Ramakrishna facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ramakrishna Paramahansa |
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Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar
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| Birth Date | 18 February 1836 Kamarpukur, Bengal Presidency, Company Raj (present-day West Bengal, India) |
| Died on | 16 August 1886 (aged 50) Cossipore, Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India) |
| Birth name | Gadadhar Chattopadhyaye |
| Guru/teacher | Totapuri, Bhairavi Brahmani |
| Philosophy | Advaita Vedanta Vaishnavism |
| Titles/honors | Paramahamsa |
Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, romanized: Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhay was an Indian Hindu mystic and spiritual leader.
After adhering to various religious practices, Ramakrishna proclaimed the world's various religions as "so many paths to reach one and the same goal", thus validating the essential unity of religions. He is regarded by his followers as an avatar or divine incarnation of God.
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Early life
Sri Ramakrishna was born on 18 February 1836, in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, India, into a very poor and pious Bengali Brahmin family. He was the fourth and the youngest child of his parents. His father, Khudiram Chattopadhyaya, was born in 1775, and his mother, Chandramani Devi, was born in 1791.
The parents of Ramakrishna are said to have experienced supernatural incidents and visions regarding his birth. In Gaya, his father Khudiram had a dream in which Bhagwan Gadadhara (a form of lord Vishnu) told him that he would be born as his son.
Around the age of six or seven, Ramakrishna experienced his first moment of spiritual trance. One morning, while walking along the narrow ridges of a paddy field, eating some puffed rice from a small basket, he came across the sight of a flock of milky white cranes, flying against the background of heavy rain laden black clouds, which soon covered the entire sky. The ensuing sight was so beautiful that he got absorbed into it and lost all his outer consciousness, before falling down with the rice scattered all over. People nearby who saw this, came to his rescue and carried him home.
At age nine, in accordance with Brahminical tradition, the sacred thread was vested on him, thus making him eligible for conducting ritual worship. He would later help his family in performing worship of their deities. As a result of his devotion in worship, he started to experience Bhava-Samadhi or Savikalpa-Samadhi. He reportedly had experiences of a similar nature a few other times in his childhood.
Education
Ramakrishna was sent to the village school where he learned to read and write, but he had an aversion to arithmetic, and didn't progress beyond simple addition, multiplication and division. He read the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other religious books with devotion. But he observed the scholars and found that they were only interested in acquiring wealth and contrasted this with his father's standards of detachment and righteous conduct. So he later lost interest in this "bread-winning education". He instead became proficient in making images, acting and painting. When he was fourteen years old, he started a drama group with some of his friends and left school to pursue it. Ramakrishna had practically no formal education and spoke ungrammatical imperfect Bengali with a rustic accent.
Ramakrishna's father died in 1843, a loss which he felt very strongly. Ramakrishna was about seven and half years at this time.
Priesthood
Ramakrishna started his spiritual journey as a priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple built by Rani Rashmoni. Soon the mystical temperament of Ramakrishna gained him widespread acclaim amongst the general public as a Guru, attracting to him various religious teachers, social leaders, Bengali elites, and common people alike. Although initially reluctant to consider himself a guru, he eventually taught his disciples, who later formed the monastic Ramakrishna Order.
Marriage
In 1859, Ramakrishna married Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya (later known as Sarada Devi; she is also considered an avatar). Ramakrishna became a very influential figure in Sarada's life, and she became a strong follower of his teachings. After the marriage, Sarada stayed at Jayrambati and joined Ramakrishna in Dakshineswar at the age of eighteen.
Death
Ramakrishna died due to throat cancer at the night of 15 August 1886. After his demise, his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda popularized his ideas and founded the Ramakrishna Math which provides spiritual training for monastics and householder devotees, and the Ramakrishna Mission which provides charity, social work and education.
Influence and legacy
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Ramakrishna is considered an important figure in the Bengali Renaissance of 19th–20th century. Several organisations have been established in his name. The Ramakrishna Math and Mission is the main organisation founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1897. The Mission conducts extensive work in health care, disaster relief, rural management, tribal welfare, elementary and higher education. The movement is considered one of the revitalisation movements of India. Amiya Sen writes that Vivekananda's "social service gospel" stemmed from direct inspiration from Ramakrishna and rests substantially on the "liminal quality" of the Master's message.
Other organisations include the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society founded by Swami Abhedananda in 1923, the Ramakrishna Sarada Math founded by a rebel group in 1929, the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission formed by Swami Nityananda in 1976, and the Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission founded in 1959 as a sister organisation by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.
Images for kids
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Dakshineswar Kali Temple, built under the aegis of Rani Rasmani in 1855. Sri Ramakrishna lived a major part of his life here.
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Deity of Ma Kali in the Garbhagriha of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.
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The Panchavati and the hut, where Ramakrishna performed his advaitic sadhana. The mud hut has been replaced by a brick one.
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Some Monastic Disciples (L to R): Trigunatitananda, Shivananda, Vivekananda, Turiyananda, Brahmananda. Below Saradananda.
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Mahendranath Gupta, a householder devotee and the author of Sri-Sri-Ramakrisna-Kathamrta.
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Various disciples and devotees of Ramakrishna at his funeral.
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Photograph of Ramakrishna, taken on 10 December 1881 at the studio of "The Bengal Photographers" in Radhabazar, Calcutta (Kolkata).
See also
In Spanish: Ramakrishna para niños
