Practicing Different Religions

Islām

Toward the end of 1866 he began to practise Islām. Under the direction of his Muslim guru, he abandoned himself to his new sādhana. He dressed as a Muslim and repeated the name of Allah.

His prayers took the form of the Islamic devotions. He forgot the Hindu gods and goddesses - even Kāli - and gave up visiting the temples.

He took up his residence outside the temple precincts. After 3 days he saw the vision of a radiant figure, perhaps Mohammed. This figure gently approached him and finally lost himself in Sri Ramakrishna.

Thus he realized the Muslim God. Thence he passed into communion with Brahman. The mighty river of Islam also led him back to the Ocean of the Absolute.

Christianity

Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion.

He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Śambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus.

One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick’s garden house at Dakshineśwar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child.

Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion.

The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul.

The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, “O Mother! What are You doing to me?” And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul.

For 3 days he did not set foot in the Kāli temple.

On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna’s soul: “Behold the Christ who shed His heart’s blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate.”

The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him.

Sri Ramakrishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kāli, Rāmā, Hanuman, Rādhā, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into Samādhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God.

But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others - Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.

Attitude toward Different Religions

Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankarās, who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations.

He was heard saying that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India.

He kept in his room at Dakshineśwar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahāvira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.

Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus realized the ideals of religions other than Hinduism. He did not need to follow any doctrine.

All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love of God. So he became a Master who could speak with authority regarding the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world.

“I have practised”, said he, “all religions - Hinduism, Islam, Christianity - and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths.

You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion - Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavās, and the rest.

But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Śiva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well - the same Rāmā with a thousand names. A lake has several G hāts .

At one, the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it ‘Jal’ ; at another the Muslims take water in leather bags and call it ‘pāni’ . At a third the Christians call it ‘water’ . Can we imagine that it is not ‘jal’, but only ‘pāni’ or ‘water’? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him.”

In 1867, Sri Ramakrishna returned to Kāmārpukur to recuperate from the effect of his austerities. The peaceful countryside, the simple and artless companions of his boyhood, and the pure air did him much good. The villagers were happy to get back their playful, frank, witty, kind-hearted, and truthful Gadādhar, though they did not fail to notice the great change that had come over him during his years in Calcutta.

His wife, Sāradā Devi, now 14 years old, soon arrived at Kāmārpukur. Her spiritual development was much beyond her age and she was able to understand immediately her husband’s state of mind. She became eager to learn from him about God and to live with him as his attendant.

The Master accepted her cheerfully both as his disciple and as his spiritual companion. Referring to the experiences of these few days, she once said: “I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bliss were placed in my heart. The joy was indescribable.”

Pilgrimage

On January 27, 1868, Mathur Bābu with a party of 125 persons set out on a pilgrimage to the sacred places of northern India.

At Vaidyanāth in Behar, when the Master saw the inhabitants of a village reduced by poverty and starvation to mere skeletons, he requested his rich patron to feed the people and give each a piece of cloth. Mathur demurred at the added expense.

The Master declared bitterly that he would not go on to Banāras, but would live with the poor and share their miseries.

He actually left Mathur and sat down with the villagers.

Whereupon Mathur had to yield. On another occasion, two years later, Sri Ramakrishna showed a similar sentiment for the poor and needy. He accompanied Mathur on a tour to one of Mathur’s estates at the time of the collection of rents. For 2 years, the harvests had failed and the tenants were in extreme poverty.

The Master asked Mathur to remit their rents, distribute help to them, and in addition give the hungry people a sumptuous feast. When Mathur grumbled, the Master said:

“You are only the steward of the Divine Mother. They are the Mother’s tenants. You must spend the Mother’s money. When they are suffering, how can you refuse to help them? You must help them.”

Again Mathur had to give in. Sri Ramakrishna’s sympathy for the poor sprang from his perception of God in all created beings. His sentiment was not that of the humanist or philanthropist. To him the service of man was the same as the worship of God.

The party entered holy Banāras by boat along the Ganges. When Sri Ramakrishna’s eyes fell on this city of Śiva, where had accumulated for ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to be made of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved.

During his stay in the city he treated every particle of its earth with utmost respect. At the Manikarnikā Ghāt, the great cremation ground of the city, he actually saw Śiva, with ash-covered body and tawny matted hair, serenely approaching each funeral pyre and breathing into the ears of the corpses the mantra of liberation; and then the Divine Mother removing from the dead their bonds.

Thus he realized the significance of the scriptural statement that anyone dying in Banāras attains salvation through the grace of Śiva. He paid a visit to Trailanga Swāmi, the celebrated monk, whom he later declared to be a real paramahamsa, a veritable image of Śiva.

Sri Ramakrishna visited Allahābad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamuna, and then proceeded to Vrindāvan and Mathura, hallowed by the legends, songs, and dramas about Krishna and the gopis. Here he had numerous visions and his heart overflowed with divine emotion.

He wept and said: “O Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are absent.”

He visited the great woman saint Gangāmāyi, regarded by Vaishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of Rādhā.

She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri Ramakrishna as an incarnation of Rādhā. With great difficulty he was persuaded to leave her.

On the return journey Mathur wanted to visit Gayā, but Sri Ramakrishna declined to go.

He recalled his father’s vision at Gayā before his own birth and felt that in the temple of Vishnu he would become permanently absorbed in God. Mathur, honouring the Master’s wish, returned with his party to Calcutta.

From Vrindāvan the Master had brought a handful of dust. Part of this he scattered in the Panchavati; the rest he buried in the little hut where he had practised meditation. “Now this place”, he said, “is as sacred as Vrindāvan.”

In 1870 the Master went on a pilgrimage to Nadia, the birth-place of Sri Chaitanya. As the boat by which he travelled approached the sand-bank close to Nadia, Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of the “two brothers”, Sri Chaitanya and his companion Nityānanda, “bright as molten gold” and with haloes, rushing to greet him with uplifted hands. “There they come! There they come!” he cried. They entered his body and he went into a deep trance.