Mother Kali’s Unique Lila

Sri Ramakrishna’s life was a unique field of Mother Kali’s sport. The extensive, diverse and meaningful way in which Shakti sadhana expressed itself in Sri Ramakrishna’s life was never before seen in any other aspirant. When he was young, he fell into a trance on the way while visiting Vishalakshi of Anur. He had a unique vision then. From then on his life took a different turn. From the day he began worshipping Mother Kali at Dakshineswar, the deeper, expansive and intensive sides of his Mother worship came to the fore. He had heard that ‘When pleased, She is the giver of liberation to human beings.’ (14) He understood that unless the Divine Mother cleared the way, there could be no God-realization. Thus he pleased the Divine Mother with his purity and intense aspiration, and attained Her vision. He did not rest with the Divine Mother’s vision; he also practised other Shakti disciplines through various moods. He moved about freely in the world of sadhana, becoming an instrument in the hands of the Divine Mother.

Under the directions of Yogeshvari Brahmani, Sri Ramakrishna practised all the sixty-four Tantric disciplines. There is a subtle intermingling of moods in these sixty-four methods. Gradually, he scaled the highest pinnacle of these methods of sadhana. Thereafter, he undertook Advaita sadhana under the tutelage of Totapuri. Being established in Advaitic knowledge, Sri Ramakrishna entered into the mood of the vijnani and remained a child of the Divine Mother. Coming down from nirvikalpa samadhi, he began enjoying the attitudes of devotee and devotion. The Brahmo leader Pratap Chandra Mazumdar wrote about Sri Ramakrishna: ‘He worships Shiva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantist doctrines. He is an idolater and is yet a faithful and most devoted meditator of the perfections of the one, formless, infinite Deity, whom he terms Akhanda Satchidananda.’ According to Sri Ramakrishna, there is no difference between Kali, Krishna and Shiva. According to the Sammohana Tantra, he who distinguishes between Rama and Shiva is an idiot.

(Excerpted from 'Shakti Worship and Sri Ramakrishna' by Swami Abhedananda, Vedanta(dot)ru)

Shakti Worship down the Ages

Drawing our attention to the deep significance of the word shakti, Sir John Wood­roffe says, ‘There is no word of a wider content in any language than this Sanskrit term, meaning “Power”.’

There is some supreme Power behind this universe who expresses Herself in diverse ways. But what is noteworthy is the glory of Her oneness behind this multiplicity. Heat, light, lightning - all these are expressions of just that Power. Everything in this universe is a conglomeration of power and nothing else.

The concept of shakti is indivisibly connected with Mother worship (shakti sadhana). Generally the worship of Durga, Kali, Sarasvati and other goddesses is considered Shakti worship. But the worship of Narayana, Shiva, Ganesha and other gods, too, is the worship of Shakti Herself. Whatever the means - image, symbol or yantra - the worship is only of Shakti. This is because, in the use of all these means there is a superimposition of the creation - preservation - destruction aspects of Shakti either fully or partially. So in a wider sense all worshippers are Shakti worshippers.

History says that Shakti worship was prevalent all over the world in some form or other, but it was in India alone that an unbroken tradition has been set up, which has influenced the Indian mind permanently and deeply. Having made a deep study of the different religious ages, like those of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the philosophies, the epics and the subsequent religions, Swami Saradananda remarks, ‘Shakti worship, especially the worship of God as Mother, is a personal property of India.’ The great scholar and illumined soul Swami Abhedananda also says, ‘India is in fact the only place in the world where God is worshipped as Mother.’ By and large, their conclusions have been accepted by the scholarly world. The theme of the present discussion is this adoration of God as Mother.

The idea of the Great Goddess (Mahadevi) was known amongst both Aryans and non-Aryans. Though both Aryan and non-Aryan races were indirectly responsible for the growth of the ideal of the Great Goddess, the contribution of the Aryans to this field is great. Some say that the deities like Vak, Sarasvati, Ratri and Shridevi of the ‘Vak Sukta,’ ‘Ratri Sukta,’ and the Rig Vedic ‘Shri Sukta’ became Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasarasvati in due course. Again, some pundits feel that in the ‘Devi Sukta’ and ‘Ratri Sukta’ of the Rig Veda, the worship of Shakti is not at all the point. However, one cannot deny the appearance of the Goddess-idea in theYajur Veda, Atharva Veda, and in some Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The special point here is this: though the Goddess (Shakti) mentioned in all these is the Great Goddess (Mahadevi), She is more of a Mother than a deity. Her maternal love is naturally evident everywhere. It is known that everyone has a natural attraction for his mother. The aspirant believes that Mother can be worshipped easily; She easily responds to the child’s call. However, it took quite some time for Shakti worship to become transformed into the purest form of Mother worship.

(Excerpted from 'Shakti Worship and Sri Ramakrishna' by Swami Abhedananda, Vedanta(dot)ru)

The Bhakta's approach to the Reality

"...the bhaktas accept all the states of consciousness. They take the waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be illusory, like a dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation of God's power and glory. God has created all these — sky, stars, moon, sun, mountains, ocean, men, animals. They constitute His glory. He is within us, in our hearts. Again, He is outside. The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this — the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, not to become sugar.

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Greetings on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Birthday and Holi

The full moon festival of Holi, celebrated in Phalgun Poornima, heralds the Vasanta-ritu, the spring season.

In Mathura and Vrindavan areas, the festival is for three days .The image of Lord Krishna is placed on a swing (popularly called as “dola”).  The swing is rocked 21 times at the end of the festival.  Thus the festival derives the name “Dolyatra”. Barsana, the birth place of Radha and Nandgaon, the village home of Sri Krishna are marked with the play of “lathmar” holi.  Women dressed up with colourful costumes and long ‘ghunghats’ or veils carrying well oiled ‘lathis’ or sticks to beat their male counter parts who protect themselves with ‘dhals’ or gears.  The famous Bankey Bihari temple at Vrindavan and Mathura’s Dwarakadhees temple are fully flooded with the devotees during the festival of colours.

The state of Bengal observes Phalgun Poornima as the birthday of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu(1486-1533 A.D).
For the devotees of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna, the event of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s birth on this day is the prime reason for its celebration.

Sri Chaitanya’s plain, simple and practical religion offered a key to solve in a practical way some of the complicated social, political and economic problems that confronted the society in those days.

Democracy of spirit based on love for fellow beings improved the conditions of people and conferred on them the joy of living.  The tenets of love, equality and fraternity as taught by Mahaprabhu were found to be the most significant method of integration.

Sri Sri Thakur used to advise his disciples to read the traditional biographies of Mahaprabhu such as “Chaitanya Charitamrita” and “Chaintanya Bhagavata”.  All through his life Sri Ramakrishna showed great respect even to the descendants of the followers of Mahaprabhu.

We find in the Gospel, Sri Sri Thakur often emphasizing the efficacy of Mahaprabhu’s teachings as to chanting of Lord’s name - “….Chaitanya and Nitai, after some deliberation, made an arrangement to attract the worldly.  They would say to such persons, ‘Come, repeat the name of Hari, and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish and the embrace of a young woman.’  Many people, attracted by the fish and the woman, would chant the name of God. 
After tasting a little of the nectar of God’s hallowed name, they would soon realize that the ‘fish soup’ really meant the tears they shed for love of God, while the ‘young woman’ signified the earth.  The embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture of divine ecstasy.”

Excerpted from an article by Swami Nishthatmananda, Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Muzaffarpur, Bihar

© Smiling Buddha, 2016

India: the ideal of toleration and sympathy

The one great lesson, therefore, that the world wants most, that the world has yet to learn from India, is the idea not only of toleration, but of sympathy. Well has it been said in the Mahimnah-stotra: "As the different rivers, taking their start from different mountains, running straight or crooked, at last come unto the ocean, so, O Shiva, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead unto These." Though they may take various roads, all are on the ways. Some may run a little crooked, others may run straight, but at last they will all come unto the Lord, the One. Then and then alone, is your Bhakti of Shiva complete when you not only see Him in the Linga, but you see Him everywhere. He is the sage, he is the lover of Hari who sees Hari in everything and in everyone. If you are a real lover of Shiva, you must see Him in everything and in everyone. You must see that every worship is given unto Him whatever may be the name or the form; that all knees bending towards the Caaba, or kneeling in a Christian church, or in a Buddhist temple are kneeling to Him whether they know it or not, whether they are conscious of it or not; that in whatever name or form they are offered, all these flowers are laid at His feet; for He is the one Lord of all, the one Soul of all souls. He knows infinitely better what this world wants than you or I. It is impossible that all difference can cease; it must exist; without variation life must cease. It is this clash, the differentiation of thought that makes for light, for motion, for everything. Differentiation, infinitely contradictory, must remain, but it is not necessary that we should hate each other therefore; it is not necessary therefore that we should fight each other. - Swami Vivekananda
(Lectures from Colombo to Almora)

Sri Ramakrishna: Many names of one God

"You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion.  I should reply: Suppose there are.  Every religion has errors.  Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time.  It is enough to have yearning for God.  It is enough to love Him and feel attracted to Him: Don't you know that God is the Inner Guide? He sees the longing of our heart and the yearning of our soul.  Suppose a man has several sons.  The older boys address him distinctly as 'Baba' or 'Papa', but the babies can at best call him 'Ba' or 'Pa'.  Now, will the father be angry with those who address him in this indistinct way? The father knows that they too are calling him, only they cannot pronounce his name well.  All children are the same to the father.  Likewise, the devotees call on God alone, though by different names.  They call on one Person only.  God is one, but His names are many."

(Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter IV; Advice to householders)

Dive deep taking the name of Kali

A popular Bengali devotional song which would be sung by Sri Ramakrishna in the company of his devotees:

Taking the name of Kāli, dive deep down, 
O mind, Into the heart's fathomless depths, 
Where many a precious gem lies hid.  
But never believe the bed of the ocean bare of gems 
If in the first few dives you fail; 
With firm resolve and self-control 
Dive deep and make your way to Mother Kāli's realm. 

Down in the ocean depths of heavenly Wisdom lie 
The wondrous pearls of Peace, O mind; 
And you yourself can gather them, 
If you but have pure love and follow the scriptures' rule.  
Within those ocean depths, as well, 
Six alligators, lurk - lust, anger, and the rest -
Swimming about in search of prey.  
Smear yourself with the turmeric of discrimination; 
The very smell of it will shield you from their jaws.
Upon the ocean bed lie strewn 
Unnumbered pearls and precious gems; 
Plunge in, says Ramprasad, and gather up handfuls there!

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 4

एक सुविचार

आप चाहे कितने भी पवित्र शब्द पढ़ लें या बोल लें, वो आपका क्या भला करेंगे जब तक आप उन्हें उपयोग में नहीं लाते ? - गौतम बुद्ध   

(Image: Cathy Ginter)

Greetings on the 181st birth anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna

ॐ स्थापकाय च धर्मस्य सर्वधर्मस्वरूपिणे।
अवतारवरिष्ठाय रामकृष्णाय ते नमः॥
ॐ नमः श्री भगवते रामकृष्णाय नमो नमः॥

Salutations to you, O Ramakrishna, the establisher of dharma, the embodiment of all religions, and the paragon of avataras.
Om, salutations to Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, salutations again and again.

Greetings on the 181st birth anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna!