He Loved All

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He Loved All

 

Swami Nirantarananda

 

Swami Nirantarananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and at present one of the Acharyas of the Ramakrishna Math Probationers' Training Centre at Belur Math.

 

More often than not, we are emotional by nature and are swayed by different kinds of emotions such as love, hatred, greed, devotion, jealousy, fear, lust, anger etc. But love, no doubt, appears to be the strongest of all these. Love works through these emotions. The love of life gives birth to the fear of death. Hatred arises from excessive love for self-interest. Selfless love for others is the prime mover of all spiritual souls. The mother faces the lion to save her beloved child. The spur of one's own interest goads a tyrant and an exploiter to their dirty jobs. Love works between God and His devotee, a mother and her child and between two atoms however distantly apart they may be. Love knows no bounds and cleaves its way through adamantine walls of indifference and even rejections. Therefore, love is the basic and universal emotion.

 

To love all, on the other hand, is extremely difficult, hence rare. It is seen only in a few great souls. The discriminations based on varied factors stand in the way. Love remains locked in the stony hearts. But Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, Sri Ramakrishna and such other persons could dedicate their lives for the redemption of the entire humanity. The unfathomable love that reigned supreme in their hearts was both vast and deep--vast as the sky and deep as the ocean.

 

The modern age has attached highest importance to the inventions and discoveries in science and technology. The efficiency in science and technology has reached its dizziest heights. But people remain greatly neglected. They are just hurled into an abysmal darkness of suffering, subject to ' tension, sorrow, unfulfilment and suicidal tendencies.' So today they need attention.

 

He loved all

 

Sri Ramakrishna, the prophet of the age, loved all; he loved without distinction of sex, age, position, learning, religion, caste, race, colour, etc. By the tide of his all-embracing love the differentiations were simply swept off. Swamiji once remarked: Sri Ramakrishna is L O V E personified. Let us study some events from his life to see glimpses of pure love in action.

 

To him all were welcome, no matter if they were educated or uneducated. Scholars like Padmalochan and Gaurikanta, the students of modern English education, 'the young Bengal' like Narendranath were all blessed by his selfless love. At the same time, even illiterate people like Latu (later Swami Adbhutananda) for example, were blessed by the loving grace of the Master. Most of the women devotees of the Master were also illiterate.

 

Latu, a young boy, hailing from a village in the district of Chapra in Bihar, was completely illiterate. Being born and brought up in an extremely poor family of a shepherd he was unable to get any formal schooling. His childhood was spent mostly in the grazing lands. In his teenage, dire poverty led him to Calcutta and made him a servant at the house of Ramchandra Datta who was a staunch devotee of Sri Ramakrishna. Through Ramchandra, Latu came in contact with Sri Ramakrishna. In the very first meeting the Master was highly impressed by the innate spiritual potency of the young boy. He accepted him. Latu became a giant in the spiritual world and proved to be one of Sri Ramakrishna's miracles. In later days, he would be heard to say, 'If I get a brother disciple like the brother Loren (Swami Vivekananda) and the Lord like the Master, I would like to be born again.'

 

His love flowed equally to men and women. In the circle of devotees of Sri Ramakrishna there were persons of both the sexes. The number of women devotees was very significant and it was a group of ladies of all classes of the society. Among them who were known most were Gauri Ma, Yogin Ma and Golap Ma. One of them reminisced about their unforgettable meetings with Sri Ramakrishna, 'Ah! So much was the grace we had from him. It cannot be expressed in words what that compassion was. And what attraction! Even we ourselves do not know or understand how we all used to go to him and do all those things. Why, we cannot now go in that manner on foot anywhere to unknown peoples' houses without informing anybody, to see a holy man or listen to words on spirituality. Such things have vanished with him by whose power we acted that way. We do not know why we still live though we have lost him.'They had, again, the same share of love and affection as the menfolk would have from Sri Ramakrishna. So was it revealed in the sweet experiences related by a woman devotee: 'Every one now says, he did not allow women to touch him or even to approach him. We laugh to hear it and think, "we are not dead yet." Who will know how kind he was? He had the same attitude towards men and women. But it is true that if women stayed near him long he would say, "Please go now and pay reverence to the presiding deities of the temples." We have heard him ask menfolk also to do likewise.'

 

Once Sri Ramakrishna went on his own to Jadu Mallick's house in Kolkata by a hired hackney carriage, in order to inquire about the welfare of an old lady, Jadu's mother, Latu accompanied him. On the way, A. joined them. The carriage stopped in front of the house of the great devotee, Girish Chandra Ghosh. The Master, on enquiry, was told by A. that Girish was out of station. Then the Master said to A, 'Well! I cannot see G.; I thought of asking him to give today's extra carriage hire. But I am now acquainted with you, will you give a rupee?' Sri Ramakrishna once said to Narendranath that he was ready to beg from door to door for the welfare of Narendranath. But, in this event we note with wonder, he actually begged for that old woman!

 

Sri Ramakrishna's love for women was unbounded. He wanted to see women have all round development, spiritual as well as secular. They should be co-travellers with men in the great journey in the world. Once Gauri Ma was plucking flowers in the garden near the Nahabat. The Master came there with a pot of water. Holding a branch of the Bakul tree with one hand, he started pouring water with the other. Then he said, 'Gauri, let me pour water and you knead the mud.' A surprised Gauri Ma said, 'There is no clay here. How can I knead the mud? This place is full of stone chips.' The Master smiled and said, 'My goodness! What I mean and what you have understood! The condition of women in this country is very poor and painful. You will have to work for them.'

 

The rich and the poor all had the same share of his love. Sri Ramakrishna had loved and bestowed compassion on the rich and the poor alike. He had in the list of his devotees rich people like Jadu Mallick, Mathur Babu, and also a multitude of poor ones. One year, on his birthday celebration, a poor woman devotee of Calcutta brought four rasogollas for him and gave them to Holy Mother at the Nahabat. Other women who were present there told the woman, ' The Master is now busy with the devotees. How can Holy Mother carry these sweets to him? Moreover, the Master has already finished his meal. He won't eat anything more now. If he does, he will be sick.' These words, naturally, made her very sad. Tears came down her eyes. She mentally said to him, 'Master, you are the Lord of the poor and the lowly. Your rich devotees have arranged this festival spending a lot of money, and you are in a festive mood with them. I am a poor, simple woman. Somehow I managed to save four paise, and with that I bought these sweets for you. I don't know what to do! I am helpless. Now I feel that you are not the Lord of the poor.' The Master felt that someone was pulling him, and he immediately left the gathering and went to the Nahabat. He ate the sweets that the poor woman had brought for him. Chunilal Basu, Upendranath Mukhopadhay, Devendranath Mazumdar, Pratap Chandra Hazra and many others among the Master's devotees were very poor. The Master was very anxious for their material welfare also, so that they could call on God with a peaceful mind. On the Kalpataru day, the 1st January 1886, at Cossipore the Master blessed many devotees. He asked Upendra, 'What do you want?' 'Money.' 'You will get plenty of money,' said the Master. Later on, Upendra became rich and established a big publishing house in Calcutta.

 

Sri Ramakrishna set aside all kinds of caste restrictions. Though born in a Brahmin family he could eat food touched by non-Brahmin people. Narendranath (later Swami Vivekananda) and many others of his young disciples belonged to different non-Brahmin castes. One day, some of them arranged a picnic at the Panchavati, Dakshineswar. Despite Narendra's protest, the Master ate with them there with immense joy.

 

What a deep love the Master had for Rani Rasmani and her son-in-law Mathuranath who belonged to Kaivarta caste! He stayed many a day at their Calcutta residence. Many such instances can be cited from the Master's life. But we shall narrate only one story here. Sri Ramakrishna, one day, visited the house of Keshab Chandra Sen and had a sumptuous feast there. Keshab Sen was a non-Brahmin. After finishing his food the Master was worried thinking he might not be allowed to enter the temple garden at Dakshineswar. So he forbade M. and others to tell any of the temple officials about it. But the next day, however, when the temple manager was passing by, the Master said to him, 'Yesterday I went to Keshab's house and he gave me a sumptuous feast. I don't know whether the food was served by a washerman or a barber. Will it harm me?' The manager smiled and said, 'No, sir, it is all right. Nothing can pollute you.'

 

In order to rise above the idea of caste he ate some rice grains from the leavings after the beggars took their food at Dakshineswar. He even cleaned the latrines of the scavengers living in that village.

 

One day Dr. Mahendra Pal came to visit the Master at Dakshineswar. The Master, accompanied by Dr. Pal and Gopal (senior) came out of his room and stepped onto the garden path. They saw a woman sweeper coming towards them, carrying on her head a tub of excrement from a privy, about five or six yards away. When the Master saw her, he prostrated before her, stretching himself fully on the ground, saying, 'Mother, who can do this work except you.' Unlike ordinary mortals, he never deprecated the dignity of labour and the dignity of the 'divinities on earth'.

 

Great people like Devendranath Tagore, Keshab Chandra Sen, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Sivanath Sastri and many others who were the elite of Calcutta, came in contact with the Master. They would frequently come and listen to him. At the passing away of Keshab Chandra Sen, Sri Ramakrishna was extremely shocked. He said, 'I could not leave my bed for three days when I got that news; it seemed as if a limb of mine was paralysed.'

 

On the other hand, the common people who were unable to draw attention from others, and were counted as 'many' or 'the masses', earned due love and respect from Sri Ramakrishna. There was an employee at the temple garden of Dakshineswar at the time of Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vishuddhananda, the eighth president of the Ramakrishna Order, would visit Dakshineswar regularly, as a young man, before he joined the Order. He saw there a gardener, very aged, working daily on the path between the Master's room and Panchavati. The gardener used to keep the path clean. The young man asked the gardener the cause of his sincere work of cleaning the path. At first, he did not like to speak out, but at the insistence of the young man, he said, 'It was one night in the summer [when Sri Ramakrishna was in this world]. I felt no sleep, so, leaving the bed, I was wandering about the garden near Panchavati. Suddenly I saw some light come from the side of the Vilva tree. Surprised, I went forward and found Paramahamsa--deva seated in meditation. The light emerged from the Master's body. I got unnerved and ran away to my room. Next morning, weeping I clasped his feet with my hands. The Master immediately asked me, "What! What is the reason for so much devotion today?" As I was upset, I couldn't think anything, and only said, "Please have mercy on me." He understood my mind and said, "You should meditate on the form you saw last night. And, keep this path clean. So many devotees will come!" Since then I meditate as per his instructions, and keep this path clean every day.'

 

People across the world are constantly taught that a sin should be hated, but not a sinner. Alas, how many are there on this beautiful planet of ours who have lived this ideal? The few who have evinced this in their lives includes Sri Ramakrishna. He had love, affection and sympathy for men and women who are usually looked down upon by the cruel society. The doors of his room would remain open all the time for these wicked and perverted persons also.

 

Before he met the Master, Girish Chandra Ghosh used to lead a reckless life. He gave himself up to excesses. 'One night,' said Girish, 'in an euphoric and drunken mood, I was visiting a house of prostitution with two of my friends. But suddenly I felt an urge to visit Sri Ramakrishna. My friends and I hired a carriage and drove out to Dakshineswar. It was late at night, and everyone was asleep. The three of us entered Sri Ramakrishna's room, tipsy and reeling. Sri Ramakrishna grasped both my hands and began to sing and dance in ecstasy. The thought flashed through my mind, "Here is a man whose love embraces all--even a wicked man like me, whose own family would condemn one in this state. Surely this holy man, respected by the righteous, is also the saviour of the fallen."'

 

Sri Ramakrishna took full responsibility for Girish's spiritual life. He accepted his 'Vakalma' (vakalatnama), power of attorney. Later, in the last part of his life, Girish used to say to the visitors who wanted to hear about Sri Ramakrishna from him, 'See me. What I was, and what the Master has transformed me to! He lifted me up, not by reprimanding, but by his infinite love. What could I say about his love!'

 

Sri Ramakrishna's love flowed not only to the wicked but also to his own abusers. The following story, presented by Akshaya Kumar Sen in his book, 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi' depicts this aspect of the Master. A man (whose name we do not know) living in Calcutta used to speak ill of the Master. The Master was then staying at Shyampukur. Once, the dear, tender young son of the man fell ill. The man called in many physicians of Calcutta to cure his son. But they were of no avail. All of them gave up all hope of recovery for the young boy, whose condition became critical. The father wanted to bring the famous Dr. Mahendra Sarkar under whose treatment the Master was placed, to treat his son. The man went to the doctor's house and entreated him. Dr. Sarkar was then very busy with the treatment of the Master. He liked to be always with the Master. He studied a lot of medical books to find out a remedy to cure the Master. The doctor paid no attention to the man's request and got into a carriage to visit the Master. The father of the ailing son began to run following the doctor's carriage. After a while, both of them reached Shyampukur. The man, with his mind full of shame and fear, found himself standing in front of the Master surrounded by other devotees.

 

The Master asked the man the reason that had brought him there. The man told all about his son's critical condition. Hearing his words, the Master began to shed tears. He said to the man, 'I am old and have an ordinary pain in my throat, but still it gives me so much pain. I can imagine how painful the suffering of your young child is.' Then the Master asked the doctor to go and treat the child first. Seeing the Master's all-embracing compassion and love, the man's stone-like heart melted. He began to ponder over all his past abuses at the Master and, with tears rolling down his cheeks, repeatedly requested the Master to pardon him. Through the Master's love, a thousand years' darkness in the man's mind vanished in a moment.

 

The current of Sri Ramakrishna's love was not checked by a race or a nation. It submerged all geographical and psychological borders and barriers. Williams, a Christian gentleman who met the Master a few times, was very much moved by him. 'You are,' said Williams to the Master, 'The Christ himself, The Son of God.' Williams was convinced of the divinity of Sri Ramakrishna. He gave up the world at the Master's advice, went to the Himalayas to the north of the Punjab, and passed away there after practising austerities for long.

 

The love of the Master was spiritual. He saw the divine peeping through every body. For him, love for humanity was the same as the love for Divinity. Once Narendranath realised that the Master loved him very deeply. He, one day, made a mild protest to the Master and warned him mentioning the puranic story of king Bharata who had to be born a deer due to his excessive love for a deer in his previous birth. The Master had a deep faith in Narendra's words which naturally puzzled him. Then the Master went to the Divine Mother in the temple. There he heard Her say, 'He (Narendra) is a mere boy; why do you give ear to his words? You see Narayana in him; therefore you feel attracted towards him.'

 

Conclusion

 

We have just made a step at the first rung of the third millennium ladder, which is marked by many as the age of globalisation. This means that man has to live in the midst of a multiplicity of religion, culture, language, economy, education, colour, gender, etc. It's a menacing challenge to the very existence of humanity. We, to survive, stand in need of the art of harmonious living in this beautiful global village or home. And it is possible only for a man who is trained in the milieu of love, harmony and mutual understanding derived from the ideal of the divine universal Oneness. And in this regard we see that Sri Ramakrishna has come as the light of hope and stands at our doors with this gift-packet of the ideal harmonious living. It is we who should rise to receive it and then unwrap it.

 

One of the epithets in a hymn on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Vivekananda is 'Premapathar', the ocean of love. This explains the natural ease with which the Master could love all. Once the Holy Mother cryptically said, 'He who has it should give; he who does not have, should practise japam.' Sri Ramakrishna is an infinite ocean of love; he has an infinite supply of it. But as commoners we should fill the heart with his love, leaving no room for hatred. This calls for selfeffort and re-orientation of our outlook. The compassionate Buddha said, 'Hatred should be conquered by love.' Let us cut the shackles of selfishness which binds our heart and taints our love. We would immediately feel fresh air envigorating the rooms of our consciousness.