Sri Ramakrishna - A Master, An Inspiration, An Avatar

Swami Vivekananda, the Divine Goddess, And Resetting Our Mindset

This Story Inspires Me Everyday

Nov 23, 2024

Goddess Kali at Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math. Image Courtesy: Monks and Volunteers

The world knows Swami Vivekananda as the foremost Advaitin, the leading exponent of non-dual philosophy, which declares that the nature of the individual soul is pure Awareness, Absolute Consciousness or God. Our ignorance prevents us from recognizing our true nature; the perception of separation, individual experience, and the universe is illusory. The purpose of human life is to break the shackles of this illusion, popularly known as Maya, and uncover one’s innate divinity.

Much less is known about Swamiji’s veneration of the Goddess. It is not unintentional, as Swamiji never spoke about it publicly. As he wrote in one of his letters,

“Kali worship is not a necessary step in any religion. The Upanishads teach us all there is of religion. Kali worship is my special fad; you never heard me preach it, or read of my preaching it in India. I only preach what is good for universal humanity. If there is any curious method which applies entirely to me, I keep it a secret and there it ends. I must not explain to you what Kali worship is, as I never taught it to anybody.” (emphasis added)

So there is Swamiji, adamant in his persuasion that Advaitism is the only universal religion, yet equally unwavering in his devotion to Goddess Kali. There is no contradiction; sincere spiritual seekers well understand that infinite are the ways to find the Infinite!

But it was not always like this. When Narendranath (Vivekananda’s birth name) entered the tutelage of Sri Ramakrishna, he believed in the formless, transcendent God and was not yet a devotee of Kali. The famous story of how he first accepted Goddess Kali is fascinating and, for me, at least, never gets old despite countless retellings.

Naren Faced Difficult Situations Early on In Life

Picture of Swami Vivekananda courtesy Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad

When Naren was just 19 years old and pursuing his law studies, following in the footsteps of his renowned father, his father suddenly died. Overnight, his life situation changed from lavish comfort to abject poverty. His father had been a prodigious spender and generous in supporting many relatives. Creditors quickly came knocking on the family’s doors, and the same relatives turned against Naren’s family and filed a legal case against them. Naren had no income, but being the eldest, he had to support his mother, grandmother, younger brothers, and sisters.

He was now one of the poorest college students — “shoes became a luxury, his garments were of the coarsest cloth, and many times he went to classes without food.” He would sacrifice his portion of food, telling his mother that he had eaten elsewhere when, in reality, troubled by the desolate state of his home, he could not eat at his friends’ homes either. Being a proud man from a reputed family, his self-respect stopped him from telling others about his situation.

Naren was desperate to find a job, but despite his best efforts, he could not find one. In his words, “Even before the period of mourning was over, I had to go about in search of a job. Starving and bare-footed, I wandered from office to office under the scorching noonday sun with an application in my hand…But everywhere the door was slammed in my face.” Facing the cruel world, his faith in God was tested and even shaken. “But notwithstanding these forced atheistic views, the vivid memory of the divine visions that I had experienced since my boyhood, and especially since my contact with Sri Ramakrishna, would lead me to think that God must exist and that there must be some way to realize Him.”

Days passed, and Naren continued his struggle with his faith - and finances. Most of his friends, some of whom were rich, were not curious enough to ask about his difficulties. Only one came to know of his dire circumstances and would, from time to time, send anonymous help to his mother.

Some of his old friends, who earned a living by unfair means, asked him to join them. To make it worse, he was propositioned by rich women (!) “A rich woman sent me an ugly proposal to end my days of penury, which I sternly rejected with scorn. Another woman also made similar overtures to me. I said to her, “You have wasted your life seeking the pleasures of the flesh. The dark shadows of death are before you. Have you done anything to face that? Give up all these filthy desires and remember God!”

Naren’s desperate life conditions did not prevent him from chastising the women and advising them to turn their minds to God. Nor did his family’s distress tempt this young man to give a second thought to any proposal that violated his moral judgment.

One evening, after yet another punishing day, physically and mentally exhausted, he sank onto the roadside, too weak to address the multiple thoughts crowding his mind. Suddenly, he had a divine experience when his questions were resolved.

He realized that, unlike ordinary people, he was not meant to live a worldly life and secretly decided to renounce the world. He fixed a date for the purpose and was glad to hear that Sri Ramakrishna was coming to Calcutta on the same day. “It is lucky. I shall leave the world with the blessing of my Guru.”

Sri Ramakrishna met him, and despite Naren’s many excuses, he prevailed on him to spend that night with him in Dakshineswar. Naren quickly understood that his Guru had divined his intentions. Later that night, Sri Ramakrishna called him to his side and said, “I know you have come for the Mother’s work, and won’t be able to live a worldly life; but for my sake stay in the world as long as I live.”

Naren returned home the next day and resumed his search for a job. He worked at an attorney’s office and translated a few books, just getting enough to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence. Still he had no permanent income to support his family.

Naren’s Tryst with the Goddess

One day, he decided that since “God listened to Sri Ramakrishna’s prayers; so why should I not ask him to pray for me for the removal of my pecuniary needs?”

He “hurried to Dakshineswar and insisted on his (Sri Ramakrishna) making the appeal on behalf of my starving family.” Sri Ramakrishna said, “I can’t make such demands. But why don’t you go and ask the Mother yourself? All your sufferings are due to your disregard of Her.” (emphasis added)

Naren said that he did not know the Mother. “You please speak to Her on my behalf. You must.”

Sri Ramakrishna replied, “My dear boy, I have done so again and again. But you do not accept Her, so She does not grant my prayer. All right, it is Tuesday — go to the Kali temple tonight, prostrate yourself before the Mother, and ask Her any boon you like. It shall be granted. She is Knowledge Absolute, the Inscrutable Power of Brahman. By Her mere will She has given birth to this world. Everything in in Her power to give.”

It was evening then, and Naren eagerly waited till at 9 pm, the Master (Sri Ramakrishna) asked him to go to the Kali temple. It is best to describe what happened thereafter in his words:

Reaching the temple, as I cast my eyes on the image, I actually found that the Divine Mother was living and conscious, the perennial fountain of Divine Love and Beauty. I was caught in a surging wave of devotion and love. In an ecstasy of joy, I prostrated myself again and again before the Mother and prayed, “Mother, give me discrimination! Give me renunciation! Give me knowledge and devotion! Grant that I might have the uninterrupted vision of Thee!” A serene peace reigned in my soul. The world was forgotten. Only the Divine Mother shone in my heart.

When he returned, the Master asked Naren if he had prayed to the Mother for his worldly needs. “I was startled by this question and said, “No sir, I forgot all about it. But is there any remedy now?””

The Master said, “Go again, and tell Her about your needs.”

Naren visited the temple again, but at the sight of the Mother, he forgot “his mission” and repeatedly bowed down to Her, asking only for love and devotion.

The Master asked him if he had done it the second time, Naren told him what happened. Sri Ramakrishna said, “How thoughtless! Couldn’t you restrain yourself enough to say those few words? Well, try once more and make that prayer to Her. Quick!”

Naren went to the temple for the third time, but on entering the temple:

A terrible shame overpowered me. I thought, “What a trifle I have come to pray to the Mother about! It is like asking a gracious king for a few vegetables! What a fool I am!” In shame and remorse I bowed to Her respectfully and said, “Mother, I want nothing but knowledge and devotion.”

When Naren came out, he understood that Sri Ramakrishna had willed what happened at the temple. He approached the Master, “Sir, it is you who have cast a charm over my mind and made me forgetful. Now please grant me the boon that my people at home may no longer suffer the pinch of poverty.”

The unflinching Master responded, “Such a prayer never comes to my lips. I asked you to pray for yourself; but you couldn’t do it. It seems that you are not destined to enjoy worldly happiness. Well, I can’t help it.” Naren insisted on Sri Ramakrishna granting his prayer, until he finally relented, “All right, your people at home will never be in want of plain food and clothing.”

Naren’s contempt for image worship vanished as he embraced the import of the Divine Mother. His Guru was delighted at this transformation, and, pointing out a sleeping Naren, kept praising “that boy” as “exceptionally good”. “He would not accept the Divine Mother before, but did so yesterday. He is in straitened circumstances nowadays; so I advised him to pray to the Mother for riches; but he couldn’t. He said he was put to shame. Returning from the temple he asked me to teach him a song to the Mother, which I did. The whole of last night he sang that song. So he is sleeping now.” Overjoyed, the Master kept asking, “Isn’t it wonderful that Narendra has accepted Mother?”

Young Narendra’s Strong Character Shines Through…

Our veneration of Swamiji blinds us to the severe challenges Narendra faced at a young age. We often brush aside the travails of sages and avatars, attributing the hardships that they go through as leela, or divine play. We often forget that they, too, suffer life’s wounds; their conduct and actions during difficult times make them sages.

Naren was not older than 20 years, and every day, he would walk barefoot, searching for a job just to put food on the table for his family. He could have bemoaned his fate that the privileged life he had been born into or the talents that he was born with were not meant to turn out this way.

He could have complained about his family being punished despite his parents being devout, generous, and not worldly-minded, and he leading a blameless and virtuous life. Hungry faces at home could have forced him to compromise on his values to earn money, which could have been justified as a destined compulsion. His heart could have hardened and turned against humanity; after all, he had seen the worst of it when it turned its face away when he needed its help the most. He could have become cynical and denied the presence of God, justifiably so, as God did not help him get a job that would at least allow him and his family to cover their basic requirements.

And finally, he could have railed at life that despite being blessed with divine visions and an intense yearning to realize God with the whole of his heart, his life situations kept dragging him away from traversing the spiritual path.

Naren’s purity and firm adherence to the highest dharma allowed him to experience the Divine Mother’s living presence; and instead of questions, demands, or complaints, Naren only asked for devotion and knowledge - not even an easy spiritual path or the guarantee of ultimate freedom.

…And Inspires Us To Reset Our Mindset

Wise men have said that scriptures inspire us in our daily lives. Scriptures don’t downplay the difficulties that humans face in daily life. They accept that life is not always clear-cut, with moral dilemmas and difficult choices; the Puranas and Itihasas show how Gods and sages dealt with similar situations.

The advent of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda is relatively recent, and perhaps we are still (unconsciously) overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of their impact, rendering us incapable of studying their lives without getting stunned into a deep state of reverence.

I have heard this story countless times, and every time, I have been spellbound by the exchange between the Master and his Disciple, as I have been intoxicated by the magic of Naren’s encounter with the living Goddess. Only after I had my fill of the sweetness of this story’s eternal nectar could I look beyond the magic and mysticism to understand what this episode teaches us, ordinary mortals, who are often rendered helpless by the powerful forces of destiny, external forces, and internal compulsions.

The external forces are many and all-pervading. We live in a world where greed is good, and sex is amplified through all media and agencies. A man’s value is measured by the wealth that he has and the influence that he wields in society. Moral and ethical standards are not inviolable — the oft-repeated advice is to be practical and adjust. A ruthless drive to win at all costs is celebrated.

And yet, despite being the most prosperous generation of people ever to be on this planet, having every kind of convenience possible, more people today suffer from mental health issues. Chasing the eternal chimera of “success” and “wealth,” the very thing that Naren contemptuously referred to as “vegetables,” people lose the connection with their “self” and become mere caricatures in their chosen roles. Many are broken from within while struggling to meet society’s demands and expectations.

Naren’s conduct is a sobering reminder that one develops mental strength and resilience through chastity, purity, and an unwavering commitment to one’s ideal. Naren’s ideal was to realise God, an ideal that he did not forsake even for a single day despite the most daunting challenges coming his way.

Like innumerable other devotees and admirers, I revere Swamiji; his words transport me into mesmeric adoration. But that is not enough. To imbibe what he did not just in words but in our daily conduct, isn’t that the path that Swami Vivekananda teaches us?

So, the next time you feel that life has been unfair and dealt you a raw deal, the whole world seems to stand against you, or you are just unsure about what tomorrow brings, remember the strength and power of conviction that a young Naren showed. All of 20 years, or maybe still in his teens, he lit a fire that shook the word out of ignorance and apathy.

A More Personal Lesson For Me

Those of us who are spiritual seekers know that the path is, as Christopher Isherwood famously described, a “razor’s edge.” Spiritual seekers often find their journey to be lonely and beset with doubts. “What the hell am I doing? Am I doing the right thing?” are questions that keep popping up in our heads.

But life has no guaranteed outcomes. Life Is, and it owes you nothing.

Naren asks only for knowledge and devotion. He doesn’t ask for a guaranteed outcome of realizing God, nor does he ask that his spiritual journey be easy.

The outcome may be uncertain and the journey arduous, but strengthened by the power of knowledge and protected by the armor of devotion, he is ready to traverse the path. He doesn’t ask what the future holds for him, for he fears it not.

When I feel discouraged, I think of this episode and start afresh.

I remind myself that we, his followers and devotees, don’t have to fear anything. Swamiji’s strength strengthens us, his stubborn adherence to dharma inspires us, and his protective grace embraces us. Every moment of the day. Every step of the way.

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