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I found that I had begun to take a great liking for the man . . . Oddly, this did not grow out of any feeling of veneration . . . for that would have implied my being overawed and somewhat fearful in the presence of someone vastly superior. Rather, my feelings grew spontaneously and from the very depths of my heart. I simply revelled in the man s company. Mahendra Nath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda s brother) on Ramakrishna Press reports in the 1870s Calcutta marvelled at the way highly educated , civilized and reasoning men, like Mahendra Nath Dutta, were drawn to the ill clad , illiterate , friendless and unpolished Ramakrishna. The progressive press, which had first brought Ramakrishna to public attention, scoffed at his use of vulgar speech, while acknowledging its effectiveness in religious communication. Despite these critiques, Ramakrishna came to occupy an important place in the cultural life of late-nineteenth-century Bengal. Amiya P. Sen s lucid introductions and fluent translations of the interactions between Ramakrishna and his followers in His Words make for an engaging and illuminating account of Ramakrishna s teachings. Compiled from a variety of contemporary and near-contemporary sources, this book brings out the dramatic simplicity of Ramakrishna s incisive commentaries on profound religious ideas. See also by Amiya Sen Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: The Sadhaka of Dakshineswar

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Publié par	Penguin Books Ltd
Date de parution	09 avril 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9788184752298
Langue	English

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I found that I had begun to take a great liking for the man … Oddly, this did not grow out of any feeling of veneration … for that would have implied my being overawed and somewhat fearful in the presence of someone vastly superior. Rather, my feelings grew spontaneously and from the very depths of my heart. I simply revelled in the man's company . —Mahendra Nath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda's brother) on Ramakrishna
Press reports in 1870s Calcutta marvelled at the way ‘highly educated’, ‘civilized’ and ‘reasoning’ men like Mahendra Nath Dutta were drawn to the ‘ill clad’, ‘illiterate’, ‘friendless’ and ‘unpolished’ Ramakrishna. The progressive press, which had first brought Ramakrishna to public attention, scoffed at his use of ‘vulgar’ speech, while acknowledging its effectiveness in religious communication. Despite these critiques, Ramakrishna came to occupy an important place in the cultural life of late-nineteenth-century Bengal.
Amiya P. Sen's lucid introductions and fluent translations of the interactions between Ramakrishna and his followers in His Words make for an engaging and illuminating account of Ramakrishna's teachings.
Compiled from a variety of contemporary and near-contemporary sources, this book brings out the dramatic simplicity of Ramakrishna's incisive commentaries on profound religious ideas.
A MIYA P. S EN is currently with the Department of History and Culture, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is the author of several books, including The Indispensable Vivekananda: An Anthology for Our Times and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: An Intellectual Biography.
Cover photograph courtesy Advaita Ashrama
Cover design by Pinaki De

Boil your sugar well over a fiercely burning fire. As long as there is dirt and other impurities in it, the sweet infusion will smoke and simmer. When the impurities are burnt out, there is neither smoke nor unpleasant smell—the delicious crystalline fluid acquires a pure, natural character, and, whether liquid or solid, is the delight of man and the gods. Such is the character of a man of faith.
HIS WORDS
______________________________________________________________________
The Preachings and Parables of Sri Ramkrishna Paramahansa
Edited and Translated by Amiya P. Sen
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in Viking by Penguin Books India 2010
Copyright © Amiya P. Sen 2010
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-06-7008-433-3
This digital edition published in 2011.
e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-229-8
This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this e-book.
For my late wife, Gopa, without whom life has never been the same
Contents
Copyright
Preface
Abbreviations
A Note on the Translation
Introduction
Section I: Seeking God in This Life
Section II: Of God and This World
Section III: Sadhana: Realizing the Spiritual Self
Section IV: Paths to God-realization: The Manifold Yogas
Section V: Social and Spiritual Counsel for the Man of the World
Section VI: Sri Ramakrishna and Religious Universalism
Appendix 1: A Note on Sources and Selections
Appendix 2: Major Compilations of the Preachings and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa from 1875 to 1947
Notes
Preface
I got the idea of preparing a compilation of the preachings and parables of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa at about the same time that I began work on a short biography of him. My sincere thanks go to Diya Kar Hazra of Penguin India for agreeing so promptly to the idea. They are now being brought out as companion volumes.
Short life sketches of Ramakrishna, together with some of his preachings and parables, began to appear in the Calcutta press from about the 1870s, and increased considerably in volume following his death in 1886. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Indologist Max Müller, they were translated into English by the 1890s. Some fifty years later, this was followed by Swami Nikhilananda’s translation of the classic Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, a richly documented account of Ramakrishna’s life and sayings between the years 1882 and 1886 by Mahendra Nath Gupta, the Calcutta schoolteacher and devotee. Since that time, several other compilations of his teachings have been published, a few by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission itself. However, to the best of my knowledge, such works rely almost exclusively on the Kathamrita as a sourcebook, notwithstanding the fact that earlier and equally authentic compilations are also available. More importantly, these do not include critical notes or observations by the editor.
The advantages with the present volume—I claim this in genuine modesty—are, first, recourse to a larger variety of sources and, second, a thematic arrangement of Ramakrishna’s preachings and parables, accompanied in each instance by critical notes. I trust that both historically and hermeneutically, this will contribute more meaningfully to our understanding of the complex religious world of Ramakrishna. This compilation too, draws heavily upon the Kathamrita but even so, I have preferred to personally translate chosen passages and excerpts from this work rather than rely on Swami Nikhilananda’s somewhat bowdlerized version. Apart from a substantive introduction, there are two additional features to this work that will be of use to the interested reader. There is a critical note on the relevant sources as well as a list of compilations of his preachings and parables as they appeared over a span of about seventy-five years, from 1875 to 1947.
Putting this volume together has been an extremely challenging task, and I am not ashamed to admit that, given my inadequate understanding of Indian religion and philosophy, there were many occasions when I sweated over the underlying import of a particularly complex passage. In this work, I have thought and written much as a historian would, and not as a scholar of religion or philosophy. However, it would be only fair to add that even as a historical subject, Ramakrishna continues to captivate us.
I would be greatly remiss if I did not acknowledge the ungrudging help that I received from R. Sivapriya, for her insightful observations and suggestions, and Meena Bhende and Aakash Chakrabarty, for their editorial inputs. They have contributed significantly towards making this work presentable.
New Delhi
Amiya P. Sen
Abbreviations
BBSD: Brojendra Nath Bandopadhyay and Sajani Kanta Das, eds., Somosamayik Drishtite Sri Sri Ramakrishna (Calcutta: General Printers and Publishers, 1968).
K: Mahendra Nath Gupta, Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (Calcutta: Kathamrita Bhavan Edition), 5 Vols.
MM: Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1951).
RD: Ram Chandra Dutta, Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeber Jeebonvrittanta (Calcuta: Udbodhan, 1995).
SD: Suresh Chandra Dutta, Sri Sri Ramakrishnadeber Upadesh (Calcutta: Pronoti Publishing House, 2005).
A Note on the Translation
In translating excerpts from various sources, I have consistently tried to avoid literal translations. The intention, in every case, has been to convey to the reader, in simple, idiomatic English, the essential meaning and spirit of the excerpt chosen. Wherever I have thought it necessary, I have also taken care to include the original Bengali or Sanskrit term alongside. On occasion, this has also been done to bring out more emphatically the quintessential flavour of an expression or argument. Thus, the insertion of the term ‘vyakulata’ along with the English equivalent (pining or anxiety) adds considerable strength to the translation. For similar reasons, I have preferred to stay with ‘bhakti’ rather than devotion, which, normally, would be an apt equivalent.
In transliterating words or passages I have used the standard procedure, barring ‘jnan’ which I have replaced with ‘gyan’. The practitioner of gyan is hence called ‘gyani’.
Introduction

I do not know of any other man who has willingly undergone such pains for the sake of a spiritual life.
—Sibnath Sastri
The character of Ramakrishna was singularly simple. He seemed to be capable only of a single motive, namely, a passion for God that ruled him and filled him; when we follow this clue, every detail of his character and life falls into place.
—J.N. Farquhar
In Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–86), we have a religious figure whose preachings and parables were seen merely