One day Sri Ramakrishna in the Samadhi state had a strange vision. He was soaring high in a luminous path. He soared higher and higher and came to a point where no one was seen, but only seven sages seated in deep meditation. As he was gazing at them, a portion of undifferentiated light took the portion of a child, went to one of the sages, clasped his neck with its lovely arms and told him “I am going down. You too must come with me”. The sage in meditation opened his eyes and gazed at the child with love and tenderness and again closed his eyes. But now a fragment of the body and mind of the sage started descending down to earth as a ball of light. When Sri Ramakrishna came out of the Samadhi, he realized he was the child in the vision and now he began looking for the sage.
When young Naren came to him
with his friends in his quest for meeting someone who had seen God, Ramakrishna
realised that he was the sage in his vision. So he felt intensely drawn to him,
and in the first meeting itself he took the bewildered Naren aside, took
Naren’s hand in his and said with tears flowing from his eyes “I know you are
the ancient sage” among other things. Naren
who was expecting to receive some private instructions, was completely baffled
by his strange words and behaviour but heard him fully and allowed himself to
be fed sweets by him and also promised to visit him again. As they came out of the room Sri Ramakrishna
asked Naren whether he sees a light before falling asleep. When Naren replied in the affirmative, Sri
Ramakrishna declared before others that Naren was a Dhyana Siddha, an adept in his
meditation even from birth. As Naren loved to meditate even as a child, these
remarks convinced Naren of his deep spiritual powers but left him confused as to his rationality in view of his eccentric behaviour. In this first meeting
only, Naren popped his usual question “Sir, have you seen God?” and received the
now world-famous reply “Yes, I have seen God.
I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I
am talking to you”.
So when Naren returned alone next month, it was with the opinion that
Sri Ramakrisna was a monomaniac. This
time another strange thing happened. Sri Ramakrishna moved slowly near him and placed
his right foot on Naren’s chest. Then whole world including the walls of the
room seem to whirl around as he drifted into a void. In a state of panic Naren
cried aloud ”What are you doing to me? I have my parents at home”. Sri
Ramakrisna laughed aloud and stroked his chest stating everthing will come in
time and Naren became normal. Naren
thought he had been hypnotised but he wondered how a man of strong will like him could
be hypnotised against his will. So the
next time he went with a resolve that he will not relax his guard even for a moment. This time Sri Ramakrishna took him for a walk
in neighbour’s garden. After a walk when they sat down in the parlour, Sri
Ramakrishna looked at Naren strangely and fell into a state of trance. And in
that state of trance he touched Naren and Naren lost consciousness and knew nothing until
he regained consciousness, when he found Sri Ramakrishna stroking his
chest. Sri Ramakrishna later
revealed that he questioned Naren in his unconscious state and got the confirmation that Naren was the sage as he surmised and that Naren
will give up the body in yoga the day he realised by himself the truth about his self.
Thereafter Naren gave up
doubting whether Sri Ramakrishna was a hypnotist or a monomaniac, but he still
retained his scepticism of image worship and he also did not accept totally Sri
Ramakrishna as his Guru. Rather he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna’s visions
and talks with Divine Mother as hallucinations. But thereafter there was no
doubt in his heart regarding Sri Ramakrishna’s sincerity, renunciation,
selflessness and integrity and he responded with equal measure the special love
that Sri Ramakrishna bore him. If Naren
did not turn up for a few days, Sri Ramakrishna will enquire others about his
health or ask them to convey that he is missing Naren. On one occasion, he went to Naren’s house
looking for him and on another occasion went to Brahma Samaj meeting where
Naren sang in the choir. Naren felt embarrassed by all this attention and once
remarked that like Jada Bharatha, whose love for the deer dragged him down from
his spiritual heights to be born as a deer, Sri Ramakrishna may be dragged down
to Naren’s level because of his excessive affection for him. Sri Ramakrishna felt so distressed by these
remarks that he straight went to Divine
Mother for guidance and then came back to Naren with these words “You rogue, I
won’t listen to you anymore. Mother says
I love you because I see God in you, and the day I no longer see God in you I shall
not be able to bear even the sight of you.”
Sri Ramakrishna tried to initiate him into Advaita philosophy by asking him to read aloud Advaithic scriptures like Ashtavakra Gita. Groomed as he was in
Brahma Samaj doctrines, Naren rebelled against the concept of Jiva-Brahma Ikyam calling it a blasphemy akin to atheism. But Sri Ramakrishna persisted with his
efforts arguing that Naren should not try to limit God’s infinitude and he
should try to pursue the path of Truth, praying to the aspect of God that
appeals to him without rejecting other views off-hand. On one such occasion
Naren left the room and went to the relative of Sri Ramakrishna in the next
room and said with a big laughter “How can this be? The jug is God, the cup is
God and we too are God; nothing can be more preposterous!” Sri Ramakrishna then
entered the room in a state of semi-trance and touched him saying “Hallo! What
are you talking about” and went into a state of Samadhi. What effect it had on Naren can better be described in Naren’s words, as given
in his biography.
“That magic touch of the
Master, that day immediately brought a wonderful change over my mind. I was stupefied to find that really there was
nothing in the Universe but God! I saw
it quite clearly but kept silent to see if the idea would last. But the
impression did not abate in the course of the day. I returned home, but there
too everything I saw appeared to be Brahman. I sat down to take my meal, but
found that everything-the food, the plate, the person who served and even
myself – was nothing but That. I ate a morsel or two and sat still. I was startled by my mother’s
words “Why do you sit still? Finish your meal”- and began to eat again. But all
the while, whether eating or lying down or going to college, I had the same
experience and I felt myself always in a comatose state. While walking in streets, I noticed cabs
plying but I did not feel inclined to move out of the way. I felt that the cabs and myself were one
stuff. There was no sensation in my
limbs which I thought were getting paralyzed.
I did not relish eating, and felt as if somebody else were eating” This
lasted for few days and his mother started worrying about him. In a few days this state slightly changed and
he started seeing things as if in a dream. He will periodically knock his head
against something to assure himself that he was not dreaming. In another few days he
became normal. This experience convinced
him of the truth of Advaita philosophy and transformed him to see Brahman in all.
Now there came a crisis in Naren’s life. Naren’s father died suddenly,
leaving no money but heavy debts. Naren
had to go without food on some days. He gave up studies and started looking for a job. One day he came to Sri Ramakrishna
and asked him to pray to the Divine Mother to remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna asked him to do it
himself. He entered the shrine of Kali
and as he stood before the image in a prayerful attitude he saw not an image but
a living Goddess of liberating wisdom and he prayed for renunciation and liberation and came back to Sri
Ramakrishna. When he narrated what
happened, Sri Ramakrishna rebuked Naren for forgetting the purpose for which he
went there and asked him to go again and pray for the removal of poverty.
Second time also he forgot the purpose in her presence and asked only for
knowledge and liberation. This happened a third time also and then in a flash
he realised that this was the work of Sri Ramakrishna and so straightaway asked
Sri Ramakrishna to remove his
poverty and was assured that his family will not suffer for basic necessities
like food, clothing and shelter.
After this Naren was
convinced about personal God in the relative plane and also that Divine power can
flow through image. Now the
transformation of the philosopher to devotee was complete and this delighted
Sri Ramakrishna in no small measure.
Shortly after this Sri Ramakrishna remarked to a devotee pointing first
to himself and then to Naren, who silently agreed with him, ”I see I am this and again that. Really I feel no difference. A stick floating in Ganges seems to divide
water; but in reality the water is one.----- Well, whatever is, is the Mother”
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