ANNAPURNA SARADA, Friday, August 21, 2015 9:13 am

India Pilgrimage 2012-13 – Part 3

The Modern Birthplace of Universality

Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vedanti

Truth is One; sages call It by various names.

– Rig Veda

The second phase of our pilgrimage was four days in the birth villages of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi, affectionately known as the Holy Mother.  Fourteen pilgrims in two cars made our way over the Hooghly/Ganga River, through the Kolkata suburbs, and little by little into the country farmlands of West Bengal.  A mystic haze always seems present at this time of year.  Undoubtedly a mixture of smoke, diesel exhaust, and winter haze, still, it lends a special atmosphere – a veil to be pierced between mundane preoccupations and habitual perceptions, and the eternal rhythm of sanctified activity and communion with God, with Truth.

In our car, which had two teenage girls and SRV’s youth mentor, we recalled and retold as many stories associated with Sri Ramakrishna’s early life as we could remember.  The land and the drive itself helped call these to mind: cranes flying across the sky, the numerous little shrines dotting the landscape, ponds covered with scum or weeds, the rice harvest and the ridges lining the fields all brought to mind various stories and events of his life.

Towards the end of a fast and furious drive, barely skirting cycles, bikes, animals, people, and oncoming trucks and buses, we listened to a new bhajan and stotram album from Babaji and Jai Ma Music.  Jai Ho Vivekananda is dedicated to Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s foremost disciple, whose 150th Birth Centenary is being celebrated all over India and around the world in various places.  Vivekananda was the first sannyasin and illumined soul to bring the Vedanta to the West, creating a sensation in the late 1800’s among the intelligentsia of the United States and England, but most importantly, seeding and empowering a shift in the collective consciousness toward Advaita, nonduality, the singular thread that unites the pearls of all sacred traditions.

One of the bhajans we listened to is called Abhaya Pratistham, “A State Beyond Fear.”  Abhaya means without fear, or fearlessness.  Pratistham, means steady, or “established in”.  This is a bit of prose Swamiji wrote in Sanskrit to his brother disciples, still mostly in their late 20’s, to rouse and sustain the enormous energy and faith needed to start an Order whose motto is: For the Realization of the Self and the Good of the World.  Babaji set it to music with the Sanskrit intact and the English translation recited within an instrumental section.  Here are the lyrics in English:

We will crush the stars to atoms, and dissolve the universe of name and form.  Don’t you know who we are?  We are the servants of Sri Ramakrishna. 

It is only the foolish, attached to their bodies, who piteously cry, “We are weak, we are lowly!”  All this is atheism.  Now that we have attained the state beyond fear, we will abide in our immortal nature forever and become heroes.

Drinking the essence of immortality, renouncing attachment to the world, forsaking that self-serving spirit which is the mother of all dissension, and meditating on the blessed Feet of our Guru which are the embodiment of all well-being, we invite the entire world to share this divine elixir.

That nectar, which has been obtained by churning the ocean of the Vedas, into which Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva have poured their life-essence, which is fortified by the Avatars, God incarnate in human flesh – Sri Ramakrishna holds that nectar within him in fullest measure.

I love contemplating these words.  The opening stanza has become even more clear over the last couple years during which Babaji has taught extensively on Dissolving the Mindstream, a practice that can be followed in Vedanta, Yoga, Sankhya, Tantra, and more.  Form covers formlessness, arising and merging continually; 23 Cosmic Principles evolve out of Prakriti, shimmering like a rainbow oil smear on water – now you see them (waking and dreaming), now you don’t (deep sleep and Turiya/Samadhi).  This dissolution cannot be done consciously in perfect freedom (meditation and Samadhi) so long as there is attachment to elements, senses, and mind/ego, which is responsible for all the selfish craving and action of embodied beings.  And as Swami Aseshanandaji, my mantri Guru, said in every lecture: ”An exemplar is necessary.”  That is what the illumined Guru and the Avatar are – exemplars of how to “sit, walk, and talk”….how to “crush the stars to atoms and dissolve  (or ‘unhinge’) the universe of name and form.”

I am almost digressing here.  We are approaching Kamarpukur, the village where Sri Ramakrishna took birth.  The village has been expanding in the 20 years that I have been visiting.  There are more schools, activities, seva rendered by the Order, and many, many more pilgrims.  Early on, a temple was built over the shed where he was born.  The family deities worshipped by his pious parents continue to receive daily worship as does the Siva temple where his mother would also worship.  A descendent of Ramakrishna’s family takes care of these, while the Ramakrishna Order offers worship in the temple to Sri Ramakrishna. 

An air of sanctity pervades everything.  A charming young woman led us on a tour through the winding, narrow footpaths of the village where various significant events took place: Ramakrishna’s early samadhis as a child, his pranks, the outdoor school where he refused to engage in a mere bread-winning education.  His response at a tender age was something like, “they want to use Mother’s wisdom to bundle rice and plantains.”  The spot that made the strongest impression on me this time was where at age 12 or so, he took the part of Siva in a village play on Sivaratri because the original actor had fallen ill. Imagine, here we have this unusual child who goes into states of absorption when his mind gets concentrated on devotional songs, or scenes of natural beauty, and now someone is covering his body with ashes, tying a skin around his waist, giving him matted locks, and putting a Trident in his hands – emblems of Siva.  All that he has ever heard about Siva in songs and in stories coalesces in his pure, ardent mind – Siva’s compassion, power, renunciation, beauty, Wisdom, and His love for all beings (for example).  The result is a deep Samadhi that he did not wake from until morning.  The crowd of villagers did not get a play; they got darshan with Siva. 

But why am I calling this the birthplace of Universality? And why the quote from the Rig Veda?  There are many outstanding features of Sri Ramakrishna’s life, but two that are most frequently talked about are his teaching on the harmony of religions and his renunciation – a renunciation so natural that whatever he saw to be standing in his way to God-Realization, he simply let go of and could never take it back, even by accident.  The latter probably vies with his constant experience of a wide variety of samadhis, including Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which were daily occurrences.  In the case of his affirming the harmony of religions, we see nothing new, for the Rig Veda stated this out front some 5,000 years ago.  But in Sri Ramakrishna’s life he did not simply realize this as the obvious conclusion of Advaitic (Nondual) Realization, but actually spent time in spiritual practice of the Ideals of other religious approaches.  This, he was uniquely drawn to do because he loved God so much he wanted to experience how others realized Divine Reality.  He merged into Nirvikalpa Samadhi at the culmination of each sadhana, even beyond the Indian dharmas.  Thus, he could say from direct experience borne of different practices that anyone with sincere love of God (by whatever name), following authentic spiritual practices in any tradition, no matter how dichotomous, would arrive at the same Truth. 

So I walked around Kamarpukar, relishing these thoughts, delighting in and grateful for the knowledge of Nonduality gifted afresh in the life of Sri Ramakrishna and transmitted powerfully to Swami Vivekananda to spread broadcast in western society.  Grateful for incomparable exemplars of sadhana, divine life, perfect Freedom and God-Realization. 

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