The Philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Searching Metaphysics in His Mysticism)

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About the Author Dr. Dyuti J. Yajnik is an Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Philosophy, M.P. Shah Arts and Science College, Surendranagar. She had her M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Gujarat University. She stood first class first with distinction at B.A. (Philosophy) at Gujarat University. She got National Award for Best Paper in Metaphysics. She is the member of Board of Studies in Philosophy, Gujarat University, Board of Studies in Philosophy, Bhavnagar University, Founder Member and Trustee of Sanatandhara Foundation, Panipat, Haryana and Member of the Ethical Committee of Ayurvedic contraceptive Drug Research Institute, Ahmedabad. As a member of the Board of Studies in Philosophy at Gujarat University as well as Bhavnagar University, she has substantially contributed in forming syllabi of U.G. and P.G. She has been invitee speaker in the symposium and an Endowment lecturer at Indian Philosophical Congress and in the symposium and an Endowment lecturer at Akhil Bharatiya Darshan Parishad. She has presented various research papers at State, National and International conferences. Her interest is in Epistemology, particularly in Vyapti, Induction, Scientific investigation.

Preface Present research is aimed at deriving a systematic philosophy of Sri Ramakṛṣṇa Paramahamsa. The whole research is divided into twelve chapters. In the first chapter of Introduction, the contemporary relevance of Rämakṛṣṇa and his philosophy is discussed. A very brief sketch of Sri Ramakṛṣṇa's life and the citations of great thinkers of the world which show the greatness and uniqueness of Sri Ramakrsna as a mystic, are depicted. In this chapter the nature and history of Gospel is also described. The rationale for selecting the present topic of research and the method followed in it, is discussed in detail. The second chapter of the thesis discusses Rāmakrsna's views about Ultimate Reality as derived from his own mystical experiences. Therefore, as Ramakrishna was a mystic, the nature of mysticism is clarified here. The form and the formless aspects of Ultimate Reality as propounded by Sri Ramakṛṣṇa are elaborated here. In the third chapter the concept of self and its salvation are discussed. Nature of self, Law of Karma and rebirth, and problem of good and evil according to Rāmakṛṣṇa are discussed. The forth chapter deals with cosmology of Ramakrishna. God's three types of activities of creation, preservation, and destruction, as discussed by Ramakṛṣṇa, are explained here. In the fifth chapter on religion, place of knowledge, devotion and action in religious life is pointed out and Rämakṛṣṇa's peculiar concept of Vijnani is discussed in detail. The sixth chapter discusses the concept of Guru and seventh chapter discusses the fundamental unity of all religions for which Ramakrishna is very famous. Rāmakṛṣṇa was basically a mystic and therefore he views on Sadhana were practically very much directive and inspiring. So Rāmakṛṣṇa's suggestions and analysis of Sādhanā is elaborated in the eighth chapter. The nineth chapter highlights Rāmakṛṣṇa's views about the duties of house-holders and renunciates are depicted. The tenth chapter analyzes the social concern of Rāmakṛṣṇa in which his views about social problems like status of women, caste system and compassion for the poor and the deprived are discussed. The eleventh chapter analyzes Rāmakrppa's mystical behavior from psychological point-of-view, because of the prevalent controversy about the pathology of Ramakṛṣṇa's behavior. Sudhir Kakar's defence of Rāmakṛṣṇa's behavior, against the alleged pathology is elaborated here. Critical views of J. Kripal regarding Rämakṛspa's seemingly pathological behaviour are highlighted and its detailed and logically sound criticism of Kripal's criticism of Ramakṛṣṇa's behaviour given by Somnath Bhattacharya are also presented here. The twelfth chapter constitutes the conclusion of the thesis. It explains the philosophical position of Ramakrishna and it is shown here that with reference to Metaphysics, his philosophical position is Comprehensive Absolute Monism. With reference to Philosophy of Religion, his philosophical position is Panentheism.

It is not necessary for me to give a separate list of abbreviations, used in this. Because I have used only one abbreviation and it is 'GSR': 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakṛṣṇa".

I have followed in this work the APA Style Manual for putting references as found in 'MLA Handbook' (2004).This book provides a standard form of presentation of any research work. The method. of putting references given in this book is widely accepted and used in recently published many books as well as academic materials on different websites. This is the reason why this MLA Handbook has entered into a number of editions, out of which, the sixth edition has been used here for indicating the references.

Introduction 1. Contemporary Relevance of Understanding The Philosophy of Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahamsa

It is believed that there has not been a single culture and civilization without having one or the other form of religion as its basic constituent. Thus, on the one hand, religion constitutes the hard-core of culture, and on the other hand, we find that almost all quarrels and wars occur under the name of religion only. The global issue of terrorism is nothing but the outcome of the misapprehension of true religion. This shows that in contemporary age, mankind needs true religious understanding whereby he can practice his own religion thoroughly. and at the same time, he may develop truly universal attitude towards other religions too. Modern man, living in the age of anxiety, stress, and competition, can't afford to be an atheist and sacrifice the healing and supporting power of religion under the name of secularism, nor can he afford to become fanatic to survive with scientific temper in the 21 century of globalization. Thus the knowledge and respect for other religions together with the practice of the universally applicable tenets of one's own religion (upāsana) are very relevant and inevitable in modern age for peaceful co-existence.

The well known writer on Rāmakṛṣṇa, Margaret Bedrosian described the situation of nineteenth century period, by quoting an American writer Ellison that, "The twentieth century American writer Ralph Ellison has stated: 'Those who know their culture and love it unchauvinistically are never lost when encountering the unfamiliar. Rāmakrsna extended this principle to include the knowledge of God. it was, in fact, the supreme mark of his universality. Having touched the base with depth of his own culture and religion, he paradoxically validated all the dharmas as well. In the process, he also reminded us that the true ment of a religion or way of action lies in our willingness to test and follow the path to the end, until it opens into the universal.

Thus living in the midst of the nineteenth century, a period in which colonialism was carving the world into antagonistic empires, when the modern consciousness was about to be fragmented as evolution, communism and relatively theory turned traditional views of our place in the cosmos topsy-turvy, leaving millions confused and rootless, this madman of Dakşineśvara jolts us with his sanity and rootedness. Studying his picture, whether in the yogic posture or standing with his hand raised to teach, one knows he was never lost or confused by the turmoil of theorizing. Neither was he perturbed by speculation regarding the non-essential, quibbles over abstractions that only raise barriers between people and block perception of the living Truth. Instead, be persistently peeled away layers of ignorance that kept the disciple separated from the Self. So masterful was he that even Narendra, a model of cosmopolitan brilliance, bowed before his teacher's skill." (Studies on Rāmakṛṣṇa, Rāmakṛṣṇa: The Universal Man, Margaret Bedrosian: 70)

Thus, in the modern era of nineteenth century, Rāmakṛṣṇa provided the spiritual leadership to the cognitively confused and rootless mentality to millions of people. To use Festinger's words, Rāmakṛṣṇa, through his logically consistent and coherent philosophy and through practice of spirituality, removed "Cognitive Dissonance" of people at large, generated by triumph of modernity.

2. Brief Biographical Details of Rämakṛsna (1836-1886)

Rāmakṛṣṇa's biography is written by several thinkers like Max Muller and Romain Rolland and number of devotees. The life of Rāmakṛṣṇa written by Swami Nikhilananda in the 'Introduction' of Katham ta named as 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakṛṣṇa is a very detailed description of Ramakṛṣṇa's life story. Therefore, here, we very briefly give the sketch of his life. The brief expression of Rāmakṛṣṇa's life is nicely presented at the flap of the cover of 'The Gospel of Sri Rāmakṛṣṇa', translated by Swami Nikhilananda. It is presented here by the following passage:

"Born amidst the utter simplicity of a Bengali village, Śri Rāmakṛṣṇa felt, from his very boyhood, a passionate yearning for the vision of God. At the age of sixteen he went to Calcutta, but was disgusted by the materialistic ideals of the people of the great metropolis. Refusing to direct his attention to secular studies, he became a priest in the Dakṣinesvara temple, where God is worshipped as the Mother of the Universe. By dint of intense prayer and longing, and practically without the help of any teacher, he obtained the vision of God. He then desired to realize Him by following the paths laid down in the scriptures. There came to him, attracted by his irresistible spiritual power, people of all classes-men and women, young and old, educated and illiterate, agnostic and orthodox. All felt the radiation of his spirit and were uplifted in his presence. His love for men knew no barriers of race, colour or creed, and he gave without stint to all who sought his counsel and blessing. He specially trained a small band of young monastic disciples, who, at his bidding, took the vows of God-realization for themselves and of service to humanity. After their Master's passing they carried his message to distant countries, across lands and oceans."

In giving a brief life sketch of Rāmakṛṣṇa, we had not entered into the details of his encounter with his relations like his wife, śāradamani Devi and brother, Ramprasada. We have eliminated here number of very interesting and inspiring incidents of his life. It goes without saying that all these eliminations are made with a view to maintain brevity in the presentation of his life sketch in this thesis.

Glimpses of Ramakṛṣṇa's Sadhana

Maintaining our concern about brevity, we give here the glimpses of different aspects of his unique sadhana. These glimpses are presented in the following passages from a book, 'The Way to God As Taught by Sri Ramakṛṣṇa' by Swami Lokeswarananda:

"First he had a vision of Mother Kali, seeing her as his Divine Mother. After that he practiced the discipline of Dasya, viewing himself as Hanuman, the monkey who was Rama's servant. The Master would sit on the limb of a tree and cry 'Rama! Rama!' and at last he had the vision of Rama. Then he practiced the 'Tantrika disciplines. Under the supervision of the Bhairavi Brahmani and attained perfection in all sixty- four branches of that discipline.

After that he underwent the discipline of madhur-bhāva, thinking of himself as a woman yearning for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He spent six months dressing and behaving in all ways like a woman. All the signs of ecstatic samadhi found in our devotional scriptures appeared in his body, and he had the vision of Krsna. He thus proved that the Madhurabhava, which had fallen into disrepute, could also lead one to God.

Then he practiced the discipline of Vätsalya, regarding himself as a parent of God. A sadhu gave him an image of the child Rama, called Rāmalala, with which the Master carried out this discipline. He was like a mother, full of love for her little son. He felt that the child Rāma, God himself, was truly his son.

At last he saw Rămalala everywhere-not only in the image-thus achieving the heights of perfection in this discipline.

But this was not the end of his spiritual journey. He now practiced the disciplines of Advaita Vedanta. The monk Totapuri was his guru at this time. Totapuri after forty years of hard practice had experienced the ultimate goal of all spiritual disciplines-nirvikalpa Samadhi, Sri Ramakṛṣṇa reached this state in three days." (Swami Lokeswarananda, 1997: 340)

"Later, he practiced the disciplines of Islam, behaving and dressing exactly like a Muslim-repeating the namaz five times a day. He lived like this for three days, never entering the temple of Kāli. He completely forgot the Divine Mother without whom he thought he could do nothing and achieved God realization as a devout Muslim.

Next he had the vision of Jesus Christ. It happened like this: One day when he visited Jadu Mallick's garden house, his eyes fell on a picture of the child Jesus seated on the Virgin Mary's La As Śri R. K. gazed intently at the picture, a ray of light suddenly emanated from it and entered his body. At once all his Hindu ways and mental impressions disappeared and he became a devotee of Christ. He saw in a vision Christian devotees praying to Jesus Christ in a Church. For three days, Śri Rāmakṛṣṇa felt himself to be a devotee of Christ. Then, on the third day, while walking in the Pañcaval at Daksinešvara, a God man of fair complexion wearing an unusual garment, came walking towards him. It was Jesus Christ. He came near and entered into the Master, who then went into deep Samadhi.

Sri Rāmakṛṣṇa's whole life was truly one vast centre for religious research. He took many different paths to God, and had many conceptions of Him this was all part of his research. As a result of this research he could say with certainty, 'There are innumerable ways to God'." (Swami Lokeswarananda, 1997 341)

There are so many other occasions which are very inspiring to the seekers. But here our task is to search Rāmakṛṣṇa's philosophy in general and metaphysics together with social concern and unity of religion in particular. In the light of this limitation we have not given here very interesting and inspiring events of the life of Rāmakṛṣṇa. However, we think it necessary to quote here from selected eminent persons and disciples in order to have some more glimpses of Rāmakrsna's personality.

**Contents and Sample Pages**