Devotees of Ramakrishna (contd-3)

Devotees of Ramakrishna (contd-2)

Ramakrishna stayed in the south-east room of the Garden House at Cossipore.It was situated in such a way that on the west side of the room there was the Ganges, on the north there was the garden of Rani Rasmoni under the tamarisk tree, on the east there is the main gate of the house, and on the south there is the temple, Bally- bridge and Calcutta. Ramkrishna was sitting on the veranda. Around him there were sitting Rakhal, known later as Swami Brahmmanandaji, Latu, later known as Adbhutanandaji, The master sir, Mahendra Gupta and Harish. Ramakrishna was having talks with them. They have come from  different corners of the society. They have demands, families, sorrows and sufferings, they have deaths. But they became happy at the presence of Sri Ramakrishna.
Thakur said, " blue die was mixed with water in a vat, in another there was red die, in another yellow die,  if one outs clothes in those vats, it will turn into blue, or red, or yellow. Like this, if one comes in front of Sri Ramakrishna one feels happy because he is the creator of happiness.. There is no sorrow. Then why Ramakrishna was attacked with cancer in his throat? This too he explained . There is sorrows and sufferings but one has to convert it onto his happiness.He taught us by carrying disease and cancer in his throat. this too he mentioned that he will show everything in his life as an example. When you will be attacked with illness, you think of myself. "How much sufferings I had in Cossipore garden House ? You too grasp the technique of overpowering sufferings like me."
When Ramakrishna was advised to ask Mother to get relief of his wound in his throat , he replied , I asked for knowledge, I asked for devotion - after coming to Dakshineshwar, I said taking mud in one hand and money in another, " taka mati, mati taka (mud is money and money is mud)'' and then have thrown both the mud and the money.Many have laughed at me."
At first Narendranath didnot have faith on Ramakrishna. Just to examine him, he put a coin under his bed on the cot. But when coming from outside Ramakrishna wanted to sit on the cot, he felt uneasiness. After searching it was found that a coin was under his cot. Narendra became ashamed. But Ramakrishna said, " you have done right. You should examine a person, whehter he is a sage or a hypocrite. observe him during daytime and during night.Test him. This is why he is Narendranath .        

Devotees of Ramkrishna (contd-1)

Ramakrishna said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left his domestic life. Gautam Budhdha, on seeing the infirmity, death and sickness, went for complete emancipation. Jesus Christ wanted to offer love to everybody. But he made a distinction between virtue and sin. Ramakrishna said there is no virtue nor there is sin. There is only sinless soul. If you say constantly sin, you will be entangled with sin. He made Swamiji to say, " No negative thoughts. Don't say no.Always say yes."

Ramakrishna said to Naren," Look, Naren, if you say constantly negative,  the poison of a snake also becomes negative. We are to say, " yes I posses, though there is no rupees in the safe-vault , no money in the bank, no situation vacant, no shoe in leg, still you should say, yes, I have. I posses infinite strength with which I can stand  bravely before any sorrow , what you can do to me. Because sorrow could not touch me, joy, do you want to make me dancing. But I shall not dance.Because the treachery of the world is known to me.The world is beautiful. 

Devotees of Ramkrishna

Ramkrishna was looking from the top of the roof of Garden House of Kassipore to its bottom. At the bottom of the Garden House of Kassipore there were waiting more than thirty devotees. All of them were family members, namely, Girish and his brother Atul, Ram, Nabagopal, Haramohan,Baikuntha, Kishoree, Haran, Ramlal, Akshoy, Upendranath Majumdar, Cook Brahmman Gangulee, Bhupati, Upendranath Mukhopadhyay, Harish and Narendranath. Narendranath used to do meditation every night by lighting incense-pot at one end of the Garden house.
The devotees were ready to receive cloth dyed with red ochre.and string with beads.
Ramkrishna came down along with Ramlal to hand over their dues.Girish was at the front of the que.  
Ramakrishna went into a trance. he began to say " Chaitanya hok, Chaitanya hok ( get into senses)." After few hours he went upstairs.
A truth came out by interaction with Ramakrishna.
" The 'soul' , one believes, is not born nor  will it die." It is easy to say, but it is difficult to practice. That is why Rasmakrishna said, " became death-conscious" . Why he said so? Because men are fond living in which he or she belongs. What is living ? It is nothing but revolving in a wheel of practices and by this way we gradually come nearer to our death or in other words to go into a non-existence state from a existence state. That is what "I". Ramkrishna said this is the state of 'raw I', which says that the objects earmarked in my name is mine. Nobody has any right in that. ramakrishna said nothing is yours, because when your eyes will shut down for ever, nothing will be marked as yours. All these objects are transient. then what is eternal ? Ramakrishna  said , "It is God".
it is God

Flower-basket of five flowers

Bhabanath Chatterjee

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Brahman) name, from Chatta, the name of a village, + jhā ‘teacher’ (a greatly reduced form of Sanskrit upādhyāya), i.e. ‘teacher from the village of Chatta’. In Bengali names formed with -jee, the initial element is believed to indicate a village granted by Ballal Sen, an ancient king of Bengal, to an ancestor of bearers of the surname

Balaram Basu

Balaram was born in December 1842, in a wealthy Vaishnava family of North Kolkata. His grandfather, Guruprasad Basu, had established a Radha-Shyam temple in his house, and because of this, that section of the city has come to be known as Shyam-bazar.

It was probably on 1 January 1881 that Balaram met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time. Balaram asked Sri Ramakrishna, “Does God really exist?” “Certainly, he does”, was the prompt answer. Balaram soon became one of the principal suppliers and gave generously to the Master and his disciples. Every year Balaram would celebrate the Car Festival of Lord Jagannath at his home. The Master's presence would greatly enhance the joy of the occasion. The Master used to love visiting Balaram's home in Kolkata. The entire household of Balaram Basu was devoted to God. Krishnabhavini, Balaram's wife, was the sister of Swami Premananda, one of the foremost disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
After Sri Ramakrishna's passing, Balaram would give one rupee every day for the daily worship of Sri Ramakrishna at the Baranagore Math. He would also keep track of the food situation in the monastery.

In 1890, Balaram became a victim of an influenza epidemic in Kolkata. Before passing away, he wanted only to talk of Sri Ramakrishna, and keep the company of his all-renouncing disciples. It is said that the Master came at the final moment to take him to the Eternal Realm
Surendra Nath Mitra

Surendra Nath Mitra was probably born in 1850, and met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time when he was about thirty.

Surendra's early life was that of a Bohemian – open-minded, care-free and indifferent to religion. He was promiscuous and often got drunk. But this gave him no peace and he even wanted to end his life. Finally, urged by Ramchandra Datta who was his neighbour, Surendra went to Dakshineswar in the company of Ram and Manomohan to meet Sri Ramakrishna, probably in 1880. Sri Ramakrishna was speaking about self-surrender. His words gave Surendra solace and strength. The Master accepted him with all his blemishes. Surendra was deeply devoted to Mother Kali and set up a shrine to her at his home. He worshipped her with much love and devotion. One day the Master said to Surendra, “Well, Suresh, why don't you first offer the wine you drink to Mother Kali, and then drink it as her Prasad?” When he started practising this, the action, curiously enough, filled him with devotion.

Surendra was large-hearted by nature, and used to make arrangements for the food and bedding for those devotees who spent nights with the Master at Dakshineswar to serve him. It was Surendra who commissioned the famous oil painting in which Sri Ramakrishna points out to Keshab Chandra Sen the harmony of religions.

After Sri Ramakrishna's Maha Samadhi, Surendra paid the rent of the house at Baranagore that housed the first monastery of the disciples of the Master. Thus, Surendra's devotion and sacrifice made it possible for those earnest souls to renounce the world for the realization of God.

Surendra passed away on 25 May 1890 at the age of forty. When Belur Math was built, the marble flooring for the original shrine-room was done with some money that Surendra had set part for the Math

Mahendranath Gupta

kathamritabhavan.org

Mahendranath Gupta, was a disciple of Ramakrishna—a 19th century mystic and the author of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita,a Bengali classic. He was also a teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda, a 20th century philosopher

Girish Chandra Ghosh

sabjanta.com

Girish Chandra Ghosh was a Bengali musician, poet, playwright, novelist, theatre director and actor. He was largely responsible for the golden age of Bengali theatre. He can be referred to as the Father of Bengali Theatre

Ramakrishna and Narendranath (1881-1886)

Narendranath had varied interests and a wide range of scholarship in philosophy, religion, history, the social sciences, arts, literature, and other subjects.  He was very interested in the Hindu scriptures like the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. He was also well versed in classical music, both vocal and instrumental and is said to have undergone training under two Ustads, Beni Gupta and Ahmad Khan. Since boyhood, he took an active interest in physical exercise, sports, and other organizational activities. Even when he was young, he questioned the validity of superstitious customs and discrimination based on caste, and refused to accept anything without rational proof and pragmatic test

In 1881 he passed the Fine Arts examination and in 1884 he passed the Bachelor of Arts.

Narendranath is said to have studied the writings of several Westerners like  David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, and Charles Darwin. He became fascinated with the Evolutionism of Herbert Spencer, and translated Spencer's book on Education into Bengali. Simultaneously, he was thoroughly acquainted with Indian Sanskrit scriptures and many Bengali works. According to his professors, student Narendranath was a prodigy..

Ramakrishna and Narendranath

During 1855 to 1866, these twelve years, Ramakrishna undergone rigorous religious practices and followed by six years of in getting acquainted with his own power and the spiritual state of the people  in general. Thereafter he was seen engaged with unrivalled energy in the task of reestablishing the eternal religion and arresting the decline of religion that came on India under the strong impulse of Western ideas and ideals which preached that this world was all in all. He disappeared from the scene of this world after finishing this part of his work. 
In 1984, when Narendranath was reading B.A., Ramkrishna wanted to make him understand two things;
1. Faith on God, and
2 Faith on religious activities.
Narendranath had the privilege of enjoying the holy company of Ramakrishna for five years, from 1881 to 1886. He used to come from home and pay visits to him during those days.
Narendranath had the privilege of enjoining the holy company of Ramakrishna for five years, from 1881 to 1886.Like all the other devotees of Calcutta, he also used to come from home and pay visits to Ramakrishna during those days.
If Narendra failed to come to Dakshineswar, Ramakrishna  became restless to see him and would send one to bring him.
Just as Narendra saw Ramkrishna's purity renunciation and single minded devotion and became attracted to him since his first meeting, Ramakrishna too was charmed to see his boundless self-confidence and love of truth and made him his own from the first day they meet.
Ramakrishna understood that Narendra was a highly qualified person in the domain in the domain of spirituality and tried to infuse into him the belief in the truth of non-dualism from the very first day he met him.   
Narendra, first of all, applied his intellect to ascertain whether there is any possibility of error in the words of the scriptures and of the teacher, and began practising them only when he regarded them as standing the test of reason. Although possessed of a firm faith in the existence of   God owing to past impressions. Narendra all through his life entertained, the idea that all men, without an exception, are liable to errors and superstitions; there is no reason why one should accept indiscriminately any word of any human being.