Ramakrishna

Paramhamsa Biography
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a highly revered Indian mystic during the 19th
century. This biography profiles his childhood, life, works and timeline.
Quick Facts
Also Known As

Gadadhar Chattopadhyay

Famous as

Spiritual & Religious Leader

Nationality

Indian

Religion

Hinduism

Born on

18 February 1836 AD

Zodiac Sign

Aquarius

Born in

Kamarpukur

Died on

16 August 1886 AD

Place of death

Cossipore

Father

Kshudiram Chattopdhyya

Mother

Chandramani Dev

Siblings

Rameswar, Ramkumar

Spouse:

Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya (later known as Sarada Devi)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramakrishna.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Ramakrishna.jpg
If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of
God. This quote by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa aptly describes his life as a whole.
An astute believer in God, he was one of the immaculate figures of the 19th century
who played a quintessential role in the Bengali Renaissance. A child prodigy, his

parents experienced spiritual vision while he was in womb and as expected, he

started experiencing mystical and paranormal forces while he was still an infant. All
through his life, he was mentored by various gurus. While Bharavi Bhakti taught him
the Tantra and Vaishnavi bhakti, Totapuri was influential in teaching him the
principles behind Advaita Vedantin through which he attained the purest form of
trance or nirvikalpa Samadhi. Interestingly, unlike other religious leaders of his
time, Ramakrishna was not biased and acknowledged all forms of worship, form
and formless and all types of religion. He was of the belief that all religions,
whether Hinduism, Islam or Christianity professed and lead to one God. His legacy
was taken forward by his most noted disciple, Swami Vivekananda who became his
successor. Vivekananda immortalized the offerings and teachings of Ramakrishna
by establishing the Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math.
Childhood & Early Life
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born as Gadadhar Chattopadhyay to
Khudiram Chattopdhyya and Chandramani Dev on February 18, 1836 in
the village of Kamarpur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.
Ever since Chandramani conceived him, both she and her husband
experienced paranormal and mystical experiences which confirmed them that
Gadadhar would be no ordinary child.
Young Gadadhar experienced bouts of spiritual ecstasy right from
toddlerhood. With time, the trance became common as he lost consciousness
and became absorbed by transcendental forces.
As a child, he attained formal for 12 years, but after that he discarded the rote
learning, saying he was not interested in bread-winning education. He instead
took to reading the sacred books and in no time became well-versed with
most of them.
T he death of his father drew him close to his mother. Due to financial crises,
he relocated to Calcutta in 1852 to assist his elder brother Ramkumar.
Meanwhile, Ramkumar had initiated a Sanskrit school and was involved in
priestly work in Calcutta.
T hree years later, he served as an assistant to Ramkumar who by then
became priest in Dakshineswar Kali Temple. Upon the death of Ramkumar, he
took up the position of the priest at the religious temple of Kali.
Pe riod of Re ligious Activ ity
Much against the conventional belief, nothing changed in him post marriage
as he resumed his duties at the temple and continued with his sadhana. In
1861, he appointed Bhairavi Brahmani as his teacher.
Bhairavi Brahmani is said to have reported that he was experiencing
immaculate divinity due to his supreme love, devotion and oneness with God.
Since she was well-versed in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and practiced Tantra, she
made him take up Tantra as well.
By 1863, he finished sixty four major tantric sadhanas. T he method focussed
on worshipping the divine as a form of Shakti and liberating the mind, body
and soul to have an unobstructed vision of the natural world created by the

divinity.
During his tantric sadhana, he practiced numerous rituals which helped in the
purification of the mind and establishment of self-control. He even practiced
vamachara, kumari-puja and Kundalini Yoga. T hese techniques taught by
Bhairavi played a quintessential role in developing the spiritual side of him
during the early days.
He later on became involved in Vaishnava Bhakti which professed the
existence of state of mood, namely, santa or peaceful attitude, dasya or the
serving approach, sakya or the friendly behaviour, vatsalya or the mothering
nature and madhura or the attitude of a lover woman.
In the following years, he started practicing the various bhavas mentioned in
Vaishanava Bhakti, commenced by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri
Nityananda Prabhu.
While in 1864 he practiced vatsalyabhava worshipping the image of Lord
Rama as a child with an attitude of a mother, later on, he practiced Madura
bhava becoming Gopi and Radha towards Krishna. It was while practicing this
that he experienced savikalpa Samadhi or union with Krishna.
In 1865, he was mentored by sanyasi, Totapuri. T he latter was a nomadic
monk who vouched to train him in Advaita Vedanta, which focused on nondualism. During the training, Totapuri guided him through the rites of sanyas.
Totapuri taught him the teachings of advaita, which called for renunciation
with the world ties and accepting the presence of a formless un-manifest
energy that supports the cosmos.
It was under the guidance of Totapuri that he experienced a deep form of
trance called nirvikalpasamadhi, which is the highest state in spiritual
realisation. It is the complete absorption of the mind, body and soul in divine
consciousness.
In the eleven months of training, his mystical involvements increased. He
reportedly received a word of advice from Goddess Kali to remain in
Bhavmukha, which was a state in between normal consciousness and
Samadhi.
Meanwhile, in 1866, he came in contact with Govinda Roy who practiced
Sufism. He became so much involved in Islam that he started disliking Hindu
traditions and rituals. T he urge to watch the idols of Hindu God and worship
them was replaced as well. By the end of three days, he had an immaculate
experience wherein the Prophet merged into him.
Similar state occurred in 1873 when he came in contact with Shambu Charan
Mallik, an ardent advocator and practitioner of Christianity. Maliks influence
on him can be gauged by the fact that he gave up on visiting the Kali temple.
He experienced the vision wherein Jesus Christ merged with his body.
Within time, his experiences, visions and divination spread and disciples
came in search of him from various walks of life. It was with this that he began
a lifelong tryst in teaching.
While teaching, he did not impose his belief and instead asked his disciples

as to how they conceived God. He explained that god is both form and
formless and can appear to a devotee in either ways. He accepted the
different approaches to worship and the existence of different religions.
In 1875, his disciple, Keshab Chandra Sen formulated a New Dispensation
(Nava Vidhan) religious movement, which highlighted Ramakrishnas worship
of God as Mother and the fact that all religions were true. He also started
publishing the latter s teachings in the journals of New Dispensation.
Other prominent disciples of this time include Pratap Chandra Mazumdar,
Shivanath Shastri and Trailokyanath Sanyal. Word spread in the public about
the reforming power that Ramakrishna possessed.
His ways of teaching appealed to the educated and higher class of people in
the society who believed in his description of God as a non-dual formless
essence. On the other hand, his exceptional skill at trance appealed to people
with an interest in yoga.
Major chunk of Indians across the country believed in his Bhakti movement
which he professed as well. His disciples followed his worshipping of
Goddess Kali as a protective and benevolent deity. He often proclaimed that
those who religiously worshipped could also have vision or dream of the
Goddess.
His most prominent disciple Swami Vivekananda was entrusted with the
spiritual powers that he possessed. He even asked Vivekananda to take care
of the disciples and be a leader to them.
Pe rsonal Life & Le gacy
T he paranormal experiences of Ramakrishna made people wary, including his
mother and brother Rameswar. In an effort to make him act responsibly and as
a normal mature adult, they got him married to Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya,
who was just five years at the time of marriage in 1859.
Interestingly, she too became influenced by his beliefs and views and became
involved in spiritual practices. It was only when she turned 18 that she joined
him in Dakshineswar. He worshipped him as a deity and Goddess Kali.
His health gradually declined starting 1885. He suffered from clergymans
throat which developed into throat cancer. He was relocated first to
Shyampukur. However, since his condition aggravated therein, he was
transferred to Cossipore.
He succumbed to the deteriorating health on August 16, 1886 at Cossipore.
His disciples proclaimed that he had achieved mahasamadhi.
Following his death, his sanyasi or monastic disciples led by Swami
Vivekananda formed a fellowship at a half-ruined house at Baranagar near the
river Ganges. With financial aid from household disciples, they formed the
first Ramakrishna Order, today known as Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission.
With the establishment of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in 1923,
Ramakrishna Sarada Math in 1929, Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada
Mission in 1959 and Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission in 1976, his legacy

continues to thrive.
Triv ia
He provided spiritual enlightenment to the people of Bengal and played a key
role in the social reform movement in Bengal in 19th century. His disciple
Swami Vivekananda later took his legacy forward introducing Vedanta and
Yoga to western world.