Ramakrishna of the Heart
Teachers from schools and colleges in and around Boston often bring their students to the Vedanta Society on field trips. What occurs during such visits has now become for me a familiar routine. Typically I welcome the group, give them an introductory talk on Vedanta, answer their questions, tell them about the programs offered at the Ashrama, and give them a tour of the place. Sometimes, seeing a picture of Ramakrishna in the room and even before I have had a chance to tell them about him, a student might suddenly point his finger at the picture and ask, ‘Who is he?’ In my earlier years in Boston, this question was jarring to my ears and the fingerpointing was mildly irritating. The question and the gesture no longer irritate me, maybe because I am now older and hopefully more mature. I now feel that strangers are not the only ones who should be asking that question. I should be asking it as well. Students of Ramakrishna’s life and even his devotees may have to ask the same question: Who is he? Similar questions have been asked in the past. Going as far back as the Vedas, we find this question: ‘Who is this Being to whom
we make these offerings?’ (Rig-veda, 10.121). Questions like these helped the early spiritual seekers probe deeper into the nature of reality and discover the infinite Being seemingly hidden behind the finite material world. A devotee of Ramakrishna may want to ask: ‘Is the Ramakrishna that appears to me the real Ramakrishna?’ Every great teacher lives in two dimensions: the spiritual and the historical. The spiritual dimension is beyond time, the historical is within the domain of time. When we look at the Ramakrishna of history, it is possible to think of him in terms of the past and the present.
Ramakrishna of the Past Ramakrishna of the past is separated from us by both space and time. The only way to meet him is through books—and there are plenty of them, written and translated in most major languages of the world. The two foundational texts to meet Ramakrishna of the past are his biography written by his disciple Swami Saradananda and the record of his conversations kept by his disciple Mahendra Nath Gupta (better known as simply ‘M’). Reminiscences of Ramakrishna can be found also in the books written by and about his other disciples. Based on the information from all these books, movies and TV serials have been produced, songs have been written, and works
The author is the Minister-in-charge of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, USA, and a former editor of The Vedanta Kesari. tyagananda@gmail.com
March 2019
SWAMI TYAGANANDA
9 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S M T. G . K A M E S WA R I D E V I , H Y D E R A B A D
Artist: Sudhir Mirage
Guest Editorial
