Sri Ramakrishna by M. Sivaramkrishna

Author:M. Sivaramkrishna
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2018-11-09T16:00:00+00:00

34

THE ADVAITIC MODE

It was Totapuri who initiated the Great Master into the Advaitic mode of realisation. He was a travelling monk who attained the summit of Advaitic sadhana. In accordance with this philosophy, Totapuri lived a life of great austerity and literally looked upon Atman as the only reality and all else as unreal, totally nonexistent. He did sadhana on the banks of the Narmada and attained the highest level of experience called “nirvikalpa samadhi”.

He thought that nothing else remained to be learnt. However, a worthy disciple could be initiated into what he himself had realised. As an Advaitic sage he travelled a lot and one day landed in Dakshineswar—which was, and continues to be—the most important sacred destination even in those early days of its establishment. Totapuri, perhaps, felt its extraordinary ambience—though, as an Advaitin, he was severely against any idea of an incarnate deity. This was in his view an illusion, the trick which maya dangles before deluded men, like the blueness of the sky.

The moment he entered through the temple gate, Sri Ramakrishna attracted his attention. Dressed in a plain dhoti, he was sitting totally lost—no one knows what inner realms of Divine Mother’s splendour he was visualising. Of course, there was nothing striking about his appearance. Totapuri’s inner antenna started vibrating and he asked Kali’s child a strange first question: “Baba! You appear to me as quite an advanced spiritual being. There is an aura, so to say, which has attracted me.”

All the while the Master was looking at him intently. Yes, he thought, this man is quite extraordinary. Not one of the run of the mill sadhus. Looking at his naked body, he realised that he had totally overcome all physical attachments. The Advaitin now posed a stranger question: “Would you like to be initiated into Advaita Vedanta?” Prompt came the Master’s reply: “Yes, why not? I have an irrepressible longing to taste all the dishes. I mean all the paths. I shall certainly learn from you.” He paused and told the prospective guru, “But there is something I have to do before I do that. I must seek permission from my Divine Mother! She must say ‘Yes’!”

Totapuri—Nangatha or the Naked One, as Sri Ramakrishna called him—smiled at his charming but baseless faith in some form of God. It didn’t matter to him. Seekers have their own idiosyncrasies. One has to grant them. After a short while, the Master came back beaming from the temple: “Yes, my Mother has agreed! Tell me what I have to do.” The guru now told him the preliminary condition. He had to take sanyas, become a renunciate. Among other things, he had to also give up the traditional insignia of a Brahmin—no sacred thread, no tuft of hair (it had to be tonsured).

Ramakrishna readily agreed on the condition that all these had to be done discreetly, in private. The reason he gave to Totapuri is deeply moving and a touching feature of his utmost concern not to hurt the feelings of the one who loved him most: his mother, Chandra.

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