Rama Krishna Math in hyderabad
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Located at Domalaguda, Lower Tank Bund road
The Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad is a branch of the International Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission with its headquarters at Belur, Howrah, West Bengal, India. The Hyderabad branch was started in 1974. It is situated on the southern side of Ramakrishna Math Marg in Domalguda locality of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Its various departments include: Ramakrishna Universal Temple, language courses in Vivekananda Institute of Languages, some 20 courses for the youth in the Vivekananda Institute of Human Excellence, Vivekananda Health Centre, Vivekananda Library, Gita Darshan (an audio-visual museum on the Gita), Sant Darshan, Ramakrishna Museum, book stall, daily poor feeding, breakfast for children, free tuition for school students, etc
Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, being a branch centre of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, is meant to serve society in all possible ways— physical, mental, cultural, and spiritual—what Swami Vivekananda termed as Annadana, Vidyadana, and Jnanadana. We invite one and all of our countrymen, in general, and the people of Andhra Pradesh, in particular, to come forward and benefit from the various activities of the Math. We also invite all to participate in the service activities and promote the noble motto of this Math, which, in the words of Swami Vivekananda, is 'Atmano Mokshartham Jagaddhitaya cha'— 'for one's self-realization and for the welfare of the world at large'.
"Diverse courses of Worship from varied springs of fulfilment, have mingled in your medita¬tion. The manifold revelation of the joy of the Infinite, has given form to a shrine of unity in your life. Where from far and near arrive salutations, to which I join mine own." — Rabindranath Tagore
Sri Ramakrisna was born in 1836 in Kamarpukur, a small village in West Bengal, to a brahmin family. His parents were of humble means, but extremely pious and devout. When Sri Ramakrisna was five years old, he was sent to the village primary school. Here he learned to read and write, but showed great aversion to arithmetic. His speech was charming, and he was endowed with so wonderful a memory that if he but once heard a song or a play he could perfectly reproduce its text. He loved acting. Instead of attending school and minding his studies, he would run away with some of his schoolfellows to a mango-grove on the outskirts of the village, and there, with boyish exuberance, perform the pastoral drama of Sri Krishna’s life.
When he was six or seven years old, he had a striking experience— one which he often related to his disciples in later years. “I was walking alone in a paddy field,” he would say, “carrying a small basket of puffed rice. Looking at the sky overhead while eating the rice, I saw that it was covered with rain clouds. Suddenly I noticed snow-white wild cranes flying in a row against that dark background. I was over¬whelmed by the beautiful sight. An ecstatic feeling arose in my heart, and I lost all outward consciousness. I do not know how long I remained in that state. When I regained consciousness I was in my home, brought there by some friendly people.”
At the age of nine Sri Ramakrisna was invested, according to brahmin custom, with the sacred thread, and initiated into the Gayatri mantra, a Vedic prayer. He was thenceforward allowed to do the worship of the household deity, Rama. He manifested religious moods. He would often remain for a long time absorbed in God, losing all outward consciousness. He used to go alone into the woods, find a solitary place, and there meditate for hours under the shade of a tree.
Many wandering monks would halt and rest at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri, the well-known place of pilgrimage. A rich man of the village had built a guesthouse for the pilgrims and had also made it a practice to provide them with food. As a young boy, Sri Ramakrisna was often in their company and would do small services for them, and they loved him.
During his early teens, the ideal of a monastic life attracted Sri Ramakrisna, but he soon gave up the idea, thinking to himself, “To renounce the world just for one’s own liberation is selfishness. I must do something that will be of benefit to all mankind.”
Within a short time after his investiture with the sacred thread, there occurred an incident which showed his keen spiritual under¬standing. An important gathering of pundits took place at the house of a rich man of the village on the occasion of a memorial service. At this meeting there arose a controversy regarding a complicated philosophical question, and the scholars could not arrive at any correct solution. Sri Ramakrisna and other young boys were present to see the fun. While his friends were enjoying themselves mimicking the gestures of the pundits, Sri Ramakrisna was seated silently by an elderly scholar and was listening intently to the discussion. Suddenly he touched the pundit and whispered in his ear. The elderly man listened attentively to Sri Ramakrisna’s words, and seeing immediately that the boy had given a cogent solution, he stood up with him on his shoulder and repeated it to the company. All the pundits praised young Ramakrisna and blessed him with all their heart. And the villagers marvelled at his understanding.
When he was seven years old, Sri Ramakrisna’s father died. Ramkumar, his eldest brother, who was a great Sanskrit scholar, went to Calcutta and opened a Sanskrit school to earn his living and support the family. When, years later, he learned that young Ramakrisna was neglecting his studies in the village, he sent for him, intending to have him study in his Sanskrit school. It is a shame, Ramkumar thought, that a brahmin boy of his family should remain ignorant. So Ramakrisna, now seventeen, went to Calcutta. But when Ramkumar asked him to attend his school, the young boy replied with great firmness, “Brother, I do not wish to waste my fife on a mere bread-winning education. I want to acquire that knowledge which would awaken in me consciousness of the eternal Reality and thus make my life blessed forever.” He remained adamant on the subject, and his brother was at a loss what to do with him.
An unexpected event solved the problem. An enormously wealthy woman named Rani Rasamani built a temple on the bank of the Ganges at Daksineswar, five miles north of Calcutta. It was dedicated to the Mother of the Universe. Ramkumar was asked to be the priest of this temple, and he took his young brother to help him. Sri Ramakrisna liked the calm, serene atmosphere of the place, and so it came about that here at Daksineswar, by the sacred river, he spent the rest of his life.
Ramkumar died after serving only a year as temple priest. Ramakrisna was now appointed to his brother’s place. He performed the daily duties of a priest, but his inquiring mind longed for some¬thing more, and he questioned within himself: “What is all this for? Is the Divine Mother real? Does she listen to my prayers, or is this mere imagination conjured up by human brains?” He began to yearn increasingly for the direct realization of God the Mother. And soon life became unbearable without her. He would rub his face on the ground like one gripped by pain and cry: “Oh, Mother, another day is gone and still I have not seen you!” Finally, one day, she revealed herself. Sri Ramakrisna later described his first vision of the Divine Mother to his disciples. To quote his words:
“House, walls, doors, the temple—all disappeared into nothingness. Then I saw an ocean of light, limitless, living, conscious, blissful. From all sides waves of light, with a roaring sound, rushed towards me and engulfed and drowned me, and I lost all awareness of outward things.”
When Sri Ramakrisna regained consciousness, he was uttering the words “Mother, Mother”. To his disciples he used to say:
“When true yearning for God comes, then follows the sight of him, then rises the sun of knowledge in the heart. Yearn for him, and love him intensely!... The mother loves her child, the chaste wife loves her husband, the miser loves his wealth; let your love for God be as intense as these three loves combined—then shall you see him!”
After the first vision of the Mother of the Universe, Sri Ramakrisna longed to see her continuously. A sort of divine madness seized him. And then, to use his own words, he began to see the Mother “peeping from every nook and corner”. After this he could no longer perform the ritualistic worship. Worldly people thought he had lost his sanity. One day, in the midst of the food offering to the Deity, he gave the offering to a cat which had walked into the temple, recognizing the presence of the Divine Mother in the cat. Naturally in the eyes of the world this was either madness or sacrilege.
Sri Ramakrisna’s behaviour became stranger and stranger; but it must be noted that whenever persons of genuine spirituality met him they considered him to have attained a blessed state—as we shall see later.
At last rumours of his strange conduct reached the ears of his mother at Kamarpukur, and she became anxious to see him. So he went to his village to visit her. He was now twenty-three years old. In Kamarpukur he continued to live in a God-intoxicated state, indifferent as ever to worldly concerns. Finally his mother and brother thought marriage would be just the thing by which to interest him in worldly matters. Accordingly they began to look about for a suitable bride. Sri Ramakrisna did not object, and the search was enthusiastically continued, but with no success. In the end, finding his mother and brother depressed by their failure, Sri Ramakrisna said to them in a semiconscious state: It is useless to try here and there. Go to Jayrambati [a village three miles from Kamar¬pukur] and there you will find the bride, the daughter of Ramachandra Mukhopadhyaya, providentially reserved for me.” The girl was found, but she was only five years old. Her parents were agreeable to the marriage, but Chandra Devi, mother of Sri Ramakrisna, was somewhat hesitant because of her tender age. However, considering the fact that the girl was the one selected by her son, she assented. So without delay Sri Ramakrisna was married to Sarada Devi. After the marriage ceremony was over—it was more a sort of betrothal—Sarada Devi was sent back to her parents’ home. Sri Ramakrisna continued to stay at Kamarpukur for about a year and a half.
When Sri Ramakrisna returned to the temple garden at Daksineswar, he forgot his marriage and its responsibilities and plunged deeper and deeper into spiritual practices.
In 1861, about six months after his return from Kamarpukur, Sri Ramakrisna one morning noticed a sannyasini (nun) with long dishevelled hair alighting from a country boat and entering the courtyard of the temple. He sent for her. As soon as the sannyasini met Sri Ramakrisna, she burst into tears of joy and said, “My son, you are here! I have been searching for you so long, and now I have found you at last.”
“How could you know about me, Mother?” asked Sri Ramakrisna.
She replied, “Through the grace of the Divine Mother I came to know that I was to meet three of you. Two I have already met, and today I have found you.”
This nun’s name was Yogeswari, but she was known as Brahmani. She was a woman of high spiritual attainments and was well versed in Vaisnava and Tantric literature. Sri Ramakrisna sat beside her like a little boy sitting by his mother, and told her of his spiritual struggles, visions, and attainments. He further mentioned to her that people thought he was mad. Full of motherly tenderness, she said, “Who calls you mad, my son? This is divine madness. Your state is what is known as mahabhava. Sri Radha experienced it, and so did Sri Caitanya. I shall show you in the scriptures that whoever has earnestly yearned for God has experienced this state.”
So far, whatever spiritual advances Sri Ramakrisna had made were the result of his own independent struggles. He saw the Divine Mother of the Universe, and talked with her. Now she commanded him to undergo spiritual disciplines under the direction of the Brahmani. Sri Ramakrisna accepted her as his first guru. She also, as we have seen, had received the mandate from the Mother to teach this young man.
The Brahmani, as already stated, was learned in Hindu religious literature. She began at once to teach Sri Ramakrisna the spiritual disciplines recommended in the Tantras. But of this we may hear from Sri Ramakrisna himself:
“After performing the worship of the Divine Mother, I used to meditate according to the Brahmani”s directions. As soon as I began to tell my beads, I would be overwhelmed with ecstatic fervour and enter into samadhi. I cannot describe the wonderful spiritual visions I used to have. They followed one another in quick succession. The Brahmani made me undergo all the sixty-four kinds of spiritual disciplines mentioned in the principal Tantras. Most of these were difficult practices, but the infinite grace of the Mother carried me through them with ease.”
After attaining the goal aimed at in the Tantric spiritual disciplines, Sri Ramakrisna took to the practices of Vaisnavism. The Vaisnavasfollow the path of devotion, which advocates worshipping God as a Personal Being in his aspect of Visnu. It is Visnu who from time to time appears on earth in human form—an avatar. He once lived as Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, and again as Krishna, the avatar of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Bhagavata Purana. In following the path of devotion, the worshipper enters into a relation to God in his form of Rama or Krishna. There are five such relations, corresponding to those on the human plane (we have met them before): Santa, the peaceful attitude, with only an indefinite relation; dasya, the relation of servant to master or of child to parent; sakhya, the relation of friend to friend; vatsalya, the relation of parent to child; and madhura, the sweet relationship of lover to the beloved. Vaisnavism is the philosophy propounded and lived by such saints and seers as Ramanuja, Vallabha, Madhwa, and Sri Caitanya.
Sri Ramakrisna entered into the Vaisnava path first by worshipping Rama as his own child, the relation of vatsalya, for there had come to him a mystic saint, Jatadhari, who had attained the highest spiritual state as a devotee of Rama, and who initiated him into his own form of worship. Afterwards Sri Ramakrisna took up various relations in his devotion to Krishna. Through each of these he achieved union with God.
A few months later Tota Puri came to the temple garden at Daksineswar. Tota Puri was a Vedantic monk of the order of Samkara, and an illumined soul, a knower of Brahman. As soon as he met Sri Ramakrisna, he recognized in him a highly advanced spirit. He asked him, “Should you like to learn Vedanta from me?”
Sri Ramakrisna answered, “I don’t know, but I shall ask Mother.”
“All right, go and ask Mother. I shall not be here long!” Sri Ramakrisna went to the temple and received a command from the Divine Mother—”Yes, go and learn of him. It is for this purpose that he has come here.” In a state of semi-consciousness, and with a beaming countenance, Sri Ramakrisna returned to Tota Puri and said that he had received the Mother’s permission.
Tota Puri now acquainted him with the Upanisadic teaching of the identity of the Atman with Brahman, and initiated him into the monastic life.
“After the initiation [says Sri Ramakrisna] the naked one (Tota Puri) asked me to withdraw my mind from all objects and to become absorbed in contemplation of the Atman. But as soon as I withdrew my mind from the external world, the familiar form of the blissful Mother, radiant and of the essence of pure consciousness, appeared before me as a living reality and I could not pass beyond her. In despair I said to the naked one, “It is hopeless. I cannot raise my mind to the unconditioned state and reach the Atman.” He grew excited and sharply said, “What! You say you can’t do it! No, you must!” So saying he looked about him, and finding a piece of broken glass picked it up. Pressing its point between my eyebrows, he said, “Concentrate the mind on this point.” Then with great determination I began to meditate as directed, and when this time also the blessed form of the Mother appeared before me, I used my discrimination as a sword and severed her form in two. Then my mind soared immediately beyond all duality and entered into nirvikalpa, the nondual, unitary consciousness.”
Tota Puri sat for a long time silently watching his disciple. Then he left the room, locking the door behind him. Three days passed, and still he heard no sound. When Tota Puri finally opened the door, he found Sri Ramakrisna seated in the same position in which he had left him. Tota Puri watched him, and wondered, “Is it really true that this man has attained in the course of a single day what took me forty years of strenuous practice to achieve]” He examined Sri Ramakrisna closely and in joyous bewilderment exclaimed, “Great God! It is nothing short of a miracle!” It was the nirvikalpa samadhi— the culmination of nondual Vedantic practice. Tota Puri now took steps to bring his disciple’s mind down to the normal plane. Slowly Sri Ramakrisna regained consciousness of the outer world, and seeing his guru before him, he prostrated. And Tota Puri gave his disciple a warm embrace.
After Tota Puri had left Daksineswar, Sri Ramakrisna resolved to remain immersed in nirvikalpa samadhi, and he passed six months in this state without any consciousness of body or of external sur¬roundings. In later years he referred to this period of his life as follows:
“For six months I remained continuously in the bliss of union with Brahman. I was not conscious of day or night. It would have been impossible for the body to survive except that a monk who was present at the time realized my state of mind and regularly brought me food; and whenever he found me a little conscious, he would press it into my mouth. Only a little of it reached my stomach. Six months passed in this way. ... At last I received the Mother’s com¬mand: “Remain in bhavamukha for the good of mankind.”
Henceforward, in general, Sri Ramakrisna lived in bhavamukha, a state between samadhi and normal consciousness. It is very difficult to understand exactly what this state is. In later years, however, the Master described it. He said it was as if on the ocean of Brahman, that infinite ocean of existence, knowledge, and bliss, a stick was floating, dividing the ocean into two parts. On one side is God, and on the other side his devotee—in this case Sri Ramakrisna. The stick which divides the ocean is the ripe ego, never forgetful that it is a child of God. The ripe ego is not harmful. It is like a sword that has touched the philosopher’s stone and turned into gold.
In later years while Sri Ramakrisna would be teaching the word of God he often went into samadhi. This was a daily occurrence.
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