Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Sri Ramakrishna's Power - Sri Sharada Devi

This article explores the concept of Shakti - Power in Hindu spiritual thought, with special emphasis on the Ramakrishna phenomenon.

Sri Ramakrishna’s Power – Sri Sharada Devi On shan no mitrah sham varunaha; shan no bhavataryamaan; shan na Indro brihaspatihi; shan no vishnururukramaha; Namo brahmane; Namaste vaayo; tvameva pratyaksham brahmaasi; tvaameva pratyaksham Brahma vadishyaami; ritam vadishyaami; satyam vadishyaami; tan maamavatu; tad vaktaaramavatu; avatu maan; avatu vaktaaram; om shantih, shantih, shantihi. Harih Om. This is a Shanti Mantra from the Yajur Veda. I should have chanted one of the pranama mantras by Swami Saradananda or Abhedananda. Instead I began with a Vedic Shanti Mantra. There is a reason why I did so, which I will explain during the next 30 minutes. In the course of explaining this reason, I will also try to situate the personality of Holy Mother in world history. This Shanti Mantra says, Namo brahmane; Namaste vaayo; tvameva pratyaksham brahmaasi; tvaameva pratyaksham Brahma vadishyaami; Salutation to Brahman! Salutation to you, O Vayu! You indeed are the visible Brahman. I shall proclaim you as the visible Brahman. Notice how Brahman and Vayu are addressed in the same breath. Also notice how Vayu is addressed as the visible Brahman. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna contains innumerable references to the identity of Brahman and its Shakti; Brahma-Shakti abheda; Shakti-Shaktiman-Abheda. In every conversation, Sri Ramakrishna somehow brought in this point. This issue is not raised anywhere else in the history of Hindu religion. Nowhere else do we find such a discussion. No Hindu philosopher raises this issue. Many mighty dilemmas have been raised; many subtle topics have been dealt with by various Hindu spiritual thinkers and philosophers. Then why did Sri Ramakrishna make such a big deal about this? Ancient Hindus always considered Reality as having two aspects – the Transcendental or the Impersonal God, and the Immanent or the Personal God. They are denoted by the generic terms Brahman and Shakti. Shakti is present right from the earliest Vedas, in various forms such as Sri, Rayi, Vak, Saraswati, Medha, Durga, Bhu, and Shraddha. Then in the Upanishads, it takes the forms of Pushan, Vayu, Prana, Hiranyagarbha, Avyakta, Avyakrita, Prakriti, Saguna Brahman, Savishesha Brahman, Pratyaksha Brahman, Guru, and Maya. Although there are so many names, we must recognize that it is the same entity identified by all these names – the Power component of Pure Existence. Contrast this constant name change for Power with the variety of names used for Existence in the Vedas & Upanishads. Pure Existence is known by only four names during this entire period – Purusha, Brahman, Atman, and Sat! This Brahma-Shakti identity was embedded in the Vedic tradition for thousands of years. About 2500 years ago, Buddha brought about a major disruption in this tradition. Buddha entirely ignored the Pure Existence aspect of Reality and emphasized only the Yoga aspects of Religion. We need not bother about what Buddha actually taught and whether the philosophical dichotomy was the result of later Buddhist thinkers. In the post-Buddhist period, a group of Hindus came up with the Tantras entirely dedicated to Shakti. The Tantras came up as a balancing act for the Buddhist version of Hindu religious thought. Pure Existence had to be balanced with Power. With the birth and growth of Tantras, people who had considered Buddhist religious thought as something unique and separate from Hindu Vedic thought, were able to recognize that Buddhist thought was just old wine in a new bottle. Hence, nothing called ‘Buddhism’ remained separately in India, for it was absorbed back into the Mother Religion. Another area where a deep vacuum was felt in post-Buddhistic Hindu thought was in the clarity regarding Yoga. A spiritual giant called Patanjali appeared and provided a most scientific system of Yoga to complete the disrupted mosaic. The Vedas & Upanishads had considered Jnana, Page 1 of 7 Shakti & Vidya as indivisible. Buddhism separated these three strands. Buddhist Agnosticism took the place of Jnana. Tantras supplied the Shakti strand, and Patanjali supplied the Yoga strand. This completed the original picture of Hindu religious thought. This brought back Hinduism to the Vedic, pre-Buddhistic state. With these developments, the fracture that had occurred in Hindu religious thought was almost repaired, so to speak. If we do not understand this history of Hindu religious thought, we will be at a loss to make sense of why Sri Ramakrishna made such a big issue of Naren accepting Kali or about this BrahmaShakti identity. Again, when we read the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, we find him speaking again and again on how Buddha was a Hindu, how Buddhism is Hinduism, how Buddha tried to reform Hinduism, how Buddhism is a fulfilment of Hinduism. Sri Ramakrishna reiterating the Brahma-Shakti identity and Swami Vivekananda reiterating the amalgamation of Buddha with Hindu religious thought – these are two sides of the same coin. So, in the wake of the Buddhist reformation of Hinduism, we have three separate traditions of Brahma Jnana, Tantras, and Yoga. That which had been one organic whole till the pre-Buddha period, now existed as three autonomous entities. There was one more major point of confusion in this already garbled philosophical & religious atmosphere in India. Buddha kept his message as practical as possible. In fact, he over-practicalized his message, if we are allowed to use such a term. The Vedic & Upanishadic religion demanded great conceptual rigor of its students. In his unprecedented fervor to bring the benefits of religion to everyone, Buddha relaxed that rigor. He said, ‘Don’t bother about Brahman, Shakti and Yoga. You are alive. You are in misery. Get rid of misery. Help others get rid of misery.’ He never bothered to specify what remained when misery vanished. Buddha never gave any value to philosophy. He was an ever practical religious teacher. But, you can’t keep religious teaching hanging in the air, or in a vacuum. Religious teaching has to be couched in a deep cultural context consisting of philosophy, rituals, mythology, architecture, and music. Later Buddhist scholars sprang up who made a mess of the entire thing. Neither could they connect Buddha’s teachings to the Upanishads, nor could they hammer out a solid philosophy based on their Prophet’s teachings. Hence, the post-Buddhist period was a dark era of philosophical pandemonium. Buddha’s impact on Hinduism was extremely deep, and lasted long. It took an enormous effort from the Mother Religion to digest Buddha, Buddha’s teachings, and the philosophy that came up in his name. One of the major effects of Buddha’s influence on religion was the extreme insistence on monasticism as non-negotiable criterion for spiritual life. Records point out that the entire country got dotted with monasteries within 500 years of Buddha! The best blood of the society, both men and women, took monastic vows. How can society survive in such circumstances? Although Sri Ramachandra antedated Sri Krishna and Buddha, chronologically, we have reasons to believe that Rama began to be projected as an ideal for society in the post-Buddhist era. We can’t fail to notice how, for the 1st time in this land, an ideal was projected for woman in the personality of Sita. The rise of Sita, as personification of Shakti, in the national consciousness was the 1st reaction to the postBuddhistic rejection of Shakti. Thus, the post-Buddhistic India had the following characteristics, from the religious point of view. We had a validation of Brahma Jnana in Buddha’s life. All his utterances regarding his own state of existence, regarding his own spiritual experience under the Bodhi tree, echoed the experiences of the Upanishad Rishis. Although the idioms, words, metaphors and the language used were very different, discerning people recognized the unmistakable similarity; hence Buddha had to be recognized as an Avatara, equal in stature to Vamadeva, Yagnavalkya, Bhrigu, Nachiketa, Sri Krishna, and others. However, his teachings could not be easily squared with the philosophy of the Page 2 of 7 Vedas & Upanishads, which had been beautifully systematized by Vyasa in the Brahma Sutras. Moreover, Buddha himself had been iconoclastic in rejecting any connection with, or inspiration from, the Vedas, Upanishads, or Guru paramparas. So, it was impossible to incorporate Buddha’s teachings into the original Veda-Upanishad framework, but it was also simultaneously clear that he was indeed one of the old Rishis and was indeed speaking of the same Brahma Jnana. Hence a series of Buddhist scholars came up who tried to weave a unique philosophy, starting afresh, completely dissociated from the Vedas, Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. So, now in order to salvage the situation, the orthodox Hindus came up with a grand plan in six phases. The Vishnu Purana was composed which incorporated the personality of Buddha as an Avatara.1 That was the 1st part. The personality of Sita-Ramachandra was projected as an ideal for the common man through the Itihasa called Ramayana. That was the 2nd part. The Tantras were created to incorporate Shakti worship, which had been ignored by major schools of Buddhist philosophy. That was the 3rd part. The Paatanjala Yoga system was formulated and popularized to fulfil the need of Brahma Vidya, which had been also left in the lurch by Buddhistic philosophy. That was the 4th part. Buddha had clearly shown the chinks in the Indian society, because of which a huge chunk of the lower rungs of the then Indian society had enrolled itself in the Buddhist Sangha, which was an alternative to the original social structure of caste system. The only incentive Buddha had given to these lower castes was access to the highest spiritual knowledge as soon as they become members of the Sangha. The Hindu leaders realized this sentiment. They came up with innumerable worship systems of the Personal God, drawing from the Vedic pantheon, and incorporating the local deities of the gate-crashing mob from across the borders. This crystallized as the cults of the Five-gods: Shiva, Shakti, Surya, Ganapathi, and Vishnu. The Hindu leaders of this period had discovered the method of creating Puranas, in place of fresh Vedas and Upanishads to provide a basis for this worship of the Personal God. But, more importantly re-initiated the one vital requisite for anything religious in India – they linked up each one of these new developments with the Vedas, Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. Thereby they gave authenticity to the new order of things. This worship of the Personal God by creating cults paid off for Hinduism. The lower castes were retained within the Mother Religion! The Sangha started dwindling. There never was any conscious driving out of the Buddhist Sangha from India. The membership dwindled and the old Hindu religion, armed with its new tools, re- 1 The Hindu religion is built on a very strange belief. It believes that our world undergoes a total transformation every 1500 years. The nature of the Power that operates this world is such that this Power initiates some powerful ideas once every 1500 years. Once initiated, those few ideas dominate the worldview. Then those ideas spawn tremendous changes in all aspects of human affairs. As those ideas materialize, tremendous internal conflicts arise in various aspects of human affairs, necessitating the Power behind this world to pump in newer ideas to resolve the conflicts. Thus the cycle continues. Each such infusion of ideas happens through the life of a powerful person. We have called them Rishis in the Vedic-Upanishadic age. The message, and the path, shown by each Rishi was recorded as either a complete Upanishad or as a chapter in an Upanishad. This went on till Sri Krishna. The Upanishad literature got so proliferated by his time, that he stopped recording the contributions of further Power-manifestations in the Upanishads. Sri Krishna brought Vyasa with him to systematize the existing Upanishads, while he ended the tradition of recording further power infusions as newer Upanishads. Krishna introduced the concept of Avatara, which was nothing but the concept of the Upanishad Rishi. Page 3 of 7 absorbed Buddhist monasteries and members back into its fold. All the ancient temples in India are Buddhist places of worship reabsorbed into orthodox Hinduism. That was the 5th part. Then came Acharya Shankara who unleashed the 6th part of the grand plan to repair the damage sustained from the Buddhistic onslaught on India and the Hindu religion. The creation of the Vishnu Purana took care of the personality of Buddha. But the philosophy was still hazy. Were the Upanishads right? Or was Buddhist philosophy right? Acharya Shankara settled this once and for all. He did that by writing commentaries on eleven principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and surprisingly, on the Gita! That was his way of establishing connection of his philosophy with the Vedic and Upanishadic past.2 And he went to great lengths to establish that the Upanishads proclaim the extreme non-dualistic philosophy. This was again a point of contention among philosophical circles. There were highly evolved spiritual leaders in India who had experienced the Personal God. Hence that must be true too. It would not do to insist that Advaita alone was true. It would not do to insist that the Upanishads proclaimed only Advaita. One more problem that arose was that of practicality. Extreme non-dualism is not practical. It is entirely transcendental. Buddha’s imprint on Hinduism was permanent; he had indelibly written on the history pages of Hinduism that religion had to be practical. It would not do to reveal a purely transcendental ideal for humanity. Hence came up many more schools of philosophy, prominent among them being the Visistadvaita of Acharya Ramanuja and the Dvaita of Acharya Madhva. Sri Ramakrishna discovered the harmony among the various versions of religions both within India, and from across the borders. He integrated Jnana and Shakti within Hindu religious thought. He integrated Christianity and Islam with Hindu religious thought by situating them in the AdvaitaVisistadvaita-Dvaita continuum. Thus the ideals represented by various religious thoughts were harmonized by Sri Ramakrishna. That left Swami Vivekananda to synthesize the Yoga aspects of all religious thoughts, both Indian and those from across the borders. He wrote four detailed books, one on each Yoga. So, the Jnana portion was harmonized by Sri Ramakrishna, the Yoga portion was synthesized by Swami Vivekananda, and Shakti was personified in Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. She herself said very clearly, “Thakur has left me here in this world to demonstrate the Motherhood of God.”3 Buddha almost entirely concentrated on Yoga alone, saying that if the means is perfected, the end must come on its own. That is why Swamiji once said, “The Advaita, as applied in its Yoga2 An inviolable tradition of the ancient Hindu religion was that every time an Avatara appeared, he would reveal a new spiritual ideal for humanity, and he would also establish his continuity with the previous Avataras and their revelations. It was the Avatara’s duty to do this. That is why we find every Rishi in the Upanishad spelling out his own realization and thereby revealing a new ideal for the age, and in the same breath saying, ‘Tadapyesha sloko bhavati’, or ‘Tadetat satyam’, and quoting some obscure passage from the past, with which he links his own message. Buddha overstepped his brief when he broke away from this inviolable tradition. 3 Shakti is extremely elusive. The message revealed by an Avatara remains. The power behind the message has an inherent tendency to hide itself from plain sight. As time goes on, as the Avatara’s message matures, this power behind the message becomes more and more hidden. To avoid this problem, Sri Ramakrishna established Holy Mother as a representation of the power that manifested him, so that thousands of years later, when his message would have matured beyond recognition, the power that unleashed Sri Ramakrishna on earth would still be available to posterity. When a symbol is given to an abstract concept, the abstract concept becomes tangible. Thus, while Universal Power was responsible for the manifestation of all Avataras, with the passage of time, the Power is lost sight of, since the Power had no visible personality to be associated with. This problem has been preempted and subverted by Sri Ramakrishna when he projected Holy Mother as the visible symbol of that Universal Power. Page 4 of 7 perception form, is Buddhism.”4 Buddhism essentially refused to deal with Brahman, and practically eschewed all considerations of Para-Shakti. But Buddhism fine-tuned the techniques of Yogameditation and spread it among all countries that it reached. Since Buddhism refused to deal with Brahman, and Shakti, the Impersonal & Personal God, the orthodox Hindus rejected Buddhism. But, by the time the Hindus rejected Buddhism, it had already struck deep roots in the Middle East and South-East Asia, by following the Silk Route. This transplanted Buddhism deeply influenced Christianity and Islam and through these two religions, the ancient Hindu ideas made lasting impact on Europe. The entire Age of Reason, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution was an outcome of these Hindu ideas of Yoga, working among the Europeans through the Christian and Islamic form. While Buddhism rejected the idea of Para-Shakti, the complement of Para-Brahman, Buddhism still gave great value to Dharma, the principles along which our world operates, and Sangha, which is actually an accumulation of power, co-ordination of the will of its members. Dharma & Sangha are the gross forms of Para-Shakti. This idea was picked up by the Europeans, as it trickled down to them through Christian and Islamic lenses, and this idea initiated an incredible revolution in thought. When we study the works of Newton, Lagrange, Hamilton, & Euler, right up to the recent quantum mechanics & relativistic physicists such as Einstein, Niels Bohr and Feynman, we find the one common idea running behind all their efforts is – how to understand motion and energy. These sustained efforts have created the amazing field of Western Science. This is the study of Shakti completely divested of its connection with the transcendental aspect, Brahman. Thus, when Swamiji started working on rejuvenating religion, he found the following traditions available before him in the world: the pursuit of Pure consciousness in the Vedanta tradition in India; the pursuit of Energy in the form of Science & technology in the West. With his deep insight, he was able to see that if he delineated the Vidya or Yoga aspect, the job of rejuvenating religion would be complete. Swamiji therefore said, “What we need is Western Science coupled with Vedanta, with Brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and Shraddha and faith in oneself.” These three things – Vedanta, Western Science & Shraddha, and Brahmacharya – are the three strands of Brahma Jnana, Shakti and Yoga. With the advent of Sri Ramakrishna, Hinduism is completely back to its original form, the ancient Vedic form. That is why Sister Nivedita said, “Of the Swami’s address before the Parliament of Religions, it may be said that when he began to speak, it was of ‘the religious ideas of the Hindus’, but when he ended, Hinduism had been created.” Establishing the identity of Parabrahman with Para-Shakti through Brahma Vidya or Yoga in our personal life is the roadmap for the future. All developments till the present age have enabled the practicalization of this ideal. We had lost this tradition and it was re-initiated by Sri Ramakrishna. Hence Swamiji used to say that Satya Yuga began when Sri Ramakrishna was born. To us, Sri Ramakrishna is the representation of Parabrahman, Holy Mother is the representation of Para-Shakti, and Swamiji is the representation of Yoga. Hence, the tradition in our Order is to keep all three of them on the same pedestal. It would be harmful to us to see them as different. As Swamiji would repeatedly point out, Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother are not persons, but principles. Holy Mother represents this Shakti. She said, “Thakur and I are absolutely one. There is no difference between us.” Holy Mother is the Shakti present in every religion in the world. Swamiji brings this out very clearly in his essay ‘East & the West’. He writes, “The Dharma of the Westerners is worship of Shakti – the Creative Power regarded as the Female Principle. It is this worship of Shakti that is openly and universally practiced in the West. The idea of motherhood, i.e. the relation of a child to its mother, is also noticed in great measure. In Europe, as a religious force, Protestantism is not very significant. There the religion is, in fact, Roman Catholic. In the Roman Catholic religion, 4 CW: Vol-5: Epistles – 1st Series: XXXIX: From USA on 6th May, 1895 to Alasinga Page 5 of 7 Jehovah, Jesus, and the Trinity are secondary; there, the worship is for the Mother – She, the Mother, with the Child Jesus in her arms. The emperor cries “Ave Maria”, the field-marshal cries “Ave Maria”, the soldier with the flag in his hand cries “Ave Maria”, the sailor at the helm of his ship cries “Ave Maria”, the fisherman with his net cries “Ave Maria”, the beggar in the street cries “Ave Maria”! A million voices in a million ways, from a million places – from the palace, from the cottage, from the church, cry “Mother”, “Mother”! Everywhere, day & night, you can hear the cry “Ave Maria”, “Ave Maria”! Next is the worship of the woman. This Shakti-worship is not lust, but is that Shakti-Puja, that worship of the Kumari and the Sadhava, which is done in Varanasi, Kalighat, etc. It is Shakti-puja, not in mere thought, not in imagination, but in actual, visible form. Our Shakti-puja in India is only in holy places, and performed only at certain times; but theirs is in every place and always, every day, all round the year. Foremost is the woman’s state, foremost is her dress, her seat, her food, her wants, and her comforts; the first honors in all respects are accorded to her. Not to speak of the noble-born, not to speak of the young and the fair, it is the worship of any and every woman, be she an acquaintance or a stranger. The Mohammedans first introduced this Shakti-worship into Europe when they conquered Spain and ruled her for eight centuries. It was the Muslims who first sowed the seeds of Western civilization and Shakti-worship in Europe. In course of time, the Muslim Moor forgot this ShaktiWorship and fell from their position of strength, culture and glory, to live scattered and unrecognized in an unnoticed corner of Africa, and their power and civilization passed over to Europe. The Mother, leaving the Moors, smiled Her loving blessings on the Christians and illumined their homes.5 These are Swamiji’s own words. And this power that is ruling over this world, that is controlling the destinies of nations, is embodied in our Holy Mother. I will end by quoting an experience of Swami Ashokananda, which he described to Sister Gargi, who included it in her book, ‘A heart poured out’. It was during his stay in Calcutta that Yogesh (which was Swami Ashokananda’s premonastic name) visited Holy Mother for the 1st time. Ashokananda said, “I had not believed that Holy Mother was as great as she was said to be. I thought the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna made much of her because she had been his wife. Then one day when I was walking with a friend, he told me that he had read that Swami Vivekananda had said she was the Divine Mother. I was at once convinced of it; there was no doubt left in my mind at all. It was as though my mind had really become certain of her divinity without my knowing it; it needed only Swamiji’s word for the fact to become fully consciously accepted.” So Yogesh became very eager to take the dust of Holy Mother’s feet, and on the last day of his stay in Calcutta he went to her house in Bosepara Lane. The terrifying Swami Saradananda was Mother’s attendant and strict doorkeeper at that time. He told this eager boy that Mother could not see anyone just then. He was a big man and spoke gravely. But Yogesh pushed him aside and ran up the stairs. Holy Mother was sitting veiled on her bed. He did not see her face, but he touched her feet in awe and made a fervent prayer. When he went downstairs, he apologized to Swami Saradananda with embarrassment. But the great Swami just laughed and said, “That is how one should go to Mother. One should not let anyone stand in the way.” On the way back to Sylhet that night, the train missed its connection with the morning boat that crossed the Brahmaputra River. The next boat would not leave until evening, so Yogesh had to wait all day in the town by the river. Ashokananda said, “All day long, I felt and saw a tremendous living power working through the universe, turning it topsy-turvy, kneading and molding and giving a different shape to the world. There was a terrible fear in it. If you were to find the Pacific Ocean lashed into waves fifty to hundred 5 CW: Vol-5: Writings: Prose & Poems: The East & The West: Pt-V: Etiquette & Manners Page 6 of 7 feet high over the city, you would feel a sense of terror. I felt as if there was a tremendous wave of cosmic power moving over this universe. It was fearful, and at the same time there was a sense of great attraction and love and a sense of unity and nearness. Here was a little indication, a little perception of the power aspect of God. I touched the Holy Mother’s feet, and she made me feel that she was that power. It was like Swamiji’s poem about the Divine Mother – just like that.” 6 I draw your attention to the expression that Swami Ashokananda has used in describing his amazing experience. He says, “I felt as if there was a tremendous wave of cosmic power moving over this universe. It was fearful, and at the same time there was a sense of great attraction and love and a sense of unity and nearness.” This incredible cosmic power, which has created this world, and is shaping its destiny, is accessible to all of us at a very personal level, as Pratyaksha Brahman, in the form of our Holy Mother. Offering my pranams to Holy Mother, I bring my lecture to an end. Om shantih, shantih, shantih. 6 A heart poured out: pg 44-45 Page 7 of 7