Totapuri, the guru of Shrii Ramakrsna Paramahansa
Dharmadeva
soul rich in psycho-spiritual and spiritual powers who had realised in his
sadhana (spiritual practices, meditation) that Taraka Brahma
(Divine Guru in embodied form) soon would take human form on this Earth. So
he decided to stay on and have His Darshan ('presence') .
One day, some 70-90 years later, when Baba was a small boy growing up in
Jamalpur,
Totapuri came to town and saw Him. Without knowing at first who the boy
actually was
Totapuri spontaneously asked Him, who's smiling gaze remained fixed on him:
"Hey boy, why are you smiling?"
The boy just kept on smiling, and then, when Totapuri looked with his
spiritual
eye, he realised that this was the person whom he had longed so much to see
on Earth. The old man then did sastaunga pranam to the child.
Later Totapuri used to visit Baba in Jamalpur time and again throughout His
childhood
and adolesence. Then, just after Baba had started His organisation, a
problem
arose as to how to secure the piece of land on which the first owned jagrti
(spiritual centre)
was to be built. Legal papers and matters were OK, but some hardened
dogmatic and
hostile elements were holding on to the area hell-bent on keeping the Marga
out of
action. The comparatively physically weak devotees were at a loss what to
do.
Then one morning Baba told: "Last night one spiritual person did kiirtan
(spiritual dancing/chanting) there, now it will be easy for you to capture
that land. Go!" And they went and captured the land (after moving in bravely
with necessary paraphernalia and suffering some minor blood shed).
A little later Baba told a few devotees that they should go to such and such
place and look for the body of Totapuri and cremate it (by that time
Totapuri was
surely at least 200 years old).
Then, when Baba introduced Baba Nam Kevalam kiirtan in 1971, He first taught
it to a group of four persons, two workers and two family persons, who
enjoyed the occasion very much. Afterwards they told that an overwhelming
chorus of heavenly voices had joined in from above in the most melodious and
beautiful singing. After teaching them, Baba told that Totapuri had been the
first person to sing Baba Nam Kevalam kiirtan on Earth, and that it had
happened back then on the plot of land where our first jagrti stands still
today.
In 1971, just prior to Baba's introduction of kiirtan, a monk had developed
the
peculiar habit of suddenly uttering sharply "Baba Nam Kevelam!" at any time,
for example, when he dropped something on the floor - or at any moment, just
when he felt like it, so that, when Baba actually gave the kiirtan a few
weeks later,
this dada/monk had begun to think that he was the original creator of the
mantra! - but did
not know what was going on behind the scenes.
Note: Totapuri was the guru of Shrii Ramakrsna Paramahansa, a well-known
saint who lived in Bengal in the last century. His chief disciple was
Vivekananda,
known as the apostle of Hindu dharma to the US. The great spiritualist Shrii
Ramakrsna had submitted to several gurus and forms of worship throughout his
spiritual journey. In this way, even though the worship of Mother Kali
remained dearest to his heart, he had realised that all forms of worship
lead to the
same God. But so attached was he to form, and especially to the image of the
dark Mother, that he couldn't really free himself from Saguna
(attributed Cosmic Consciousness) in order to dive deep into the formless.
This caused him a peculiar spiritual anguish which time to time made him
very
vocal (crying) and outwardly appearing as mad. As the story goes, one day
Ramakrsna was down on the beach belching it out, lamenting
the fact that he was so attached to his Mother, when along came Totapuri who
saw the problem, took a piece of glass and cut at Ramakrsna's Trikuti (third
eye) so
that the pain liberated his consciousness from the Ajina chakra and
automatically made
his accumulated momentum of spiritual desire jump to the next and final
destination, the Sahasrara chakra. Ramakrsna then experienced Nirvikalpa
Samadhi
(non-attributional Cosmic Consciousness).
--
'The main characteristic of PROUT-based socioeconomic movements
is that they aim to guarantee the comprehensive, multifarious
liberation of humanity.' P R Sarkar
PROUT - PROgressive Utilisation Theory http://www.prout.org
http://www.globaltimes.net
New Renaissance: A Journal for Social and Spiritual Awakening:
http://www.ru.org