Let Him Stay

“One day at Dakshineswar, while chatting with one of his friends, Vivekananda sarcastically remarked concerning the Vedantic experience of oneness: “How can this be? This jug is God, this cup is God, and we too are God! Nothing can be more preposterous!” Sri Ramakrishna heard Vivekananda’s laughter from his room. He came out and inquired: “Hello! What are you talking about?”

He then touched Vivekananda and entered into samadhi. Preachers merely talk about religion, but Incarnations like Buddha ok, Christ, and Ramakrishna can transmit religion through a glance or by a touch. Vivekananda graphically described the effect of that touch: The magic touch of the Master that day immediately brought a wonderful change over my mind. I was stupefied to find that there was really nothing in the universe but God! I saw it quite clearly but kept silent, to see if the idea would last. But the impression did not abate in the course of the day. I returned home, but there too, everything I saw appeared to be Brahman. I sat down to take my meal, but found that everything — the food, the plate, the person who served, and even myself — was nothing but That…

Vivekananda’s father died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Unfortunately he left behind many unsettled debts, and the once well — to — do family was suddenly thrust into acute poverty. To add to their troubles, some relatives filed a lawsuit with a view to depriving them of their home. Since Vivekananda was the eldest son, the responsibility for the family’s welfare fell upon his shoulders. He had just passed his B.A. examination and had been admitted to law school. He had no job and, moreover, no previous practical experience. But forced by circumstances, he began visiting offices, barefoot and shabbily dressed, looking for a job.

Many times he attended classes without having eaten and was often faint with hunger and weakness. The only one of his friends who knew the gravity of the situation would occasionally send a little money to Vivekananda’s mother anonymously so that they could survive. His friends invited him now and then to their houses and offered him food, but the thought of his starving mother and brothers at home prevented him from eating. At home he would eat as little as possible in order that the others might have enough. This first contact with the harsh sufferings of life convinced Vivekananda that unselfish sympathy is a rarity in the world. There is no place here for the weak, the poor, and the destitute...

Unable to find a permanent solution to the financial problems of his family, Vivekananda came to Sri Ramakrishna one day and asked him to pray to God on his behalf. The Master told him to go to the temple and pray to the Divine Mother himself for help, assuring him that his prayer would be granted. Vivekananda went to the temple with great expectation. But as soon as he came before the image of the Divine Mother, he saw that She was living and conscious. He forgot the world. He forgot the pitiable condition of his mother and brothers. In ecstatic joy he prostrated before Her and prayed:

“Mother, give me discrimination! Give me renunciation! Give me knowledge and devotion! Grant that I may have an uninterrupted vision of Thee!” He came back to Sri Ramakrishna and told him what had happened. Sri Ramakrishna sent Vivekananda back to the temple to pray again, but the same thing happened. The third time he remembered his intention, but he felt ashamed to ask for something so small from the Mother of the Universe. At last, at Vivekananda’s request, Sri Ramakrishna blessed him: “All right, your people at home will never be in want of plain food and clothing.”

Vivekananda learned from his Master the synthesis of knowledge and devotion, the harmony of religions, the true purport of the scriptures, and the worship of God in man. When Sri Ramakrishna was on his deathbed at the Cossipore garden house, Vivekananda requested a boon from him that he could remain immersed in nirvikalpa samadhi, the culmination of Vedantic experience, for three or four days at a time. In that state, knower, knowledge, and knowable become one. But Sri Ramakrishna reprimanded him: “Shame on you! You are asking for such an insignificant thing. I thought that you would be like a big banyan tree and that thousands of people would rest in your shade. But now I see that you are seeking your own liberation.”

Sri Ramakrishna knew the future mission of Vivekananda, which was service to humanity, so he guided him in that direction. Nevertheless, Vivekananda persuaded his Master to give him the realization of the great Vedic dictum Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman). One evening, when he was meditating with one of his brother disciples at Cossipore, he suddenly became aware of a light at the back of his head, as if a lamp had been placed there. It gradually became more brilliant until finally it seemed to burst. He was engulfed by that light and lost body — consciousness.

After some time, when he started to regain normal consciousness, he cried out, “Where is my body?” The amazed brother disciple assured him: “It is there. Don’t you feel it?” He then rushed to Sri Ramakrishna’s room upstairs and told him of Vivekananda’s condition. “Let him stay in that state for a while,” remarked Sri Ramakrishna. “He has pestered me long enough for it.”

~ Swami Vivekananada, Vedanta: Voice of Freedom