Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an Indian philosopher and prominent religious figure, He was regarded as a great saint and a spiritual leader, who guided many disciples on the path of spirituality.

About Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Ramakrishna embraced spirituality from a young age itself. He started his spiritual journey as a priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple. He used to experience spiritual ecstasies from an early age. He was a great Kali devotee. He lived as an intense devotee throughout his life.

His foremost message of spirituality is that the ultimate goal of every soul is god realization. Practically, he showed how to accomplish this. He followed many sects within Hinduism, and other religions like Islam and Christianity to practically show that all paths lead to one destination.

His chief disciple was Swami Vivekananda, who later established the Ramakrishna mission to spread the message of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda spread the message of Ramakrishna all over the world, especially in America and Europe.

Early Life of Sri Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna was born on 18 February 1836 in the village of Kamarpukur near Kolkata in the state of West Bengal. His childhood name was Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya. His father's name was Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and his mother was Chandramani Devi. He grew up in a traditional and pious brahmin family. He was the fourth and the youngest child of his parents.

Khudiram had ancestral property in Dere village of West Bengal. However, he lost that property due to fraud committed by some people. After losing all their property, the family moved to Kamarpukur village and settled there.

Ramakrishna showed very little interest in formal education. He was not interested in the ‘bread-winning education model which is only used for accumulating wealth. He was more interested in meeting and learning spiritual things from renunciate saints and holy men. He was also inclined towards acting and painting. When he was fourteen years old, he started a drama group with his friends. He used to enact scenes and songs from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas.

Vision of Goddess Kali

In 1855, Ramakrishna joined as an assistant to his brother Ramkumar at Dakshineshwar Kali Temple. The temple was built by Rani Rasmani, a prominent wealthy woman. She appointed Ramkumar as the chief priest of the temple. After the death of Ramkumar, Ramakrishna was appointed as the chief priest.

After the death of his brother, Ramakrishna became more spiritual. Besides being a priest, Ramakrishna was an ardent devotee of Goddess Kali. He immersed himself in the intense devotion of Mother Kali. He regarded Kali as a living reality, not just a deity. He used to spend hours in loving adoration of Kali forgetting everything else. After the daily worship, he would sit for hours looking at the image of Goddess Kali.

Ramakrishna's had only one goal to see Goddess Kali in her full glory. As the days passed, the intensity of his devotion increased. He used to spend all his time in prayer, meditation, and singing. The intensity of seeing the vision of the Goddess was so much that he would go to the nearby jungle to meditate after the closure of the temple. Slowly his food intake and sleep gradually declined.

His longing for her vision became more intense with time, and he spent all his time meditating which affected his health. As days passed, he started realizing that he might not be able to see the vision. Overwhelmed by this thought, one day he decided to end his life. He ran and took the sword of the temple in his hand. Suddenly at that moment, he saw an infinite conscious sea of light and a vision of mother Kali.

Marriage with Sharada Devi

Seeing Ramakrishna's condition, his family began to worry. The family believed he could only be saved by marriage and family responsibilities. So the family arranged a marriage with a girl named Sharada from a neighboring village of Jayrambati. She was only five years old at this time. At the age of eighteen, she joined Ramakrishna in Dakshineshwar.

Ramakrishna had already taken sannyasa by the time Sharada Devi joined him. Their marital life was purely spiritual in nature. He proclaimed his wife as the embodiment of a goddess and worshipped her with the shodashi puja. She followed Ramakrishna’s spiritual teachings and played a crucial role in the spiritual movement. After Ramakrishna’s death, she guided his disciples on the path of spirituality.

Influencers in Ramakrishna’s Life

Ramakrishna had the unique quality of not being rigid in his beliefs. He had childlike innocence with him. Therefore he was able to explore newer possibilities in spirituality. In the quest for the highest state of consciousness, he met many saints and learned different methods of attainment.

Ramakrishna was raised in a family that revered Lord Rama. He was deeply influenced by the Hindu scriptures as a child. Later, after joining as a priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, started worshiping Goddess Kali. For him, Goddess Kali was not a mere idol, she was his mother. Like a child, he would always ask her permission before doing anything.

At the age of 25 (the year 1861), he got initiated into Tantra and yogic techniques by a female ascetic named Bhairavi Brahmani, an advanced tantric teacher, well versed in scriptures. For two years, he went through sixty-four tantrik sadhanas and attained success in all of them. He also learned Kundalini yoga from her.

Three years later a wandering monk named Totapuri initiated him into Sanyasa, under whose guidance Ramakrishna attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which is considered as the highest spiritual experience.

In 1866, another teacher, Govinda Roy (a Hindu teacher who practiced Sufism), initiated Ramakrishna into Islam. In 1873, he practiced Christianity and read the bible. In this way, he practiced many paths and attained god realization through them all.

How did Ramakrishna become Paramahamsa?

‘Paramahamsa’ literally means ‘supreme swan’ in Sanskrit. It's a title given to an enlightened spiritual being who has reached the highest level of realization. The sacred swan is said to have the power to extract only milk from the milk mixed with water. It is symbolic to represent an awakened being who can absorb only pure vibrations from all the different energies.

It is believed that Ramakrishna under the guidance of his guru, a wandering monk named Totapuri, achieved the highest level of spiritual experience and became enlightened. In this way, he came to be known as ‘Paramahamsa’.

Ramakrishna’s Teachings

• The ultimate goal of every soul is God realization - He taught his disciples that the only purpose of this life is to have the vision of God. It is possible through pure conscience

• All religions lead to one God - He followed many sects within Hinduism, and other religions like Islam and Christianity to practically show that all paths lead to one destination.

• Renouncement of Kama-Kanchana (lust & greed) - Lust and greed are the main obstructions in the path of spirituality. It is impossible to achieve spiritual progress unless lust and greed are sacrificed.

• Reaching to the state of Brahman - A man in the lower level of existence influenced by the lower forces like lust, greed, cruelty, etc can only be elevated to a higher level of existence with the help of higher forces like kindness, love and devotion.

Ramakrishna Mission

Ramakrishna Mission is a Hindu spiritual organization founded by Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda in 1897. The aim of the mission is to propagate the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It carries out medical and educational programs throughout the country.