Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

INTRODUCTION
Ramakrishna mission is one of the modern movements in India. Which is based on the teaching of a
saint who lived in the nineteenth century’s Ramakrishnaparamahamsa.There are three persons who
have contributed development and strengthen of his movement, first, Sri Ramakrishna himself, second
his foremost disciple Swami Vivekananda, and the third called holy mother, the wife of Sri
Ramakrikrihna Sarada Devi.The Ramakishna movement is one of the living movement in Hinduism
as this movement continues to strength and remains Even to this day. This movement tries to capture
and relieve the social responsibility.

Birth and religious life

Sri Ramakrishna, whose original name of Gadadhar Chatterji was born in the village of Kamarpukur
in the Hoogly, district of west Bengal. Even when he was young Gadadhar had shown extra ordinary
capacity for concentration and memory. 1 He showed tremendous interest in religious stories and often
used to attend kirtans and bhajans held in his village and in the vicinity. After the death of his father
he went to Calcutta from his village, to stay with his brother Rama Kumar, here he was employed as a
poojari in some Hindu families.

Soon after the God-intoxication, he had revealed in his early boyhood became obsessive. Religious
ecstasy threw him into frequent “Samadhi” and (trance), which lasted for hours and even for day
together. Some commentators have called these trances self-hallucination or catalepsies. One thing
seems to be certain Ramakrishna was a simple and sincere man for whom God and religion meant
everything. At a certain period of his life says, Max Muller “a great religious tornado, as were raged
within him”2 and made everything topsy-turvy. We are told he practiced successively different
religions including Christianity and came to the famous conclusion “jata math tata path” (as many
religions so many paths). 3 Ramakrishna had been initiated into different religious disciplines and be
practiced the rich variety of the Sadhanas that one finds in the Hindu, but the interesting thing about
him is that he had also practiced a few sadhanas outside the Hindu tradition. He is said to have lived
like a Muslim, which for him resulted in the vision of the prophet Mohammed.
All these experience confirmed him the truth, which the Vedas, the scripture of the Hindu affirm,
“Reality God is one and sages call to by different name” it is the same god that different religion
strive to know, experience and obey.

What did Sri Ramakrishna teach?

Ramakrishna’s American religious offshoot, the Vedanta Society of Southern California, under the
auspices of Huxley and Isherwood, seemed to place an extraordinary heavy emphasis on Samadhi,
but, although an integral part of the Ramakrishna movement generally, Samadhi didn’t seem to carry
any more than its regular importance otherwise.
1. Sri Ramakrishna taught no creed or dogma. His only concern was man’s uplift. According to
him, there is infinite moral and spiritual potential in man. To develop that potential is man’s
foremost duty in life. He taught man to strive to develop that potential without wasting time
over sense pleasure or religious quibbling.
2. Religions are like so-many paths leading to the same goal, i.e., God. Man reaches his
religious goal when he attains his highest moral development.
3. God is both personal impersonal. It is difficult to conceive an impersonal God, so, to begin
with God has to be thought of as a person. Can anyone think of the white color without
thinking of a white object? One can look at the morning sun, but not at the midday sun.
Similarly, when God is manifested in a person we know what God is like, otherwise God is
impersonal and beyond thought and speech. L

1
Sharma K. Suresh and Usha, Culture and religious heritage of India (New Delhi: Mittal Publication, 2004)
294.
2
S. J. Mamumel Thomas, the Advaita of Vivekananda,(Madras: T.R. Publication, 1991) 14
3
Ibid.,15

1
 4. Be in the world but not of it. Perform your duties as well as you can, but do not count too
much upon the fruits of your action. Rather, surrender them to God. Try to feel as if you are
only a tool at the hands of God.
5. Religion is an experience. Religion makes no sense unless its truths are experienced. Is your
thirst satisfied unless you drink water when you are thirsty?
6. God is everywhere but he is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as
worshipping God.

Foundation of Ramakrishna Mission

In the name of Sri Ramakrishna whom he called his master on1 may 1897. Vivekananda collected
some of his disciples near Calcutta and told them that without strict organization nothing lasting could
be established, therefore, he founded that day the order of Ramakrishna or the “Ramakrishna
Mission” the nature of the Ramakrishna Mission was defined as his instigation more or less as
follows.

1. Its aim is to preach the doctrine of the Ramakrishna for the good of humanity.
2. Its duty is to direct the activities of the movements initiated by Ramakrishna “for the
establishment of the fellowship among the followers of different religion knowing them all to
be only so many forms of one undying eternal religion”.
3. The aim and ideas of the mission being purely spiritual and humanitarian, it would have no
connection with any politics.

In his ideal was embodied the synthesis of the east and west. The emphasis on spirit without
loosing hold on life individual liberation as well as well being of the world” 4 at the same time
Vivekananda stressed that spiritual renewal should be allied with practical service to the poor and
needy.

Work of Ramakrishna Mission

The work of the Ramakrishna mission has grown slowly since Vivekananda death. There are now five
monasteries Belur, Calcutta, Benares, Allahabad, Mayavati on the Himalayas and Bengalore. These
institutions are meant for the residence and training of Sanyasis.
1. Seva Darams and service have grown up “care for the poor and medical relief are their chief
activities, educational works is also attempted in a few places. 5
2. Sri Ramakrishna was to show by his living example how a truly spiritual man being dead to
the world of senses, can live on the plan of God.6
3. His mission was to establish harmony between religious sects and creeds.
4. Sri Ramakrishna mission was to proclaim the eternal truth that God is worshipped by
different nations by various names formless. 7 His mission was to establish the worship of the
divine mother and those to elevate the ideas of womanhood into divine motherhood.

Conclusion: soon word spread about this remarkable man who was to become known as
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and people of all denominations and all stations of life began to come to
him. He taught ceaselessly for fifteen years or so through parables, metaphors, songs and above all by
his own life the basic truths of religion. 8 He passed away in 1886, leaving behind a devoted band of
young disciples headed by the well-known scholar and orator, Swami Vivekananda, followed shortly
thereafter by a just as devoted second generation group.
Presented: Dr. P.P.Joy
Presented By: YonathanBTh UP- I

4
Jacob Kattackal, Religion and Ethics in Advaita, (Kottayam: CMS Press, 1982) 213.
5
J N Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India, (Delhi: Munsiram Manoharlal Publication Pvt. Ltd.,
1998) 205.
6
Dhuruva, A.B., Teaching of Sri Ramakrishna, (Ahmadabed: Hindu Univarsity.1999). 164.
7
Jabob Kattackal, Religion and Ethics in Advaita, (Kottayam: CMS press. 1982). 213.
8
J. N, Farquhar. Modern religious Movements in India, (Delhi: Munsiram Manoharlal Publication Pvt. Ltd.,
1998). 205.