Sri Ramakrishna Math : Editorial: The Vedanta Kesari, The Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a legal document by which a principal delegates his or her powers to an agent, to get a work done by the agent on the principal's behalf. The principal chooses the agent and with the latter's consent, executes the power. The agent's prerogative to utilize the delegated power is limited to the extent of the delegation of power in the document.

The famous incident of Girish Chandra Ghosh delegating power to Sri Ramakrishna is an instance of delegation of power in the realm of spirituality. But this incident would evoke amusement if one is able to note the few peculiarities in it! Let us first recollect the incident in brief:

One day Girish surrendered himself completely to the Master. He asked him for instruction as to what he should do from then on. `Do just what you are doing now', said Sri Ramakrishna. `Hold on to God with one hand and to the world with the other. Think of God at least in the morning and evening'. This sounded simple to Girish; but then he recalled that his life was so irregular that it would be hard for him to remember God at those stated hours, so he kept quiet. Sri Ramakrishna read his mind and said, `Well, if you cannot do that, then remember God before you eat and before you sleep'. But Girish was reluctant to promise anything to Sri Ramakrishna. He knew that, with his instinctive resistance to self--discipline and rules, he might not be able to keep even this simple observance. Then Sri Ramakrishna went into an ecstatic mood and said to him: `So you are unwilling to agree even to this. All right. Give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I will take full responsibility for you. You won't have to do anything at all'.¹

In the first place, unlike in the case of a legal power of attorney, here the agent demanded the power; and in the second place, instead of God delegating power to a devotee, here the devotee delegated power to God. Is it for nothing that Swamiji's father warned him not to be surprised at any incident in the world? Anything is possible!

Yet we are not facing a peculiar situation at all! In the Gita Sri Krishna confides:

Those persons who think of nothing else and worship Me through meditation--the accession to and the maintenance of the welfare of such ever--devout persons, I look after (yogakshemam vahamyaham).²

The devotee who can delegate all his powers to the Lord in a bid to surrender himself at His lotus feet is, of course, taken care of by Him. Girish Ghosh realized it many days later. The Master not only advised Girish to give him the power of attorney, but he also taught him the basics of that mood. It has been stated in Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master that one day in the course of some conversation Girish said in the presence of the Master, `I will do it' in respect of a trifling matter. The Master said disapprovingly, `Look here, why do you say "I will do it "? Suppose you cannot do it. What then? You should say, "I will do it if God wills so ".'³

Girish felt, `This is quite right. I completely placed on God all my responsibilities, and He has accepted it. I can do a thing only if He thinks it proper and good for me and allows me to do it.' So he later said, `Did I know then that so much lay hidden in this simple act of giving the power of attorney?'

How does God digest the fate of His devotees? Does He also not suffer on our behalf? The answer seems to be in the affirmative! If we accept other's debt, we have to pay for it. What is peculiar about it? The actual question is: Why should one take up other's debt? As one is bound by the Succession Acts to shoulder the debts, in a similar way, God is duty bound to see that His creation does not suffer due to its inherent defects. Sri Ramakrishna assuringly asked, `We are His children. If He does not look after us then, is it some neighbour's duty which they should do?' Naturally, to perform His duty, God has to vicariously suffer for the devotees through implicit powers of attorney--called surrender.

There are instances of Prophets or Incarnations of God suffering vicariously for others. A concerned Sri Krishna tells:

In all the three worlds there is nothing that is binding on me as duty... Still I am always engaged in work.⁴

He even invites everyone to dedicate all actions to Him (Mayi sarvani karmani samnasya) and then engage in duties.

That is why the image of Mother Kali bent Her neck one side to show Sri Ramakrishna that She also suffers the pain of cancer in his throat with him.

Once a devotee had a nice experience. He had drunk freely and became very excited. He stopped his carriage before a house of ill fame and went up the stairs. At the head of the staircase before the door, he found the figure of Sri Ramakrishna standing there obstructing his way.⁵

A devotee of Krishna used to water a fig tree during summer days. He religiously adopted this pious work because while enumerating His superiority, Sri Krishna says that He is the holy fig tree among all trees (ashvattha sarvavrikshanam).⁶ One night he dreamt that he had met one of his creditors from whom he bought a cricket bat on credit. Before he could remember and pay for it, the creditor died. Now, in his dream, the creditor demanded his dues. It was in a dream; so he could not decide what he could do. On the other hand, the creditor was in a hurry. So, he brought out his knife, cut out an equal portion of the devotee's skin and went away. In great agony the dreaming devotee sat up in his bed in a half--awake state and felt his back with his hand. It was there intact!

The next morning the devotee went as usual to perform his regular work of watering the fig tree. `With shuddering horror, pale, and eyes aghast', he gazed at the tree, and burst out in tears. He saw that a portion, equal to the size of a cricket bat, had been cut off from the bark of the tree! `He took our infirmities and bore our diseases,'⁷ the Bible observes.

The Ramayana is a rare saga of such a suffering for Sri Rama and others. By the time Rama could reconcile himself to the loss of the kingdom and of his father, he was confronted with the loss of his wife. When after a long story of untold sufferings he recovered Sita and was installed on the throne, there arose a whisper of scandal among the subjects, and he had to banish Sita to the woods. Again, a second ordeal that he imposed on her took away Sita from physical existence. Finally he had to banish Lakshmana, his dearest brother who followed him like his shadow, when only a few days more of life on earth remained for them. His ordeals and sufferings could come to an end only after he committed the final sacrifice of his body in the waters of the river Sarayu. That much is the limit of duty for a duty--free God. They suffer vicariously.

Ramanuja was warned by his teacher not to disclose the sacred mantra to others. If he (Ramanuja) did so, he would go to hell. Ramanuja enquired, `What will be the fate of those who would hear it?' `They will be liberated', replied the teacher. After that Ramanuja couldn't afford to spare a moment. He ran to the nearby temple at Goshthipura, climbed atop the temple gate and shouted the mantra to the assembled multitude! Later he told his teacher, `What if an insignificant being like me goes to hell in exchange for so many people's liberation!'

Atmanastu kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati,⁸ we love all because the same atman resides in all. The Buddha was ready to give up his life for a lamb; Shankara, for a Kapalika. Though they embraced a whole life of vicarious suffering for no purpose of their own, they did not flinch from committing the supreme sacrifice!

They say, in the spiritual world, a guru has to suffer for the disciple. Sri Ramakrishna cautioned the gurus saying, `Guru must assume responsibility for the disciple's sin and suffering.'⁹ Both the guru and the disciple are required to be sincere. Otherwise, it will be like a blind man leading another blind man to an almost sure destination of a ditch. Swamiji observed, `It is very difficult to be a guru. The guru has to take the responsibility of the disciple.'¹⁰

Do they, by their inspiring(!) examples, leave a message for us? Perhaps yes.

Though we don't have supernatural power like God--men to take up others' sufferings on ourselves and suffer vicariously, yet we have a natural right to suffer with the distressed, sharing their woes, and hence, suffering for them! A friend in need is a friend indeed.

An intimate example of such sharing of suffering can be found in the life of the Holy Mother. Like Kisa Gotami coming to Buddha for her dead child's life, a bereaved mother rushed to the Holy Mother, wailing for the death of her young son. The Holy Mother could not contain her own emotions; she burst out in a louder cry. For some time, both the mothers wailed, when finally the mother of the dead son started consoling the sobbing Holy Mother. A late comer could not make out, among the two ladies, whose son had actually died!

Vicarious suffering is therefore not a mystical fantasy but a practical reality. A life guided by spiritual motivation aspires for a quicker termination of transmigrations. It actually happens that a spiritual aspirant minimizes the number of rebirths, i.e., the number of different future bodies. Hence the intensity of his suffering in this body grows.

On the other hand, the scriptures say that all sufferings pertain to the body only, and not to the atman. As a result, the present body has to suffer for those future bodies whose prospects have been deliberately annulled. The suffering of the present body is, therefore, a vicarious suffering. Yet we do not hesitate to undergo them because we naturally feel they are our personal responsibility--having the same soul destined to reside in all these future bodies. If we go a little deeper, we find the same Self reflected or apparently fragmented in all the souls--your soul, my soul and all others' souls! The unity felt in a community life is derived, though unknowingly, from this feeling. So, we do not repent to adjust (and suffer) with one another. Adjustment is also a vicarious suffering for both the parties.

Now the obvious question may be asked: How to get rid of this suffering? The only feeble answer that comes to our mind is: by suffering only. It cannot be avoided, but endured gloriously--even as all largehearted people do. Swamiji, on the contrary, invited such suffering saying: `...may I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls--and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.'¹¹ It is for this reason that he is competent to exhort, `They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.'¹²

Even if all sufferings are not virtues, suffering for others, being noble, is bound to add to our virtues, which are not so easy to acquire! We can simply plunge into it without the least thought of calculations or bargain. All conditions of a Power of Attorney fail here, because it is no less a birth right to us than natural inheritance. It is the nature of our very being and we should pledge to achieve it at any cost.

All sacrifices are sufferings or austerities. But by selfish work, it is less a sacrifice than gathering impurities on our pure being. The Gita stresses mutual cherishing (parasparam bhavayantah)^{13 --} a sacrifice on the part of each member of the community. Those who are self--centred are the sinful (papah); but those who are engaged in the welfare of others (sarvabhutahite ratah) are the blessed. Service to others, therefore, is called sacrifice (yajna). The householders are advised by the Vedas to perform five great sacrifices--Brahmayajna or imparting spiritual knowledge to aspirants, Pitriyajna or offering oblations to the manes, Devayajna or sacrificial offerings to gods, Bhutayajna or offerings to all created beings, and Nriyajna or entertainment of guests who may seek shelter with a householder. If we can live up to it, life itself becomes religion. The secular life is transformed into a sacred life which is envied even by gods!

1. Swami Chetanananda, They Lived With God, 2nd Reprint, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1999), 370
2. Cf. The Gita, 9.22
3. Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master, Vols. II, (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978), 2: 375--77
4. Cf. The Gita, 3.22
5. Spiritual Talks, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1975), 194
6. Cf. The Gita, 10.26
7. St. Matthew, 8:17
8. Cf. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 2.4.5
9. M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Trans. Swami Nikhilananda, (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 2000), 432
10. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 2000), 32
11. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vols. 8, (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1979), 5:136; hereafter referred to as CW
12. CW 4:363
13. Cf. The Gita, 3.11