'KALPATARU DIVAS' -- REFLECTIONS OF AN ALTERED ORDER
We will be celebrating 'Kalpataru Divas' tomorrow, but just reflect on the physical suffering the Master endured for us then when he blessed us, his body emaciated and wasting away from the rigours of cancer, when he could have easily cast off his earthly encasement by an act of will but chose not to. Instead, he kept suffering the horrible torment of cancer to keep up the spirits of his intimate disciples who he was building up gradually into the nucleus of the future Ramakrishna Order, the nascent body which would, to quote Swamiji, deluge the whole world in times to come with the flood of Indian spirituality.
The Master himself said to his disciples that whenever he contemplated the idea of giving up his physical body, his thoughts reflected on to the scene where he beheld his disciples crying in his absence on the streets of the city. Such a bereavement of his loved ones he could not bear and he decided to keep up his form till his disciples in spiritual realisation would be ready to receive the shock of separation from him and would then concentrate on building up their spiritual lives and so initiate the vast movement for which the Master had assumed terrestrial form for the while.
Thus the training went on with the intimate disciples, in groups of two at a time, taking turns to nurse their preceptor while the rest concentrated on other chores and their spiritual practices. The disciples in service and devotion, in austerity and nursing blossomed before their Master whose eagle eye beheld each one's development with attentive care and guided it towards the goal supreme, the merger in the Infinite.
This day, however, Thakur was feeling unusually well as the disciples started trickling in, it being a public holiday as the beginning of a new year. Thus did 1 January, 1886 become in the annals of the Ramakrishna Movement the Day of Benediction of the Master when he out of his infinite bounty blessed all assembled devotees with the priceless gift of spiritual realisation.
The day had its dramatic moment as the doyen of Bengali theatre, Girish Chandra Ghosh, arrived to light up the scene. Thakur was taking an uncharacteristic afternoon walk then when he came upon Girish who had just arrived at the Garden House of Kashipur where the Master was during his terminal illness.
Instantly the Master quizzed Girish thus : " Hey you, what is it that you have understood about this that you go about speaking thus to all and sundry?" [This was in reference to the fact that Girish used to go about hailing Thakur as Avatar or Divine Incarnation before all he ran into during his daily intercourse.]
Flash came the response from the master dramatist, now folded hands and on his knees : "Sir, about whom Vyasa and Valmiki have run short of words, I, insignificant Girish, what more have I said?"
Like lightning the words struck the Master and his spirit soared unto samadhi, the transcendental state of supernal blissful knowledge. When he came unto himself in the physical world, the Master was in a transport still and opened the inner recesses of his great spiritual heart, pouring out love supernal for all who came into his presence.
Written by Sugata Bose
We will be celebrating 'Kalpataru Divas' tomorrow, but just reflect on the physical suffering the Master endured for us then when he blessed us, his body emaciated and wasting away from the rigours of cancer, when he could have easily cast off his earthly encasement by an act of will but chose not to. Instead, he kept suffering the horrible torment of cancer to keep up the spirits of his intimate disciples who he was building up gradually into the nucleus of the future Ramakrishna Order, the nascent body which would, to quote Swamiji, deluge the whole world in times to come with the flood of Indian spirituality.
The Master himself said to his disciples that whenever he contemplated the idea of giving up his physical body, his thoughts reflected on to the scene where he beheld his disciples crying in his absence on the streets of the city. Such a bereavement of his loved ones he could not bear and he decided to keep up his form till his disciples in spiritual realisation would be ready to receive the shock of separation from him and would then concentrate on building up their spiritual lives and so initiate the vast movement for which the Master had assumed terrestrial form for the while.
Thus the training went on with the intimate disciples, in groups of two at a time, taking turns to nurse their preceptor while the rest concentrated on other chores and their spiritual practices. The disciples in service and devotion, in austerity and nursing blossomed before their Master whose eagle eye beheld each one's development with attentive care and guided it towards the goal supreme, the merger in the Infinite.
This day, however, Thakur was feeling unusually well as the disciples started trickling in, it being a public holiday as the beginning of a new year. Thus did 1 January, 1886 become in the annals of the Ramakrishna Movement the Day of Benediction of the Master when he out of his infinite bounty blessed all assembled devotees with the priceless gift of spiritual realisation.
The day had its dramatic moment as the doyen of Bengali theatre, Girish Chandra Ghosh, arrived to light up the scene. Thakur was taking an uncharacteristic afternoon walk then when he came upon Girish who had just arrived at the Garden House of Kashipur where the Master was during his terminal illness.
Instantly the Master quizzed Girish thus : " Hey you, what is it that you have understood about this that you go about speaking thus to all and sundry?" [This was in reference to the fact that Girish used to go about hailing Thakur as Avatar or Divine Incarnation before all he ran into during his daily intercourse.]
Flash came the response from the master dramatist, now folded hands and on his knees : "Sir, about whom Vyasa and Valmiki have run short of words, I, insignificant Girish, what more have I said?"
Like lightning the words struck the Master and his spirit soared unto samadhi, the transcendental state of supernal blissful knowledge. When he came unto himself in the physical world, the Master was in a transport still and opened the inner recesses of his great spiritual heart, pouring out love supernal for all who came into his presence.
Written by Sugata Bose
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