishna’s Islam sadhana was therefore in no way peculiar and un-Indian. It was radical from the point of view of the cocooned Hindus who forgot to look beyond their nose. The fact that he had no hesitation and was determined to try it was a clear vindication of the truth that it was very much within the purview of Indian tradition. Sri Ramakrishna thought: “It (Islam) too is a path to attain God. The infinitely sportive Divine Mother has shown Herself to many people through this sadhana too. I must see how She fulfils the aspirations of the followers of this path. I shall take initiation … and practise this path of Islam.” When he did it what was his attitude? He himself had narrated it as: “I then devoutly repeated the holy name of Allah dressed like the Muslims, and said their prayers several times a day.” And what happened to him as a result of all that he did? He said, “I had the full realization of the sadhana of their faith.” He “first had the vision of a radiant Being who looked grave and had a long beard; then he experienced the cosmic Saguna Brahman; and finally his mind merged into absolute Nirguna Brahman.” Evidently, he first experienced God according to monotheism which is being practised by Islam, and then his experience culminated into God the Absolute which is the inevitable end point of all religious journeys that he lastly attained achieving Nirvikalpa Samadhi in conclusion of every other faith he undertook to practice.
However, the moot question is – did he lose his own faith by his Islam sadhana or did anyone think he became a convert? Of course not! On the contrary, it was a practical demonstration of what should be the spirit of a serious Hindu aspirant, giving out the message of inclusiveness of the Indian ideal. Each and every effort of Sri Ramakrishna was thus a revivification of Hindu idea of religion which remained undermined for centuries unfortunately. Sri Ramakrishna exhibited by his life what it means to be a Hindu, how India nurtured her religious thought letting her children to do as they wished, and how her children used to explore the realm of religion to observe for themselves how it looks like really. And that’s how the greatest proclamation India made to the world – that Truth is one but scholars interpret it differently – came from Sri Ramakrishna.
India was not so oblivious of this basic truth even earlier as it is in the recent time. Swamiji therefore declared, “He (Sri Ramakrishna) had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national religious life in India.” He knew that India’s individuality was firmly embedded in Sri Ramakrishna and believed Sri Ramakrishna was the most perfect living image of real India. When he talked about regaining India’s lost individuality for the country to rise again, he meant for us to learn from the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. He found Sri Ramakrishna a burning example of India’s perpetual national ideal “Unity in Diversity” in blood and flesh. Which is why, his concluding remark in this regard was: “India can alone rise by sitting at the feet of Sri Ramakrishna.”
The writer is associated with Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur.