SWAMI ADBHUTANANDA
‘Latu is the greatest miracle of Sri Ramakrishna’, Swamiji once said with reference to Swami Adbhutananda. ‘Having absolutely no education, he has attained to the highest wisdom simply at the touch of the Master.’ Yes, Latu Maharaj, by which name Swami Adbhutananda was popularly known, was the peer of the Master in this respect that he was entirely innocent of the knowledge of the three R’s. Nay, he even surpassed the Master in this ignorance; for whereas the Master could somehow manage to read and write, with Latu Maharaj any reading or writing was out of question. Once Sri Ramakrishna attempted to teach young Latu how to read and write. But in spite of repeated attempts Latu pronounced the Bengali alphabet in such a distorted way that the Master, out of sheer despair, gave up the attempt to educate Latu. It did not matter, however, that Latu had no book-learning. Book supply us knowledge by proxy, as it were. Latu had direct access to the fountainhead of Knowledge. The result was that great scholars and philosophers would sit dumb at his feet to hear the words of wisdom that dropped from his lips. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when a ray of light comes from the Great Source of all
