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The dispute over Kabir’s body

In another scene, Kabir was seen scolding both Hindus and Muslims severely. He was stressing not artificial unity of all religions, but on harmony amongst the followers of different paths of worship. Even while the external rituals of various religions are drastically different, they propound only one truth. This truth is about the indwelling and all-pervading Divinity in the whole manifested cosmos. It is said that when Kabir died, both Hindus and Muslims wanted to perform the last rites as per their religious beliefs. Hindus wanted to cremate his body while Muslims wanted to bury it. It is said that when they removed the cloth covering the body, they found flowers instead of Kabir’s dead body. Hindus took one half of the flowers and burnt them while Muslims buried the other half. Kabir’s body formed out of the five elements reached its original form through different means. The story explains this truth.

There is a difference of opinion on where Kabir died. One school claims that when his last days approached, Kabir left Kashi and went to Maghar. This was done to break the blind belief that those who die in Kashi go to heaven and those who die in Maghar go to hell. This belief was so ingrained that many people would commit suicide in Kashi. To belie this belief, Kabir spent his last days in Maghar. He left his body in Maghar. Who can say that Kabir was shackled by Karma?

The story of Kabir’s life has more legends and myths than historical facts. A Muslim weaver brought him up. It is said that he was born to an unmarried Brahmin girl. His bringing up had the influences of both Hindu and Muslim faiths. Everyone knows how severely Kabir opposed the hypocrisies and superstitions in both these faiths. The hostility to this was also severe. While some orthodox people tried to kill him, others tried to push him out of Kashi.

Many incidents of Kabir’s life came up in Shriram’s mind. They were being played in succession and ended with the incident showing Kabir’s death. A realization dawned on Shriram that the source of wisdom and intelligence is one’s own inner being. Whatever number of scriptures a person reads, they are useless unless wisdom awakens within him. On the other hand, if the inner consciousness awakens, then irrespective of whether the person is literate or not, it carries the capabilities of learning and understanding on its own. The scenes of Kabir’s life played like a movie and ended.

Next life – As Samartha Ramdas

After an interval, the scenes of the period (from historical point of view) nearly two hundred years after Kabir started showing up. The region was Maharastra and the time was the barbaric regime of Aurangazeb. At that time, no person or community had the freedom to live according to one’s faith. One had to pay a price for his faith. This price could be in the form of money or punishment. Various religions, traditions and in particular Indian streams of Sadhana and spirituality had become so weak that people were bent upon fighting amongst themselves. They were bent upon self-destruction.

In that age filled with forces of darkness and despair, a Sanyasi named Samartha Ramdas was born in Maharashtra. Events from that Sanyasi’s life started unfolding in Shriram’s consciousness. Young Ramdas was sitting along with a girl in bridal apparel in the marriage pavilion. The couple was about to get married. Before the ritual of Saptapadi, the priest said - ‘Now the bride and groom be alert!’ This was said so that they could perform the rituals, consciously understanding their import. However the word ‘Alert’ had a different impact on the would-be groom, Ramdas. His conscience pricked him saying – ‘While the entire country and religion is going through bad times, you are worried about getting married and setting up a family’. Ramdas listened to his conscience and ran away from the wedding pavilion. He woke up to the pitiable conditions of the society. He took Sanyasa. Like Parashuram, he started training people in the scriptures as well as the art of warfare.

This personality, who became famous as Samartha Guru Ramdas (1608-1692) did Gayatri Sadhana for 12 years at Panchavati, Nasik. After the sadhana was completed, he went on a pilgrimage and tried to understand the prevailing conditions of the country. He came back to Maharashtra and prepared a plan to gather the youth who were strong in mind, body and soul. He implemented the plan. Wherever he went, he would build a Hanuman temple and would open an Akhada (a kind of gymnasium) with it. Youth used to be trained there in physical exercises, wrestling, and in the use of weapons. This tradition is still alive in Maharashtra and some other parts of the country. They are known as Ramdasi Akhadas even now.

In another scene from his life, Shriram saw that Ramdas had gone to meet his mother in the garb of a Sanyasi. When he had run away from the wedding, his mother had been devastated by it. Her vision was slowly fading. She remembered her son each moment.  When Ramdas returned from his pilgrimage, he searched for his mother and went and bowed before her. His mother who had turned blind recognized her son by the sound of his footsteps. When Ramdas caressed her affectionately, she tried to look at her son. And miraculously, she could see him! The ecstatic mother asked her son – ‘Son, it looks like you have gained some miraculous power by which you have brought back my eyesight. Tell me what that power is?’

Samarth forms an organization

Samarth took his mother’s blessings and moved on. He involved himself in organizing the monks and the householders. Among the brave hearts who fought for the freedom of the country and its dignity, the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji is the foremost. Shriram saw many scenes of Samarth Ramdas initiating Shivaji, deploying him for the service of the nation and Dharma, and inspiring him to fight against the evil tendencies. In one scene, Ramdas went to Shivaji for alms. Shivaji had established his kingdom by then. The Guru shouted – ‘Jai jai Raghuveer Samarth’. Shivaji heard the call and came down running. For a moment, he wondered what he could offer to his Guru. The next moment, he took a pen and paper and offered his entire kingdom to his Guru. He told his Guru, ‘From this day, the kingdom is yours. Please govern this’. Saying this, Shivaji took the oath.

The Guru replied– “Yes. From today, this kingdom is mine. But you manage it on my behalf. Make this kingdom prosperous and offer yourself for awakening this nation.” After this, he gave a discourse on how to govern a kingdom, explaining in detail every aspect of governance.  This discourse was not only for Shivaji but it serves as a guideline for every ruler who cares about the welfare of his people. Then he taught Shivaji a prayer. In this prayer, the worshipper bows to all the gods remembering the unifying Supreme Spirit hidden in all of them. This prayer can also be found in Samartha Guru’s work ‘Dasabodh’. The tone of the prayer was reverberating as if Shriram was himself singing.

Unique Prayer

“O Gajavadana! We bow to you. Your grace is unbounded. You give knowledge and wisdom to all. O Goddess Saraswati! We salute you. You are the source of all speech; only a few enlightened can understand your nature. O Chaturanan (Brahma)! We bow to you. You are great. You created this world and revealed the knowledge through Vedas. O Vishnu! We bow to you. You are protector of this creation. We bow to Lord Shiva who always chants the name of Rama.  There is no end to your boons.”

“O Indra! You are great. You know what is Dharma and Adharma. Give us the strength to understand and follow it. O strong Hanuman! We bow to you. Make us also the worshippers of strength. O Kshetrapal! You have guided many people on the path of Self-realization. O Panduranga! Your place always reverberates with the glory of discourses on God. The glory of Rama and Krishna is infinite. It is due to these avatars that innumerable people followed the path of upasana. Yet, the Supreme Soul is the source of all these divine incarnations. All the people on this planet realize this at the end. It manifests itself in many forms and enjoys all the grandeur”.

The prayer is long. It addresses the spiritual dimension of powers within us and those that manifest in the world. At the end of the prayer, Samartha Guru Ramdas pulls down the curtains on his incarnation. The aim of his life was to propound the inner truth of Divine life. Various scenes of fulfilling one’s responsibilities, leading a principled life and working towards the welfare of the society were seen by Shriram. The message at the end of this incarnation is to strongly establish a powerful Dharma.

Third incarnation – Paramhansa Ramakrishna

The layers of memory unfolded. The new scene began somewhere around Kolkata. The time was the first half of the 19th century. The drama unfolded with a young boy of around the same age as Shriram was now. He came to stay with his elder brother in the Kali temple at Dakshineswar. His name was Ramakrishna. The temple had been constructed by Rani Rasamani who was a kaivart by caste. This was considered a lower caste. Even though the Rani’s heart was full of devotion, she had to face the brunt of the upper caste people.

People objected to her coming to the temple. They claimed that neither the idol of Kali could be installed there, nor could it be worshipped. Due to this opposition from the so-called learned scholars, no one was ready to take up the position of a priest in this temple. Rani Rasamani approached many ashrams, gurukuls and schools. She appealed to many scholars; but they all turned down her appeal. Finally, a Brahmin young man, who lived near Kolkata, by name Ramkumar agreed to become the priest of this temple. He had outraged his relatives by consenting to take up this noble duty.

Ramakrishna also came and stayed with his brother. He would worship the idol with fervent devotion. Overwhelmed by Ramakrishna’s devotion and faith, Ramkumar slowly transferred all the responsibilities of the temple to Ramakrishna and himself took up the responsibilities of his Sanskrit Pathshala. The ways of the new priest were strange. He treated the idol as though it was alive; as if he was worshipping not a deity, but a living Mother. His conversations would continue as if the Mother replied to him.

Worshipping Kali, Ramakrishna almost lost sense of the physical world. The fame of his intense devotion, his sadhana and states of Samadhi spread far and wide. People came to see him. Slowly, the number of people coming to the temple increased. While his fame spread as an intense devotee and an accomplished saint, he was married off. His wife was sixteen years younger to him, but this relation had nothing to do with the age difference. It was not a relation formed to lead normal married life. The reason of this marriage was to provide affection and to take care of the big group of Sadhaks and disciples who came to Sri Ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna’s health was such that he could not take care of even small needs of the Sadhaks. Even in the initial days, he used to enter the state of Bhavasamadhi. He would be completely unaware of his physical body when in trance. There would be no movements in the body and an onlooker could easily mistake it to be a dead body. In that state, the Holy Mother Sharadamani took care of Sri Ramakrishna.

It was during these days that Sri Ramakrishna used to take gold coins in one hand and a lump of mud in another. He looked at them and found them to be of equal value and threw them both into the Ganga. Rani Rasamani wanted to become his disciple. She wanted to test him before she took discipleship under him.  She tried to seduce him by sending beautiful girls to him. Sri Ramakrishna treated these girls as affectionately as a father treats his daughters. They apologized to him and went back to the Rani.

As part of another test, the Rani spread gold coins on a road and walked with him on that road. Thakur ignored the gold coins and moved on. Even when the Rani indicated them to him, he said that gold is also another form of mud lying useless on the ground. On another occasion, some coins were hidden in a cloth given to Sri Ramakrishna. The moment he touched the cloth, his body received a shock and he withdrew the hand as if he had touched a hot metal. The Rani was convinced that he was indeed a spiritually enlightened saint and accepted him as her Guru.

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