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Hinduism | People
Swami Vivekananda
The Universal Man - 2

Narendra Meets the Master

In the year 1881 Narendra met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time. As it happened, Sri Ramakrishna had gone to Calcutta to one of his devotee's house. It was near Narendra's. There devotional songs were to be sung; but singer didn't turn up for the program. Surendra and Ram, householder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, and friends of Swami Vivekananda, thought of inviting Narendra to fill up the gap, for they knew the high capabilities of Narendra in singing and playing the musical instruments.

Thus came our hero to the house of the devotee and sang one of the most touching songs, in Bengali. The first lines went like this: 'O mind, why do you loiter in this foreign land wearing foreigner's dress and clothes? Let us go home, to our own land, where we truly belong!' Sri Ramakrishna was visibly moved by the sincerity and quality of Narendra's singing. Tears welled up in the eyes of Sri Ramakrishna, and he lovingly got acquainted with Narendra. He invited Naren to visit Dakshineswar at his earliest convenience.

Moreover, once Narendra's English college teacher in his lecture had told the class to visit Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa at Dakshineswar to know the exact meaning of the word 'trance', for Sri Ramakrishna often went into that state of super conscious Samadhi. Accordingly, in the November of 1881 Narendra went to Dakshineswar with his friends.

Sri Ramakrishna treated him with utmost love and familiarity, as if they knew each other intimately and were meeting not as strangers but as close old friends. [Sri Ramakrishna in his vision knew Narendra to be a sage who has accompanied him (Sri Ramakrishna) on the earth to help him in his mission. Sri Ramakrishna had very vividly described the vision to his devotees.]

Narendra knew nothing about this. He was totally stranger to Kali Temple, Dakshineswar and Sri Ramakrishna. On seeing Narendra Sri Ramakrishna got up and said, "O Narayana, why did you take such long to come here? I have been restlessly waiting for you since long." Thus saying, he escorted Narendranath to inner room and fed him with his own hands with sweets and other eatables. Naturally Swami Vivekananda was puzzled to receive this kind of treatment; this was not natural reaction between two strangers!

Commenting about his first visit later Narendra said, "It was most unusual kind of meeting. I could not understand the peculiar behavior of that 'mad, monomaniac Brahmin'. I was reluctant to visit him again, but his pure love, simplicity, genuine renunciation and love for God pulled me again and again to him, despite protests of logic and reason."

The Teacher and the Disciple

The great soul in Narendranath readily recognized the extraordinary greatness in Sri Ramakrishna in the form of true love for God and great renunciation. However, his skepticism and logical mind was not ready to accept the 'powers' manifested in Sri Ramakrishna. He thought that this 'simple insane' Brahmin might be playing tricks with others in the form of hypnotism or mesmerism. His trance and Samadhi were thought to be the whims and play of mind/psyche rather than divine super-conscious states. In fact Swami Vivekananda postponed his visit to Dakshineswar for about six months, although he had promised Sri Ramakrishna to visit him soon.

But at last the call of Divine was far too powerful for Narendra to resist anymore. And one afternoon, alone on foot, he started for the second meeting with his mentor, and would be Guru, Sri Ramakrishna. And what did he say? He asked, "Sir, have you seen God?" Calmly Sri Ramakrishna replied, "Yes, I see Him as clearly as one sees an apple over the palm, nay, even more intently! And not only this, you can also see Him." This unusual and most confident answer turned Narendra to more perplexity and surprise. He had been asking the same question 'Sir, have you seen God' to many a great religious and noble persons, but he never got such clear cut answer from any of them. Many religious Pundits, Devendranath Tagore and many scholars of Brahmo Movement were reluctant to answer his question with any authority or resoluteness. But today he got the most emphatic answer in positive.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting all alone. He was very pleased to receive Narendranath and called him near his tiny bedstead. Sri Ramakrishna went into a divine mood and slowly approaching Narendra in a peculiar way touched his right foot to Narendra's body. Immediately Narendra had a wonderful experience, which is given in his own words,

"I saw with my eyes open that all the things of the room together with the walls were rapidly whirling and receding into an unknown region, and my I-ness together with the whole universe was, as it were, going to vanish in an all devouring great void. I was then overwhelmed with terrible fear. I knew that the destruction of I-ness was death, so I thought that death was before me, very near at hand. Unable to control myself, I cried out loudly, saying, 'Ah! What is it you have done to me? I have my parents, you know.'"

Laughing loudly at his words, Sri Ramakrishna touched Narendra's chest with his hand and said, "Let it then cease now. It need not be done all at once. It will come to pass in course of time." Swami Vivekananda was amazed to notice how that extraordinary experience vanished as quickly as it had come! He came to normal state and saw things inside and outside the room standing still as before.

… Continued …

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