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Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: 1836-1886

“When righteousness declines and ways of evil conduct increase, I take birth to reestablish the pattern of divinity. For the protection of the virtuous and the destruction of the wicked I am born in every age.” -- Bhagavad Gita.

“He who was Rama and He who was Krishna has now been born as Ramakrishna.” -- Sri Ramakrishna, two days before his mahasamadhi.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is generally known in India, and increasingly in the world, as a purna avatara, a full incarnation of God. The child who, within a hundred years of his birth, was to be generally recognized as a full descent of the Divine into human form, of the same stature as Rama and Krishna of ancient times, took birth in the small Bengali village of Kamarpukur, India, in the year 1836.

When his aging father Khudiram was on a year-long pilgrimage to Gaya to perform the obligatory ceremonies for his ancestors, he had a dream in which he was taken to the temple of Vishnu or Gadadhar where a divine voice told him: “I am well pleased with your devotion; I am born again and again to correct the wicked and protect the virtuous. This time I shall be born into your cottage and accept you as my father.”

During the same year, one day his wife Chandra Devi was standing by the Shiva temple near her home when a mass of light came from the image and entered her body. She fell down unconscious and, when she regained consciousness, she felt that she was with child.

The child, Gadadhar, later to be known as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, did not cry at birth as newborn children do. The midwife laid the child beside the hearth for warmth and attended to the mother, and, when she returned, she found that the child had rolled into the cool ashes of the hearth and was lying, still and silent, covered, Shiva-like, with the white ashes of renunciation. This was the manner of birth of the One who was to demonstrate and teach throughout his life that lust and greed constitute "the world" which one must renounce on one's quest for God.

Gadadhar grew up in the pastoral village life of Bengal, charming all with his vivacious personality, wisdom beyond his years, precocious mischief, and a great repertory of religious songs learned from the wandering minstrels that toured the villages of Bengal in those days. But he showed no interest in school beyond learning to read and write.

At the age 16, Gadadhar joined his brother Ramkumar as a temple priest of Mother Kali in the newly built temple complex at Dakshineshwar. This service he performed until the Presence of the Mother became so palpable and continuously real to him that formal worship dropped away. Thereafter He entered a period of unbroken and unparalled sadhana.

During the following twelve years he had continuous visions of the Divine in all forms, and untold spiritual experiences. During these years his eyes did not close in sleep, and only occasionally did he take food.

One after another, spiritual teachers of all religious persuasions were mysteriously drawn to Dakshineshwar, and Ramakrishna threw himself wholehearted into the practice each prescribed, usually having the ultimate experience of that tradition within three days time. Invariably, those who came to teach soon found that they were learning from him, and departed much edified and in awe of, and reverence for, the mystic of Dakshineshwar.

Finally, the sannyasin guru, Tota Puri, arrived to guide Sri Ramakrishna to the highest impersonal Reality of the non-dual Advaita Vedanta, and, as was usual with him, within three days he entered into nirvikalpa samadhi, to the amazement of his teacher who had himself spent forty years of his life to attain that state.

This twelve year period is unprecedented in all the religious history of mankind. And, at the end of this sadhana, Sri Ramakrishna emerged with the full understanding, born of direct experience, that all of the genuine spiritual paths of all religions, if properly followed, lead to the same Divine Reality, to the one Creator of the Universe, each showing a different facet of, and mode of relating to, God.

During this twelve year period of “Divine madness”, in a misguided attempt to bring him back to a more orderly state of mind, his family had had him betrothed to the young village girl Sarada Devi. When the cyclone of spiritual experiences abated somewhat and Sri Ramakrishna emerged as the unparalleled saint which he had become, and was ready to assume his role as a world teacher, he invited his wife to join him at Dakshineshwar.

When she arrived, he at once recognized in her the living manifestation of the Divine Goddess, and their relationship remained wholly on a spiritual plane. She lived a very quiet unassuming life, and many of the hundreds of visitors and devotees who soon began to make the pilgrimage to the Saint of Dakshineshwar did not even know of her existence.

After the passing of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, or the Holy Mother as she was now called, came to be more widely known. Soon devotees from far and near began to seek out the saintly wife of the Great Master, and, during her long lifetime, thousands and thousands of devotees came to touch her feet and receive her blessings as the darshan of the Universal Mother.

To even begin to appreciate all that transpired and the blessing that has descended upon humanity in the form of Sri Ramakrishna, one must learn the whole story of this miraculous life.

Shree Maa and Her Guru

Shree Maa only occasionally speaks of her divine relationship with Sri Ramakrishna. Even as a young girl, she felt a special relationship with him and was directed and taught by him in various ways. To this day she regards Sri Ramakrishna as her guru and intimate companion, who is with her continuously giving guidance and protection. It was he, she has said, who led her to the present site of the Devi Mandir, and pointed it out to her as the right place to build an ashram and temple.

At the Devi Mandir Temple, Shree Maa has a special altar for Sri Ramakrishna where worship is performed daily. She and Swamiji have also translated from the Bengali, the Kathamritam by Mahendranath Gupta, the most authoritative source of conversations with the Great Master.