Sri Ramakrishna, Patanjali & Jihad

In "Sri Ramakrishna, The Great Master", the spiritual biography of Sri Ramakrishna, it is mentioned that one Govinda Ray, was attracted by Islam & was initiated in it. He came to Dakshineswar & met Sri Ramakrishna, who thought "This also is a path to the realisation of God & the sportive Mother (Kali) has been blessing many people through this path also. I must see through it." So Sri Ramakrishna got initiated into Islam, chanted "Allah", wore Islamic clothing, did namaz regularly & was disinclined even to see Hindu Devas, not to speak of worshipping them. He had a vision of an effulgent, bearded person.(Mohammad?) Afterwards Sri Ramakrishna felt he had merged finally in the attributeless Brahman, the Absolute. (Allah?) He did not even enter the Kali Temple during this period.

One Hindu spiritual discipline is defined by Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras." At the outset itself, it states "Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodhaha", i.e., control of the mind. This complete Yoga is quite different from the commonly practiced one of physical & breathing exercises. These may improve health but may not be spiritually productive.

Coming back to Islam, the word "Jihad" is not present in Qur'an. It is however mentioned in the "Hadith", contemporary accounts of the life & sayings of Mohammad. After returning from a battle defending his faith, he is supposed to have said "We are returning from the lesser jihad to continue the greater jihad, the more difficult & more important battle against our own ego, selfishness, greed & evil."

This may be similar to the "Chitta Vritti Nirodaha" of Patanjali & also explain Sri Ramakrishna's desire to practice Islam's greater jihad.

Sri Ramakrishna, Christianity & Islam

Sri Ramakrishna was a 19th century saint who was one of the first to preach the essential validity of all religions. Apart from cleansing Hindu society of his time, especially in Bengal, of many regrettable practices, he was one of the first to practice the spiritual disciplines of Christianity & Islam till he attained their respective goals. These are given in considerable detail in his spiritual biography, "Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master."

The obvious question arises as to why Sri Ramakrishna practiced the spiritual disciplines of those religions. In addition to proving that the highest goals of those religions were similar to those of Hinduism, he might also have provided first hand validity to those practices.  Then one would wonder whether any saints of those religions had also practised the spiritual disciplines of those religions & recorded their mystic experiences. The answer is yes, they did.

One of the first female saints was Hildegard of Bingen (11th Century), who was a mystic & polyglot to boot. Her vision of the "Cosmic Egg" as a symbol of the Cosmos, is strikingly similar to the "Hiranyagarbha" of the Rig Veda. Another was Julian of Norwich (14th century) who famously prayed for & obtained the priceless boon of experiencing the exquisite physical pain of Christ's crucifixion in her own mortal body. The Spanish St.Teresa of Avila (16th century), author of the revelatory "The Interior Castle", with its metaphorical seven mansions of God (similar to the eight chakras of Hinduism) was a visionary mystic, who was exploring her spirituality with her sister nuns, when her male counterparts were persecuting heretics in the notorious Spanish Inquisition.

The 8th century Sufi saint, Rabia of Basra, whose birth & influence was foretold by the Prophet himself (in a dream to her father), famously prayed for the pain of hell & exclusion from paradise in return for the love of Allah.

In conclusion, when we revere Sri Ramakrishna, we can also bow in reverence to the earlier mystics in Christianity & Islam, in addition to countless Hindu saints, who preceded him.

Sri Ramakrishna, Satyajit Ray & Ravi Shankar: The links between the three famous Bengalis

One of the most ardent non-monastic devotees of Sri Ramakrishna was the celebrated Bengali playwright & producer Girish Chandra Ghosh. It is not well known that Chunibala Devi, who played the old woman in Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" was also a member of Girish's troupe in her younger days.

Ray himself, though an agnostic, designed the book cover for Achintya Kumar Sengupta's 4 volume Bengali work "Parampurush Ramakrishna." Obviously he was aware of his teachings, as evinced by his dialogue in his "Abhijan", where, of all people, an unscrupulous shady character quotes the Sage's words as "all the attractions in the world being due to 'woman & gold'".

Habu Dutt, a cousin of Swami Vivekananda, (who took Sri Ramakrishna's teachings all over the world), was one of the gurus of Ustad Allauddin Khan, the teacher of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Both Habu Dutt & Allauddin Khan were also involved in the orchestra of Girish Chandra Ghosh's troupe.

Religious vs Spiritual life

Contrary to popular perception, the two are quite different in their objectives & results. The goals of the former are mostly worldly in nature like wealth, status, & a good family. No permanent change in mentality or lifestyle is expected. Most of the organised religions cater to this common human need & thrive in the number of their adherents. The most simple of these is the five requirements of the youngest world religion.

The mentality & requirements of the second kind of life is a quite different cup of tea. Some spiritual souls found out that a very few humans are not content with satisfying the natural desires, which is a mixed bag at the best. They wanted something more lasting. But this requires some sacrifice on their part. Patanjali, in his "Yoga Sutra" says, Yoga is going against the natural inclination of the mind.

The same is reiterated by the Mother Superior in Kathryn Hulme's popular novel "The Nun's Story" (also made into a fine film) to the nuns in her order that they are entering on a life against nature. The core texts of Christianity like Thomas. A. Kempis's "The Imitation of Christ" & William Law's "A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life" substantially support this view. Even John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", envisages a normal worldly life as an intolerable burden.

The requirements of spiritual life consists in giving up all the natural requirements of human life like wealth & family. This is the teaching of the Upanishads, reiterated by Lord Krishna in "Bhagawad Gita". Similar exhortations are made in the Gospel according to St.Matthew (One cannot serve both God & Mammon) & the life of the Muslim Saint Rabia of Basra, stressing the mandatory requirements of celibacy & voluntary poverty, before even considering a spiritual life.

Also, it may be wondered, if by following a conventional religious life, one's needs are satisfied, what was the relevance of the advent of saints like Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi & Sri Aurobindo, who led lives which did not procure for them what the normal human desires? Why should they  be adored & worshiped? This question can be answered in the affirmative only if one is prepared to accept that worldly goals are not the sine qua non of human existence.

To sum up, the lives of the two child devotees in Hindu Scriptures, illustrate the two aspects. Dhruva, though he performed great austerities, did it initially to get his father's love (being religious to get worldly rewards), whereas Prahlada even antagonised his father (being spiritual to get the love of God.)

The Holy Trinity

Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma Sarada Devi & Swami Vivekananda form a most unusual Holy Trinity in religion. They broke all conventions in gender, guru-shishya relationship. Sri Ramakrishna worshipped his consort as an embodiment of the Divine Mother.

Here it might be noted that in an instance only recorded in Bengali in a devotee's memoirs, he, while prostrating before the Holy Mother, wondered how this old woman can be regarded as the Divine Mother. He suddenly noticed a change & looked up at Her. He was awe-struck to see a divinely beautiful gorgeously dressed & bejewelled young woman as is pictured as the Devi in front of him. He promptly lost consciousness & was surprised on regaining it to see the same old woman tending him & saying "My son, what happened to you?".


When Swamiji was touring northern India, another religious man got jealous & cursed him. Swamiji underwent great suffering & had to leave that place. He came back & complained to the Holy Mother that Sri Ramakrishna (then having left his body) could not help him. She surprisingly agreed with him, proving even evil person's curses may harm holy people.

Even Sister Nivedita, in her extreme devotion to Swamiji, told the Holy Mother that Swamiji was even greater than Sri Ramakrishna! She took it with a smile!

An Advaita Ashrama was set up in the north by Swamiji for the exclusive meditation on the formless God. On a later visit, he noticed a photo of Sri Ramakrishna being worshipped there. He jokingly said "Oh, the old man has come here also!" & ordered it removed! This, from the man, who in his famous hymn "Khandana Bhava Bhanjana" had a line calling Sri Ramakrishna as the greatest incarnation of God (avatara varishtaya)!

Swamiji also once mimicked Sri Ramakrishna's frequent divine trances, by staggering about to the great amusement of his fellow monks! This, in the Hindu tradition where the guru is held in the highest veneration!

These instances show that the Holy Trinity broke all traditions to revitalise Hinduism, to bring it to the world platform & most importantly preach that all religions are equally valid, which idea was unheard of until then.