THOSE DIVINITIES OF DAKSHINESHWAR---DAKSHINESHWAR ... 1 PURNACHANDRA GHOSH ... 1

THOSE DIVINITIES OF DAKSHINESHWAR ... 1

 

PURNACHANDRA GHOSH ... 1

Purnachandra Ghosh was one of the six direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who were deemed 'Ishvarkoti' (Godlike souls free of the fetters of Maya) by the Master himself. Narendra (Vivekananda), Rakhal (Brahmananda), Baburam (Premananda), Yogin (Yogananda) and Niranjan (Niranjanananda) were the other five. Purna's spiritual altitude was just below Narenda's, the Master averred. He was a fractional incarnation of Vishnu and was thus possessed of pronounced spiritual propensities of the devotion-kind.

Born in late 1871 or early 1872 (exact date not known) into an aristocratic family of North Calcutta to Rai Bahadur Dinanath Ghosh and Krishnamanini Devi, Purnachandra was barely thirteen when he met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time at Dakshineshwar. 

Purna was a student of the Metropolitan Institution, Shyambazar branch, founded by Vidyasagar, where M (Mahendranath Gupta, the chronicler of 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna') was the Headmaster. M who came to be mischievously called by the North Calcuttans 'ছেলেধরা মাস্টার' ('The kidnapper of boys' in literal terms but never actually so, for he was thus named on account of his taking quite a few of his students to the hallowed feet of Sri Ramakrishna), detected the spiritual fire burning within the boy Purna and decided to take him to Dakshineshwar. 

Thus, on a fateful day sometime in March or thereafter in 1885, the two, preceptor and pupil, left for Dakshineshwar during school hours, undetected by Purna's family.

The Master received Purna as his own, intimate, inner-circle devotee, the last of the kind who were to arrive as foretold by the Divine Mother. With the arrival of Purna which literally means 'full', the Master's intimate circle of devotees became full. Now none of such exalted spiritual potential were to arrive anymore. M and Purna returned before school hours were over. The clandestine meet of divine lovers was over this first time but the thirst for it now grew ever after. Sri Ramakrishna became restless to meet his young devotee and Purna yearned for his Master's company no less, M remaining the go-between.

Long, long back Ramakrishna, then freshly returned to the world of men from his spiritual austerities of a decade, used to send forth lamentations from the rooftop of the Dakshineshwar Kuthibari, "ওরে তোরা কে কোথায় আছিস ? আয় | আমি যে আর থাকতে পারি না !" ("O, where are you, my children? Come fast. I can scarce bear it anymore.")

End of Part 1

To be continued...

Written by Sugata Bose