THE DREAM COME TRUE

The hero of this story is Vishwanath Upadhyaya, an orthodox and devout Hindu hailing from Nepal. Shri Ramakrishna used to address him as 'Captain'. He had come to Calcutta, the then capital city of India, as the Officer-in-Charge of a large timber yard belonging to the State of Nepal. It was located at Ghusuri, Howrah on the banks of the Ganga opposite Calcutta. One night in 1871 or '72, Upadhayaya saw in a dream a holy man who beckoned to him to come for receiving the gift of Divine knowledge. Soon after, he heard of Shri Ramakrishna, decided to pay a visit and was very pleasantly surprised to find in Shri Ramakrishna the holy man of his dream! No wonder he became a devotee. But devotees have no special immunity from troubles of this world and our captain got into very serious trouble indeed. The timber yard was located on the banks of the Ganga which upto Calcutta (and for some distance further upstream) is subject to the influence of the tides. On days of very high tides the Nepal Govt. timber yard at Ghusuri used to get flooded, often resulting in some pieces of stored timber being carried away by the receding waters. By the time the Captain woke up to these small but persistent losses, the accumulated value of the missing timber had become very high and he found it difficult to render accounts on the basis of physically verified stocks of timber. So the Captain also defaulted in the submission of accounts! When vague rumors about stock shortages and alleged embezzlements reached the King, Upadhayaya was summoned to Nepal to explain. He knew he was in very grave danger and toyed with the idea of disobeying even the royal command to return to his country. He finally decided to make an appeal to the Master for protection and was shedding copious tears when he approached Shri Ramakrishna for this. The Master, who could surrender everything else, to his Mother Kali but Truth, naturally asked Upadhyaya to come clean. 'Captain' explained the position and assured Thakur that there had been nothing malafide and the large losses were entirely due to natural causes. Assured on this point the Master said that he believed him and Upadhyaya need not be afraid to tell the exact truth to the King also. He further assured his devotee that be the grace of mother Kali he would return to Calcutta fully exonerated! With this clear cut assurance of protection, Vishwanath went to Nepal and faced the King with confidence. He admitted the losses and his responsibility for failure to take timely preventive measures but denied any malafide or improper conduct like unrecorded sales and embezzlement of cash. The Ruler not only believed him fully but was also impressed by his straightforward manner and the able presentation of his case.

The result was that he was not only re-posted to Calcutta but also in a much more responsible position as the Envoy of His Majesty's Govt. in India. His salary was increased four-fold and his rank upgraded to that of a Colonel in the Royal Nepal Army. A weeping Vishwanath shedding, this time, tears of joy, reported all this to the Master dwelling on his 'Colonel-hood' the most. Thakur sought clarification about the precise significance of this but concluded by saying "That is all very good, but I would rather call you Captain." And that is why he continued to be ' the Captain' and achieved immortality in that name in the pages of Kathamrita, a one sentence extract from which is given below:

" Master: There is another big man. Captain. Though a man of the world, he is a great lover of God ..... he knows the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Bhagavata, the Gita and Adhyatma Ramayana and other scriptures by heart."

With this testemonial from the Master himself, there is hardly any scope for doubt that the Captain's dream did come true. Remember, he was summoned in his dream to "receive the gift of divine knowledge".

It is time now to try and record one of Swamiji's miracles. I select one which because of the time factor would appear to be the Master's doing as well. The story has been recorded by  that famous Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda whose Autobiography must be regarded as the most astounding and outstanding first-person experience of reality behind the phenominal veil of our day-to-day experience.

The story is as much about Yogananda as it is about Vivekananda, but I shall highlight the role of Swamiji only ...

MORE MIRACLES: CARRYING THE LOAD

It was during a rainy season that the Sevak ( Swami Mahadevananda) came to Jairambati (Mother's village) from the Ashram at Koalpara. The Mother asked him to stay on to help her by fetching things from a grocery shop in another village - Haldipukur - at a distance of two kilometers. (There was no grocery shop in Jairambati). In the afternoon the Sevak went to Haldipukur and purchased atta, ghee, and other provisions and one tin of kerosene oil weighing, in all, about a maund. Noting the weight of the of the items, the shopkeeper suggested that a porter be engaged for carrying the provisions. As Mother had not specifically authorised this expenditure, the sevak put the heavily loaded basket on his own head and started for Jairambati. However, after covering only a short distance he realised that the load was too heavy to be carried in comfort. The muddy surface of the road, drenched by the monsoon rains, had become slippery and full of puddles and he had to keep one arm engaged in holding the umbrella to protect the provisions from the pelting rains. But ignoring the pain and hardship and with firm determination he kept moving forward, for he was carrying things needed by the Mother! In this fashion he negotiated a tricky stretch of water-filled depression on the road which stretched his endurance to the limit, when he suddenly realised that the load was no longer troubling him and seemed to have become lighter. So surprised was he that he actually halted in his tracks and looked for an explanation but could not find any. When he resumed his walk towards Jairambati, he had been fully freed from all discomfort. Thus he entered the Mpther's house at ease, but found he walking about on the front Verandah in extreme agitation. He face was flushed, as if with exertion and the whites of her eyes were showing. She was muttering to herself, "Oh, why did I not tell him to engage a porter!" After the sevak had unloaded the basket on the floor she said to him: " You should have engaged a porter. Does it matter that I did not ask you to do so? One must never undergo such hardship".

Gentle reader, you decide, how the Sevak's load was lightened!.

Next, back to the Master for a story of full protection for a devotee.

MORE MIRACLES

 In the first part of this essay, nine of the lesser known miracles of Shri Ramakrishna have been studied. In this section, we take up some more of these miracles performed not only by the Master himself but also by Ma Sarada and Swami Vivekananda through whom also the Master's powers operated.

2. Regarding Shri Shri Ma, the Master himself made the position clear through many utterances such as this one to Galap-Ma (a woman devotee of the Master who was an "Antaranga" of the Mother');

" Bestower of knowledge is she, born with uncommon sagacity. She is no ordinary person - She is my Shakti." Again, after the Sodoshipuja (worship of Ma Sarada as Divine Shakti) the Master's final offering was - himself. He offered up the fruit of all his Sadhanas together with his rosary at her feet. Shri Shri Ma herself said: "What is Shri Ramakrishna that I am." So, a miraculous act by the Mother is equally a miracle of Shri Ramakrishna. Hence it was teh Master himself who set the ball rolling when a lady ( wife of Kalipada Ghosh), who at that time regarded Shri Ramakrishna no more than Sadhu with yogic powers, approached him. Her prayer was that the Master prescribe some 'Medicine' to cure her wayward husband of his evil ways which had blighted her married life and rid him of the unwholesome friends who had led him astray. The Master surprisingly did not rebuff her but said " You better appeal to the lady who stays in the Nahabat: if you explain frankly your predicament to her, she will give you the right medicine. She knows all about these miraculous remedies and in such matters she has even greater powers that I"; Shri Shri Ma was then approached and gave a patient hearing to the lady, concluded that teh Master was playing a game and told the lady that it was the Master who knew about such medicine and she must press him for it. The poor woman was thus tossed from one to the other three times when the Mother's kind heart melted and, maybe, to remove here immediate distress she picked up a 'Bel' leaf that had been offered in puja and gave it to her saying, "my child, take this; it will bring about what you wish". The result of this blessing of the Mother is now a leaf in the history of the Ramakrishna movement. How the 'Dana' (terrible) Kali was in due course converted into one of the brightest gems in the string of the Master's devotees has been recorded in the 'Punthi' as also in Swami Gambhirananda's essay on Kalipada Ghosh in his 'Bhakta Malika' (Garland of Devotees)

3. Now, Vivekananda. We have noticed earlier that the Master had declared categorically that he and Naren were non- different. The sole witness of the strange behaviour of the Master towards Naren on that occasion, Vaikuntha Sanyal, has recorded the Master saying to Naren:

" What I see is that I am this body and I am also that body. It is true, I see no difference .... What ignorance! Are you and I different? This is I and that is also I".

We also know of the Master's offer to transfer to Naren all his occult powers and Naren's refusal to accept these. But the matter did not ed there. The powers did get transferred. This is how Christopher Isherwood describes the process of transfer, vide Ramakrishna and His Disciples:

" ..... Ramakrishna summoned Naren to him. There was no one else in the room. Gazing fixedly at Naren he passed in Samadhi. Naren felt a force somewhat like an electric current was taking possession of his body; Slowly he lost consciousness. When he came to himself again he found Ramakrishna weeping. "Oh, Naren, " he said " I've given you everything I have - and now I am a beggar! But these powers I have handed over to you will make you able to do great things in this world. When all that is accomplished you can go back where you came from". 

But these inherited (?) powers were used by Swamiji for the good of humanity only He had said so specifically to the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Lion of Chicago whose hospitality was accepted by Swamiji quite often during his stay in America. This young lady had got interested in Indian religious practices and with the help of someone had quickly made some progress and had acquired the power of visualising the face of the writer of any letter she might hold in her hand. After about a year Swamiji came yo know of it when he was again a guest of the Lions. He told Miss Lion that he had also possessed miraculous powers but Shri Ramakrishna had cautioned him never to use these powers except for the general benefit of people at large.

4. With this brief introduction, let us now get on with the miracles themselves and start with a cameo from the Mother.