Ramakrishna Paramhamsa

The 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 clergyman’s throat which developed into throat cancer. He was relocated first to Shyampukur. However, since his condition aggravated therein, he was transferred to Cossipore.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born as Gadadhar Chattopadhyay to Khudiram Chattopâdhyâya and Chandramani Devî 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.

The 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.

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. The 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. These 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.

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.