With Ramakrishna Narendras first introduction to Ramakrishna occurred in a literature class in General Assemblys Institution when he heard Professor William Hastie lecturing on William Wordsworths poem, The Excursion. While explaining the word trance in the poem, Hastie suggested that his students visit Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar to understand the true meaning of trance. This prompted some of his students (including Narendra) to visit Ramakrishna. In November 1881,when Narendra was preparing for his upcoming F. A. examination, Ram Chandra Datta accompanied to Surendra Nath Mitras, house where Ramakrishna was invited to deliver a lecture. At this meeting, Ramakrishna asked young Narendra to sing. Impressed by his singing talent, he asked Narendra to come to Dakshineshwar. Narendra did not consider this their first meeting, and neither mentioned this meeting later. In late 1881 or early 1882, Narendra went to Dakshineswar with two friends and met Rmakrishna. This meeting proved to be a turning point in his life. He was attracted by his personality and began frequently visiting him at Dakshineswar. He initially saw Ramakrishnas ecstasies and visions as mere figments of imagination and hallucinations. As a member of Brahmo Samaj, he opposed idol worship, polytheism and Ramakrishnas worship of Kali.]He even rejected the Advaita Vedanta of identity with the absolute as blasphemy and madness, and often ridiculed the idea. Narendra tested Ramakrishna, who faced his arguments patiently: Try to see the truth from all angles, he replied. Narendras fathers sudden death in 1884 left the family bankrupt; creditors began demanding the repayment of loans, and relatives threatened to evict the family from their ancestral home. Narendra, once a son of a well-to-do family, became one of the poorest students in his college. He unsuccessfully tried to find work and questioned Gods existence, but found solace in Ramakrishna and his visits to Dakshineswar increased. One day Narendra requested Ramakrishna to pray to goddess Kali for their familys financial welfare. Ramakrishna suggested him to go to the temple and pray it himself. Following Ramakrishnas suggestion, he went to the temple thrice, but failed to pray for any kind of worldly necessities and ultimately prayed for true knowledge and devotion from the goddess. Narendra gradually grew ready to renounce everything for the sake of realising God, and accepted Ramakrishna as his guru. In 1885, Ramakrishna developed throat cancer, and was transferred to Calcutta and (later) to a garden house in Cossipore. Narendra and Ramakrishnas other disciples took care of him during his last days, and Narendras spiritual education continued. At Cossipore, he experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Narendra and several other disciples received ochre robes from Ramakrishna, forming his first monastic order. He was taught that service to men was the most effective worship of God. Ramakrishna asked him to care for the other monastic disciples, and in turn asked them to see Narendra as their leader. Ramakrishna died in the early-morning hours of 16 August 1886 in Cossipore. Founding of first Ramakrishna Math at Baranagar After Ramakrishnas death, his devotees and admirers stopped supporting his disciples. Unpaid rent accumulated, and Narendra and the other disciples had to find a new place to live.] Many returned home, adopting a Grihastha (family-oriented) way of life. Narendra decided to convert a dilapidated house at Baranagar into a new math (monastery) for the remaining disciples. Rent for the Baranagar Math was low, raised by holy begging (mādhukarī). The math became the first building of the Ramakrishna Math: the monastery of the monastic order of Ramakrishna. Narendra and other disciples used to spend many hours in practising meditation and religious austerities every day. In 1887, Narendra compiled a Bengali song anthology named Sangeet Kalpataru with Vaishnav Charan Basak.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 16:23:56 +0000
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