Sri Ramakrishna's Meeting with Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar in Calcutta
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Section I Sri Ramakrishna’s meeting with Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar in Calcutta Chapter I Vidyasagar’s residence It is Saturday, 5 August 1882, the sixth day of the dark fortnight in the month of Shravana. It is about four o’clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna is going to Badurbagan by carriage on the main road in Calcutta to visit Vidyasagar at his house. Bhavanath, Hazra and M. accompany him. Sri Ramakrishna was born in Kamarpukur, a village in the Hooghly district situated near Beersingh, Vidyasagar’s the native village. Since childhood, Sri Ramakrishna has heard of Vidyasagar’s acts of charity. In the Kali Temple at Dakshineswar, he learned of his scholarship and compassionate nature. M. is a teacher in Vidyasagar’s school. Learning this, Thakur asked him, “Will you take me to see Vidyasagar? I would like very much to meet him.” M. spoke to Vidyasagar, who was delighted and asked M. to come on Saturday at four o’clock. Vidyasagar had asked him, “What kind of a paramahamsa is he? Does he wear gerua 1?” M. had replied, “No sir, he is a unique person. He wears a red-bordered dhoti and a short coat, a shirt and varnished slippers. He lives in a room in Rasmani’s 1 Ochre-colored cloth of a sannyasin 2 Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita – III 5 August, 1882 Kali Temple. He sleeps on a wooden cot with only a bedspread and a mosquito net. Outwardly there is no sign of holiness, but inwardly he knows nothing but the Lord. Day and night he meditates on Him.” The carriage starts from the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. Having crossed the bridge, it soon reaches Amherst Street through Shyambazar. When the devotees tell Thakur that the carriage is nearing Badurbagan, Thakur begins to talk like a child full of joy. However, there is a sudden change in his mood as the carriage reaches Amherst Street. It seems to be a prelude to his going into divine ecstasy. As the carriage approaches Rammohan Roy’s garden house, M. hasn’t noticed the change in Thakur’s mood. Hurriedly he exclaims, “This is Rammohan Roy’s house.” Thakur is annoyed and says, “Such things don’t appeal to me now. I don’t care about them.” He is passing into divine ecstasy. The carriage stops at the gate to Vidyasagar’s house. It is a two-story building of British taste. The building sits in the middle of the plot and has a wall on all four sides. The gate and the front door are on the western side of the house, the gate to the south of the door. Between the western wall and the two- storied building are flowering trees and plants. One climbs upstairs after passing through the western ground floor room. Vidyasagar is on the upper floor. At the top of the staircase is a room on the north, to its east a hall. Vidyasagar’s bedroom is to the southeast of the hall. There is another room on the south. All the rooms are full of precious books. Most of the books are beautifully bound and artistically arranged in bookshelves that line the wall. On the eastern side of the hall are a few chairs and a table. Vidyasagar sits there facing west when he works. When he has visitors, they also sit around the table. There is stationery visible – paper, pen, inkpot, blotting paper, several letters, a bound cashbook, files, and a few books Vidyasagar is reading. Exactly Sri Ramakrishna's Meeting with Iswar Vidyasagar 3 to the south of the wooden divan is a bedstead where he sleeps. What is written on the letters lying on the table under the paperweight? Perhaps a widow has written, “My minor child is without a father. There is nobody to take care of him. You will have to look after him.” Someone else might have written, “You went to Kharmata, so we didn’t get our monthly allowance. This caused us great distress.” Another poor person may have written, “I have been admitted to your school on a full scholarship, but I have no means to buy books.” Yet another person might write, “My family hasn’t the means to feed itself. Kindly arrange a job for me.” A teacher from the school perhaps has written, “My sister has lost her husband and her whole burden has fallen on my shoulders. My salary is too meagre to meet expenses.” Yet another has perhaps written from a foreign country, “I am in trouble here. You are a friend of the poor. Kindly send me some money and save me from impending distress.” And yet another has written, “Settlement must be made on such-and-such date. Kindly come on this day and settle the dispute.” Thakur descends from the carriage. M. leads him to the house. Walking through flowering trees on the way to the house, Thakur touches the buttons of his shirt and asks M. in a childlike manner, “My shirt is unbuttoned. Is there any harm in it?” He is dressed in a broadcloth shirt and a red-bordered dhoti with one end over his shoulder. He has varnished slippers on his feet. M. says, “Please don’t worry about it. You will not offend anyone. You needn’t button your shirt.” Just as a child feels reassured after an explanation, Thakur’s mind is at peace. 4 Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita – III 5 August, 1882 Chapter II Vidyasagar Having climbed the staircase, Thakur enters the first room with the devotees (the room just to the north). Vidyasagar is seated at the north end of the room facing south. In front of him is a long rectangular polished table. On the east side of the table is a bench with a back. A number of chairs have been placed to the south and west of the table. Vidyasagar is talking to some of his friends. As Thakur enters, Vidyasagar stands up to greet him. Thakur stands near the eastern edge of the table facing west with his right hand on the table. Behind him is the bench. He looks at Vidyasagar as though he were a former acquaintance. He laughs in ecstasy. Vidyasagar must be sixty-two or sixty-three years old. He is sixteen or seventeen years older than Sri Ramakrishna. He is clad in a white-bordered dhoti, a short-sleeved flannel shirt, and is wearing slippers. He has an Orissa-cut 1 hairstyle. His gleaming white false teeth show when he talks. Short in stature, Vidyasagar has a very large head and a broad forehead. He is a brahmin, so he wears a holy thread around his neck. Vidyasagar is a man of many facets. One of his great loves is of learning. One day he actually began to weep when he said to M, “How much I wanted to continue my studies! But it was not to be. I was so entangled in worldly affairs, I didn’t have time.’ A second love is for all beings. Vidyasagar is an ocean of compassion. Seeing a calf deprived of its mother’s milk, he could not drink milk for many years – not until his health declined considerably. He does not travel in a carriage, because the horse 1 The lower part of the head is shaved Sri Ramakrishna's Meeting with Iswar Vidyasagar 5 pulling it cannot speak of its burden. One day he saw a workman lying on the road struck by cholera, his basket lying near. He picked the man up, brought him home, and nursed him. A third love is independence. Because of a disagreement with his proprietors, Vidyasagar resigned from the post of Principal of the Sanskrit College. His fourth characteristic is that he does not care for social decorum. He loved a teacher. At the time of his daughter’s marriage, Vidyasagar went to the feast 1 with a gift of cloth under his arm. A fifth love is devotion to his mother. She had said to him, “Iswar, if you don’t come to the marriage of your brother, I will feel very bad.” On strength of will, Vidyasagar walked on foot all the way from Calcutta to his village of Beersingh. On the way he had to cross the Damodar river and there was no boat available, so he swam across. He presented himself before his mother, dripping wet, the very night of the marriage. He said, “Mother, here I am!” Vidyasagar’s adoration of Sri Ramakrishna – their conversation Entering into an ecstatic mood, Thakur stands quiet for quite some time. To control his ecstasy, he now and then says, “I want a drink of water.” The boys of the household, relatives and friends of Vidyasagar, quickly gather around. Thakur is about to sit on the bench, still absorbed in ecstasy. A boy of seventeen or eighteen is already sitting there. He has come to Vidyasagar to ask help with his studies. In such a spiritual mood, with the insight of a rishi, Thakur is able to understand what the boy is thinking. He moves away 1 On the ceremony of taking the last meal by a Hindu bride on the night immediately preceding the wedding day 6 Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita – III 5 August, 1882 a little and says, in ecstasy, “Mother, this boy has great attachment to worldly life, your world of ignorance. This boy belongs to the world of ignorance.” Does Thakur mean that it is ironic for the boy to study to make money instead of to acquire the knowledge of Brahman? Vidyasagar anxiously asks somebody to bring water.