Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a prominent saint of the nineteenth century. His entire life was spent in silent contemplation of God as Goddess Kali. Sri Ramakrishna’s life and teachings have piqued the interest of seekers from all over the world.

Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna is a Mahatma and a renowned Indian saint. Mahatma is a person who, after realizing the Absolute as Reality, feels and notices the Divine Essence in all animate and inanimate objects of the cosmos, according to Indian tradition.

A real mahatma has no attachment to his body and no desire for pleasure. He is a free-living God, and the bright light of Divine understanding radiates from within him at all times; his heart is full with Divine love. His body and intellect are transformed into instruments of God’s will.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s teachings led to the founding of the Ramakrishna Mission by his follower Swami Vivekananda. In the 19th and 20th centuries, both were prominent leaders in the Bengali and Hindu Renaissances.

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The early life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

A son was born on February 18, 1936, to the family of a poor brahmana from the village of Kamarpukur, which is 122 kilometers from Calcutta. He was the fourth child in a family of five. This Indian child will be known over the world as a great Ramakrishna later on.

Ramakrishna was given the name Gadadhar at birth. He was sent to a village school at the age of five, where he learnt to read, write, and count. But the boy was more interested in the lives of renowned saints and sages than in the school curriculum.

He was walking across a rice field one day and eating puffed rice as he went. His gaze was drawn to a flock of snow-white cranes flying like a wedge against the backdrop of a dark thundercloud on the horizon. Gadadhar fell into a trance as a result of this beautiful, contrasted image, and he lost consciousness of the outside world.

He was discovered laying in the field by the townspeople, who carried him home. This was most likely Gadadhar’s first encounter with celestial pleasure.

When Gadadhara was seven years old, his father died. Ramkumar, the oldest brother, relocated to Calcutta and established a school there. Gadadhar, who was already a teenager at the time, came to Calcutta with his brother in 1852 to aid him in his religious duties.

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Observing God in All Beings

He was no longer able to perform his temple obligations. During the ceremony, he would lose consciousness of the outside world and enter the Nirvikalpa Samadhi state. For six months, this went on. If his nephew had not been around him, taking care of his most basic necessities, his body would have left this world much sooner.

Every day, he was losing weight. Following a long period in which he began to perceive God in everyone, he began to convert himself into one God, then another. As a result, he disguised himself as Kali, Rama, Radha, Sita, and even Hanuman.

When Ramakrishna’s relatives and well-wishers saw him in this condition, they decided to take him to a brothel, where he was surrounded by young women. But he acted childishly, recognizing the Divine Mother in them. The women were ashamed of themselves for wanting to be used to entice a holy man, and they prostrated themselves at his feet.

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Marriage of Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna married Sarada Devi, a six-year-old girl, in 1859, when he was 23 years old. It may seem strange, but in Bengal at the time, marriage was viewed more as a promise of marriage. Sarada Devi grew up with her own family and only afterwards (much later) came to Ramakrishna; the marriage was never “completed.”

Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahams

1.A worldly person who is not serious in his devotion to God should not anticipate anything from God in his life.
2.Always pray to God that your connection to transient things like money, fame, and comfort decreases with each passing day.
3.Every religion is the same. The main thing to remember is that you can reach the roof by stone, wooden, bamboo, or rope. You can also use bamboo poles to climb. Religion is simply a means of reaching God; just as different types of stairs lead to different levels of the roof, different religions lead to different levels of God, but the aim remains the same: to reach GOD.

4.God is everywhere and in every particle, yet He is most apparent in a human being, in which case the highest worship of God is to serve the human being as God.
5.If we do karma, we must be dedicated to our karma; only then can karma be significant.
6.The boat should always be in the water, but the water should never be in the boat; similarly, individuals who practice devotion should remain in this world, but they should not be engrossed in worldly intrigue.
7.If we must travel east, we must never travel west; in other words, if we want to achieve success, we must travel east.

8.The route to truth is tough, and while we walk it, we must be focused and humble, for it is only through the truth that one can realize God.

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