IN his book Thakur, Sri Ramakrishna a Biography, writer, documentary filmmaker, and devotee of the Ramakrishna Order and of the Dalai Lama, Rajiv Mehrotra writes with characteristic colour and passion about how Sri Ramakrishna met the modern challenge of secularism:
‘Science laughed at the gods. The gods, it appeared, must be banished. This was progress and India must awake to the brave new world and keep in step with the rest of humanity. This was a judgement that reverberated across and down the century!
But unknown to the world, eighty-six miles northwest of Calcutta, in the Hooghly district, in the mud and thatch hamlet of Kamarpukur – dotted with little shrines, revelling in a healthy joyousness, in an environment not yet degraded by the onslaught of industrialization and malaria, around religious festivals and performances of sacred plays, crafts and harvests – the spiritual soul of India was preparing its response.
From out of his humble village hut came one of the greatest explorers of the inner realms that the world has known. A man who charted, with scientific precision in the laboratory of his own soul, each one of the ancient sadhanas – the paths which sages of yore had devised in their single-minded quest for God.
He traced each path to its goal and carefully mapped each obstacle, every cliff and chasm, each river and path, and every bend along the way. Then, when his search was complete, he shared with all those who would listen, the knowledge he had gained, and revealed to them the hidden purpose behind every ritual and myth in the Hindu tradition, and those in Islam and Christianity, in a manner that even the sceptic could accept.
For he did not quote from the scriptures, or fall back on the mute authority of tradition, or retreat into the safety of dogma. He spoke from his own experience.’ P.23-24
We celebrate Sri Ramakrishna’s Birthday at Vedanta Hall on Sunday 21 March.
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