The legend of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa -

Pranams at the lotus feet of Thakurji!

Chapter – 9

One day Ramkrishna was angrily spoke to Ma Kali “you have given Dharshan to Ramprasad, why don’t you give me your Dharshan?” his pain of separation from Ma Kali increased day by day, he went inside the adjacent room and brought a knife, he wanted to cut off his throat before Ma Kali, at that moment Ma Kali appeared before him and he fell down unconscious.  After this incident, his behavior has changed drastically while performing Puja he takes the offerings and feed Ma Kali saying “ Take it, Mother, kindly eat it or shall I eat first?” he eats the offerings and the remaining take to the mouth of Ma Kali, sometimes he says “ what are you saying Ma? Shall I sleep on your lap? Ok. I will sleep on your lap.” He falls asleep , sometimes he showers all the flowers on the idol and stand quite, sometimes he sits hours and hours meditation holding the offerings, so that Ma Kali eat her meal, sometimes he cries ‘Ma, Ma’ and roll on the ground, if anyone asks him to sing about Ma, he emotionally sing.  He became extremely passionate about love for Ma Kali.   Hridhayram was felt anxious seeing the pathetic condition of his uncle.  If Gadhadhar was not treated early, his condition may go worse.  Some people complaint to Madhuranath about Gadhadhar that he is not performing Puja but behaving undisciplined.  One day he visited the shrine and was witnessing the Puja standing in the crowd.  Gadhadhar was talking emotionally to the idol of Ma Kali and shedding tears. Madhuranath immediately understood that one day Ma Kali will appear before the devotion of Gadhadhar,  he informed the rest of the temple workers that let Gadhadhar do all the rites as he wishes, do not interfere in any of the matters, do not criticize him, Madhuranath said he will take care of everything.  Worship of Ma Kali find it difficult due to the condition of Gadhadhar, eventually a new priest Ramtharak who was a Tantric priest was appointed, he was a cousin of Gadhadhar, he has also arrived in Kolkata in search of a job.  The workers of the temple remained distant from Ramtharak who was a Thanthric priest. People of Thakurbadi/shrine often discussed his behavior on his back, when Gadhadhar came to know about it, he discussed with Ramtharak, he was elder to Gadhadhar and chief priest of the temple, so he felt bad at the comment of Gadhadhar, he said “ you are my younger brother, still you do not have respect towards me, bleed your mouth”  Gadhadhar tried to convince him, he was not willing to listen to him.  After a few days of this incident, in the night there was bleeding from the nose of Gadhadhar, all of the people of Thakurbadi worriedly rushed towards him including Ramtharak, seeing him Gadhadhar said ‘you have cursed me, see my state of health now.” And started crying, suddenly a saint appeared from nowhere and he tested the blood and said ‘Do not worry, it is good that the blood came out, I think you were performing extreme Yogic posture while doing Charamasamadhi in Hatha Yoga, the blood raised towards the brain, luckily it rushed up to the nose and came out, it is good that it did not enter into the brain and if so the Samadhi will not break, because of Jaganmatha wanted to perform some miracles through your selfless service.” Everyone felt happy at the consoling words of the saint. 

The legend of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa -

Pranams at the lotus feet of Thakurji!

Chapter – 8

 Gadhadhar understood that Ramkumar will not return to Padasala, finally, he joined with his elder brother in Dhakshineshwar.  Madhuranath Biswas, younger son-in-law of Rani Rasmoni took up the administration of the shrine; he used to visit the shrine on a regular basis.  Rani Rasmoni has no son; therefore he was in charge of all the properties of Rani Rasmoni.  Whenever he visits the temple, he looks at Gadhadhar, he had a great pull towards Gadhadhar, one day he asked Ramkumar ‘ Why you did not employ little priest on the temple related matter.” Ramkumar was well aware of his younger brother’s nature, he was not taking offerings of the temple, he cooks meals separately for him, and he knows that it is difficult to persuade him to do work of the shrine.   After listening to the lack of interest in Gadhadhar to do temple related works, Madhuranath decided one day he will employ him as a priest and make him serve Ma Kali.  One of these days, Ramkumar’s cousin Hridhayram came in search of a job in Dhakshineshwar.  He was just four years younger to Gadhadhar, these boys play together, work and roam around the places.  Gadhadhar brings mud from the river banks of Ganga and makes beautiful Linga.   One day Madhuranath took one of the idols and showed to Rani Rasmoni, both of them were surprised, it was difficult to find a fine idol like that in the market.  Next day Gadhadhar saw Madhuranath coming to shrine, he disappeared from his sight, Hridhayram asked why he is hiding after seeing Madhuranath, he said Madhuranath may ask him to do work in the shrine, he said Ma Kali is adorned in various precious ornaments all over the body, if anything has gone missing, he will be in trouble, Gadhadhar also said if Hridhayram take the responsibility of the ornaments, he will do the worship of Ma Kali.  Hridhayram was in urgent need of a job, he immediately agreed to take the responsibility of safekeeping of jewels of Ma Kali.  Finally, it happened the way Madhuranath wanted, Gadhadhar was appointed as a priest in the year 1855, and he started performing worship in the shrine.  Ramkumar taught the meticulous process of worship and its procedures to Gadhadhar.  One day Gadhadhar spoke to Hridhayram “It is necessary to build a Panchavati for meditation,” previously he used to sit under the Amla tree and conduct meditation, now the tree is no more, later they were five auspicious trees were planted at the instruction of Gadhadhar, thus Panchavati was constructed and became one of the famous meditation places, this was the place he used to sit for meditation.  In the meantime, his elder brother Ramkumar passed away. Eventually, all the temple related matters were fallen under the responsibility Ramkrishna, he became the priest of Ma Kali, soon his meditation process has taken him into a higher state.