Sri Ramakrishna divinely inebriated
(Concluded from Part 1, above.)
We’re probably familiar with the phrase “drunk on God.” Divine Inebriation would have been a rare sight for the sages, but more common then than today.
I don’t think it’s going to be unfamiliar to us much longer. Certainly the ascended state itself could be compared to divine inebriation.
Let’s look at what the avatar Sri Ramakrishna had to say about that state. Perhaps our recollection of what he said will be triggered during the Ascension process – when we’re deliriously happy at experiencing transformative love.
He tells us householders that it would be unfitting for us to set course for being divinely inebriated:
“Since you are going to lead a householder’s life, … you cannot, … like Sukadeva, be so inebriated with the thought of God that you will lie naked and unconscious.” (1)
We’re lightworkers. It’s not useful for us to sit absorbed in bliss and divine inebriation so he has a point there for this generation too.
Much of Paramahansa Ramakrishna’s life, he was in samadhi, drunk with love for God – a state known as prema bhakti.
“An ordinary man couldn’t have borne a quarter of that tremendous fervour; it would have burnt him up. I had no sleep at all for six long years. My eyes lost the power of winking. I stood in front of a mirror and tried to close my eyelids with my finger – and I couldn’t!
“I got frightened and said to Mother: ‘Mother, is that what happens to those who call on you? I surrendered myself to you, and you gave me this terrible disease!’ I used to shed tears – but then, suddenly, I’d be filled with ecstacy [Twelfth Dimensional]. I saw that my body didn’t matter – it was of no importance, a mere trifle. Mother appeared to me and comforted me and freed me from my fear. ” (2)
This is the same Mother, I remind this generation, who spoke with us on Heavenly Blessings and An Hour with an Angel!
Just take that in: Sri Ramakrishna went through arduous spiritual training to see and talk to the Mother. You and I did so by simply tuning in on our computers.
Having been through inebriation for so many years, the sage of Dakshineswar could speak authoritatively on it: “Some people think that by thinking of God too much the mind becomes deranged; but that is not true,” he tells us. (3)
“One attains that madness by meditating on God. Haven’t you heard of love-madness and knowledge-madness?” he asks. (4)
“Krishnakishore … too passed through a God-intoxicated state, when he would repeat only the word ‘Om’ and shut himself up alone in his room. His relatives thought he was actually mad, and called in a physician. Ram Kaviraj of Natagore came to see him. Krishnakishore said to the physician, ‘Cure me, sir, of my malady, if you please, but not of my ‘Om.’” (5)
God-intoxication made Sri Ramakrishna no respecter of persons, titles, wealth, etc.
“In that state of God-intoxication I used to speak out my mind to all. I was no respecter of person. Even to men of position I was not afraid to speak the truth.” (6)
“One day, in that state of divine intoxication, I went to the bathing-ghat on the Ganges at Baranagore. There I saw Jaya Mukherji repeating the name of God; but his mind was on something else. I went up and slapped him twice on the cheeks. At one time Rani Rasmani was staying in the temple garden. She came to the shrine of the Divine Mother, as she frequently did when I worshipped Kali, and asked me to sing a song or two.
“On this occasion, while I was singing, I noticed she was sorting flowers for worship absent-mindedly. At once I slapped her on the cheeks. She became quite embarrassed and sat there with folded hands. After praying to the Divine Mother for some time with great yearning, I was able to shake off this habit.” (7)
All one wants to talk about is God or divine matters.
“When one gets into such a state of mind, one doesn’t enjoy any conversation but that about God. I used to weep when I heard people talk about worldly matters.” (8)
Extreme? I’m not so sure.
Remember the basic spiritual movement was to detach from the world and attach to God. If one is genuinely fervent in one’s attachment to and love for God, is that extreme?
Ascension wasn’t much mentioned in Sri Ramakrishna’s time (mid- to late-nineteenth century). He called it vijnana but spoke about it very seldom. What he did more often was to relate his experience, such as seeing people as light-filled parchment skin stretched over bamboo skeletons or talking to the Mother in the form of a young girl.
What seemed then like a mystical event of the rarest kind (vijnana, Ascension) is something our whole planet will soon be preparing for.
The times have changed and we may well find ourselves, one day, divinely inebriated.
Maybe it’s good that the Mother wants GAoG to live by donations. It probably keeps our feet on the ground!
Payton’s Volcano of Love. Thank you, Payton
Footnotes
(1) Letter from Aswini Kumar Dutta to “M,” with reminiscences of Paramahansa Ramakrishna (PR) in Nikhilananda, Swami, trans. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 1025. [Hereafter PR in GSR.]
(2) PR in Swami Chetanananda, ed. and trans. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him. St Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990, 14-15.
(3) PR in GSR, 108.
(4) Ibid., 220.
(5) Ibid., 118.
(6) Ibid., 118.
(7) Ibid., 119.
(8) Ibid., 119.