‘Sisters and brothers of America.’
These words changed the world. Swami Vivekananda’s now famous speech, given in 1893
at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, was the modern world’s earliest
formulations of what we know now as Hinduism. Swamiji became one of the most
popular speakers at the parliament, and his success propelled him onto the
American stage and then into international fame. This allowed him, along with
his brother disciples and followers, to spread yoga and Vedanta in the West and
to establish the dynamic work of Ramakrishna Math and Mission in the East.
Divine Foundation
But the story does not truly begin
with Swamiji’s stirring words at the parliament. It does not even begin with
the life of Vivekananda. The story begins with the heart of the Divine Mother
responding to the crying need of the age. The story begins with Sri
Ramakrishna.
Sprung from the direct experience of
ancient sages, Indian culture had always been rooted in spiritual truth, which
pervaded daily life. Invasion after invasion by foreign looters had cost India
much, but its spiritual core remained strong, its eternal foundations resilient
and adaptable to the ever-changing details of history. However, when the
Europeans arrived in India, they quickly realized that in order to gain control
of her wealth, they had to conquer her heart and soul as well. Many lands
across the globe had fallen to European colonists, not only because of military
strength but because of the introduction of European diseases such as small pox
and plague, to which the local populations had no hereditary resistance. In
such weakened conditions, conquest became comparatively easy. In the case of
India, what was the disease that weakened society, making it possible for a
handful of Europeans to control about two hundred million people? It was a
materialistic world view that values wealth above people, and people above God.
At the time of Sri Ramakrishna’s advent India’s ancient system of education and training was disappearing. The youth brought up in an occupied land began to identify with their occupiers and to doubt the religion and traditions that, to them, had led to such subjugation. They began imitating the West and saw India’s religious traditions as obstacles to their entering the modern world. But all attempts to revitalize India by destroying the traditions that had sustained her were bound to fail. Swami Saradananda asks:
At the time of Sri Ramakrishna’s advent India’s ancient system of education and training was disappearing. The youth brought up in an occupied land began to identify with their occupiers and to doubt the religion and traditions that, to them, had led to such subjugation. They began imitating the West and saw India’s religious traditions as obstacles to their entering the modern world. But all attempts to revitalize India by destroying the traditions that had sustained her were bound to fail. Swami Saradananda asks:
‘How
can India, whose soul is religion, survive if her religion is not restored to
life? How is it possible for the atheistic West to eradicate the religious
degradation that resulted from its own materialism?’1
We read in the Bhagavadgita that the blessed Lord incarnates in every age, when
there is a decline in dharma, for the protection of the righteous and the
destruction of the wicked. Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna recognize in him the latest incarnation, who
came to restore the soul of India in her darkest hour, to restore her ancient
dignity and spiritually uplift the world. Born in 1836, the very year that the
British system of education was adopted in India, Sri Ramakrishna grew up in an
orthodox brahmana family in the village of Kamarpukur. Although only some sixty
miles from the urban centre of Calcutta, the seat of English colonial power,
Kamarpukur was not influenced by Western culture and thought. In 1852 Sri
Ramakrishna moved to Calcutta, joining his older brother Ramkumar. This move
was not only across space, but also across time, for with this move Sri
Ramakrishna encountered the nineteenth century.
Two years later he accepted to
officiate as pujari, performer of puja, at Rani Rasmani’s newly-built Kali
temple in Dakshineswar, which would become the stage of his unprecedented
sadhanas and realizations. As Kali’s priest he began to ask himself if the
goddess he was sincerely serving was real or not. If she was real, could one
experience her directly? His intense longing for the vision of Mother Kali
became so great, so overwhelming, that the Mother could not keep herself hidden
from him any longer. The Master related his first vision of Kali to his close
disciples:
‘I had a marvelous vision of the Mother and fell down unconscious. … Within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss that I had never before experienced, and I felt the immediate presence of the Divine Mother’ (212).
Even after this beatific vision Sri
Ramakrishna was not satisfied and longed to have unbroken communion with her,
sometimes rolling on the ground crying, ‘Mother, be gracious unto me! Reveal
Yourself to me!’ (213). The Master later recounted:
‘Sometimes I would lose outer consciousness
from that unbearable agony. Immediately after that I would see the Mother’s
luminous form bestowing boons and fearlessness! I used to see Her smiling,
talking, consoling, or teaching me in various ways’ (ibid.).
The Divine Mother also sent him
teachers to initiate him into the complicated practices of tantra, the
difficult abstractions of Vedanta, the varied devotional moods of Vaishnavism,
and even the ‘foreign’ faiths of Islam and Christianity. Each he practiced with
full sincerity. And the goal presented in each opened up to him as direct
experience. In the heart of every tradition he saw his Mother Kali shining. Sri
Ramakrishna’s famous declaration ‘yato
mat, tato path;
as many faiths, so many paths’ was not the result of intellectual comparison or
of a modern open-mindedness. It came from his own realization, a gift of
Goddess Kali to the world. The Master realized that his liberal view was singularly
unique. He came to understand that the Divine Mother was working through his
body and mind. She is the reality that Sri Ramakrishna incarnated. It was her
message that Sri Ramakrishna revealed.
Vivekananda and Kali
Mother Kali was Sri Ramakrishna’s
overwhelming reality. He sang to her, had visions of her, spoke intimately to her, and heard
her voice. It was only by accepting Mother Kali that Swamiji could fully accept
Sri Ramakrishna and become his pure instrument. The Master had already seen Narendra’s (Vivekananda's premonastic name) future in a vision. He
understood that it was Narendra who would lead his disciples and devotees to
accomplish the Mother’s mission in the world. But the young Narendra, like much
of young Bengal, had been swayed by the persuasive teachings of Keshabchandra
Sen and the Brahmo Samaj. The Samaj and the other socio-religious groups of the
day, responded to the challenge of the West, not with atheism, but with a
‘Christianized’ form of Hinduism. In their attempt to purify Hinduism of what
they saw as superstition, they preached that the various deities were false,
and its members even signed loyalty oaths vowing not to bow down before images.
Thus, Narenda’s close association with Sri Ramakrishna created a great dilemma
for him, for he had witnessed the Master’s power, purity, and devotion, but
could not accept the Hindu world that the Master lived in: a world of gods and
goddesses, of ‘graven’ images, of visions and ecstasies. Swamiji later said of
this time:
‘How
I used to hate Kali! … and all Her ways! That was the ground of my six years’
fight—that I would not accept Her. … I loved him [Sri Ramakrishna], you see,
and that was what held me. I saw his marvelous purity. … I felt his wonderful
love. … His greatness had not dawned on me then. All that came after wards when
I had given in. At that time I thought him a brain-sick baby, always seeing
visions and the rest. I hated it. And then I too had to accept Her! ’ 2
Like many major breakthroughs in life, Swamiji’s
‘accepting’ Kali came as the result of a personal crisis. With the death of
Narendra’s father, his once affluent household was thrown into deep poverty. The
young Narendra, although employable and qualified, could not secure any work to
relieve his family’s suffering. He reached the point of despair. Perhaps all
this was the arrangement of the Divine Mother, for in times
of great need she manifests. The Swami recounts:
It
occurred to me that God grants the Master’s prayers,
so I should ask him to pray on my behalf that
my family’s financial crises would be overcome.
I was sure that he wouldn’t refuse, for
my sake. I rushed to Dakshineswar and importuned him, saying, ‘Sir, you must speak to the Divine Mother so that my
family’s financial
problems can be solved.’
The Master replied:
‘I can’t make such
demands. Why don’t you
go and ask the Mother
yourself. You don’t accept the
Mother—that is why you have all these troubles.’
I replied: ‘I don’t know the Mother. Please
tell the Mother for me. You have to, or I won’t
let you go.’ The Master said affectionately: ‘My
boy, I’ve prayed many times to the Mother to
remove your suffering. But She doesn’t listen to my prayers because you don’t care for Her. All right, today is Tuesday, a day
especially sacred
to Mother. Go to the
temple tonight and pray.
Mother will grant
whatever you ask for, I promise you
that. My Mother is the embodiment of Pure
Consciousness, the Power of Brahman, and She
has produced this universe by mere will. What can She not do, if She wishes?’ When
the Master said that, I was fully convinced that all my suffering would cease
as soon as I prayed to Her. I waited impatiently for night. At 9.00 p.m. the
Master told me to go to the temple. On my way, I was possessed by a kind of drunkenness and began
to stagger. I firmly believed that I would see the Mother and hear Her voice. I
forgot everything else and became absorbed in that thought alone. When I
entered the temple, I saw that the Mother was actually conscious and living,
the fountainhead of infinite love and beauty. Overwhelmed with love and devotion,
I bowed down to Her again and again, praying, ‘Mother—grant me discrimination, grant
me detachment, grant me divine knowledge and devotion, grant that I may see You
without obstruction, always!’ My heart was filled with peace. The universe
disappeared from my mind and the Mother alone occupied it completely.3
Two more times Sri Ramakrishna sent
him back to the temple,
and all three times Swamiji
forgot
to ask for his family’s financial relief. The Master
then granted that his family would not
lack
plain food and clothing. On Swamiji’s request, that
very night the Master taught him a
song,
which Swamiji sang until dawn:
Thou the support of the three gunas,
Higher than the most high.
Thou art compassionate, I know,
Who takest away our bitter grief.
Thou art in earth, in water Tou;
Thou liest as the root of all.
In me, in every creature,
Thou hast Thy home;
though clothed with form,
Yet art Thou formless Reality.
Sandhya art Thou, and Gayatri;
Thou dost sustain this universe.
Mother, the Help art Thou
Of those who have no help but Thee,
O Eternal Beloved of Shiva! (844).
The Master was so happy that he kept
telling people over and
over again: ‘Narendra has accepted
the
Mother Kali. That’s very good, isn’t
it?’
(Ibid.).
During the years of his training,
Narendra kept asking Sri
Ramakrishna for an experience
of nirvikalpa samadhi, the complete absorption of the self in the Divine. The moment came at Kashipur, during the Master’s final illness. Sri Ramakrishna was lying awake in his bed while
Narendra was downstairs in another room absorbed in deep meditation. He felt as
if a lamp was burning at the back of his head when his sense of individual
existence drowned in the bliss of pure Being. When he regained normal
consciousness, Sri Ramakrishna told him: ‘Now the Mother has shown you
everything. But this revelation will remain under lock and key, and I will keep
the key. When you have accomplished the Mother’s work you will fi nd the
treasure again.’ 4 Even the
realization of the non-dual Brahman comes as a gift from the Divine Mother.
‘Mother’s Work’
Vivekananda did not often mention
Sri Ramakrishna in his public talks in the West. Even less did he reveal the centrality of
Mother Kali in his life and thought. He focused, instead, on the message of the Master by presenting
the broad underlying principles of religion, lecturing on the Upanishads, and preaching ‘what
is good for universal humanity’.5 Though not openly preached, the swami could
not keep his love for the Divine Mother hidden from his intimate disciples. ‘You see,’ he once said, ‘I cannot but
believe that there is somewhere a
great Power that thinks of Herself as feminine, and called Kali, and Mother.’ 6 Upon his return to India, he started the yearly observance of Durga Puja and Kali Puja at Belur Math, along with the daily worship of Sri Ramakrishna. Swamiji did, in fact, on occasions speak about the Mother:
Mother
is the first manifestation of power and
is considered a
higher idea than father. With
the name of Mother
comes the idea of Shakti, Divine Energy and Omnipotence, just
as the baby believes its mother to be
all-powerful, able to do anything. The Divine
Mother is the Kundalini (‘coiled up’ power)
sleeping in us; without worshipping Her we can never
know ourselves. All-merciful,
all-powerful, omnipresent are attributes of the Divine Mother. She is the sum
total of the energy in the universe. Every manifestation of power in the
universe is ‘Mother’. She is life, She is
intelligence, She is Love. She is in the universe yet
separate from it. She is a person, and can be seen
and known
(as Sri Ramakrishna saw
and knew Her). Established in the idea of Mother, we can do anything. She
quickly answers prayers. She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment.
Divine Mother can have form (Rupa) and name (Nama) or name without form; and as
we worship Her in these various aspects we can rise to pure Being, having
neither form nor name.7
Just as Sri Ramakrishna incarnated
at a time when Indian culture
was being threatened by materialism,
so
also Swamiji arrived in the United
States
at a cusp in Western culture, when simple
religious
beliefs were being undermined by the scientific method, the evolution theory of
Charles Darwin, and the industrial revolution. The doctrines of the Church no
longer satisfiedthe educated classes, who became
Swamiji’s audience. To them he spoke his Master’s liberal and liberating
message: that God not only exists but can be realized as a personal fact; that
the religions of the world, including Christianity, are paths leading the
sincere to this ultimate goal; that the truths of the Upanishads
and methodologies of yoga were not antagonistic to rational enquiry or scientific scrutiny.
As we celebrate Swamiji’s 150th birth anniversary, we look up to his legacy. In India he is a national hero, the prophet of the modern Hindu renaissance. We can see practically the transformative influence he has had on his motherland by inspiring generations of his monastic and lay followers to spread education, empower women, uplift the poor, serve the distressed, and distribute spiritual knowledge—all in the name of Sri Ramakrishna, the avatar of the age.
But what is his enduring legacy outside of India? As the first Hindu sannyasin to preach in America, Swamiji prepared the stage for today’s interest in yoga, meditation, ayurveda, kirtan, and the many Hindu-based religious movements that are thriving. But we also see the more subtle effect of Swamiji’s work, the effect he has had on the intellectual and spiritual culture of the world. Sri Ramakrishna’s realization: ‘As many faiths, so many paths’ was first presented to the West by Swamiji during his opening address at the Parliament of Religions: ‘As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee’ (1.4). This once revolutionary idea is now widely accepted, even by many Christians. Although ‘Vivekananda’ is not a household name, his influence has acted as a leavening agent, fundamentally lifting the world view of millions.
Kali in the West
While in India this universal message has never been separated from the person of Sri Ramakrishna, in the West, we are only beginning to recognize the person behind the principles, the giver of the gift. As Swami Saradananda writes in his masterpiece Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga:
Swamiji arrived in America in 1893.
Within seven short years he established a network of societies to promote the
teachings of Vedanta. Since then, these have spread to hundreds of centers,
ashramas, monasteries, convents, study groups, and home shrines—all dedicated
to Sri Ramakrishna. Swamiji once told Sister Nivedita:
‘The future, you say, will call Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa an Incarnation of Kali? Yes, I think there’s no doubt that She
worked up the body of Ramakrishnafor Her own ends.’9
When you love someone, you want to
love what they love ,who they love. Sri Ramakrishna and Mother Kali cannot be
separated. Though it has been 120 years since Swamiji first addressed his
American sisters and brothers, Mother’s work in America is just beginning. She must
have a special plan, for she not only sent Vivekananda, but also other
companions of the avatara, such as Swamis Saradananda, Turiyananda, Abhedananda,
Trigunatitananda, and Nirmalananda—all great saints and knowers of God.
As far as we know, the first
traditional worship of Kali in America was performed in the 1940s by Swami
Prabhavananda, a disciple of Swami Brahmananda, at Vedanta Society in Hollywood,
California. Initially only very close devotees of the society were allowed to
attend, for fear of upsetting the puritanical sentiments of their neighbors, or
of provoking the cultural biases and prejudices of even some of their own members.
But over the years the annual all-night Kali Puja has become more and more
popular, a highlight in the devotional lives of both Indian and Western
devotees.
Sri Ramakrishna’s life and teachings
point unequivocally towards spiritual freedom. It is not birth, not upbringing,
not culture that decides your path. It is yearning. With yearning for the
Divine, it does not matter what path you walk; and without yearning, you will
not be able to walk any path. Sri Ramakrishna reveals the purest and safest
approach to an oft en misunderstood goddess. There are many ways of worshipping
Kali. While many may be authentic,
not
all are safe. Sri Ramakrishna mastered
the sixty-four branches of tantra—many difficult and
controversial. But when the time came to train his own disciples, he made the
path to God simple and
beautiful. He said:
‘Pray
to the Divine Mother with a longing heart. Her vision dries up all craving for
the world and completely destroys all attachment to “woman and gold”. It happens
instantly if you think of Her as your own mother. She is by no means a
godmother. She is your own mother.’10
When Swamiji was in Kashmir, he
performed severe austerities. After many nights of intense sadhana at Kshir
Bhavani, he had the vision of Mother. Returning to the houseboat that he and his
companions were renting, he raised his hands in benediction and placed the
marigolds that he had offered to the goddess on the heads of all of the
disciples saying, ‘No more “Hari Om!” It
is all “Mother” now! … I am
only a little child! ’ 11
Today, 150 years after his birth, we
are still calculating the tremendous impact this ‘little child’ has had on the world. Sri
Ramakrishna held the key to the Mother’s treasure, and SwamiVivekananda, in his brief, blazing
life of service, accomplished her work, without a doubt. ButMother’s great miracle is that he
then left the key for anyone of us to find, if we but surrender to her. ‘This
attitude of regarding God as Mother,’ Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘is the last word
in sadhana. “O God, Thou art my Mother and I am Thy child”— this is the last
word in spirituality.’12
______________
References
1. Swami Saradananda, Sri
Ramakrishna and His
Divine Play, trans. Swami
Chetanananda (St
Louis: Vedanta Society of St Louis, 2003),80.
2. Sister Nivedita, The
Master as I Saw Him (Kolkata:
Udbodhan, 2005),149 – 40.
3. Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine
Play, 842– 3.
4. M, The Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna, trans. Swami
Nikhilananda (Chennai: Ramakrishna Math,
2002), 79.
5. The Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda,
9 vols (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, I – 8, 1989;
9,1997), 523.
6. The Master as I Saw Him, 140–I.
7. Complete Works,7.26–7.
8. Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, 652.
9. The Mas ter as I Saw Him,
140.
10_. Gospel, 629.
11. His Eastern and Western
Disciples, The Life of
Swami Vivekananda, 2
vols (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2008), 2.381–2.
12. Gospel, 701.
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