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'I Love to Eat Sugar,
I Do Not Want to Become Sugar'
Scott douglas Niedfeldt
Scott Niedfeldt, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Comparative Religious Studies in May 2001 from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA.
A commonly accepted belief today in some societies is that we are humans and God is God. We can worship Him and He has made us. God dwells in an unknown metaphysical place and we are in the real world. This dualistic view of nature is common to the monotheistic religions of the West. But one Hindu tradition called the Advaita Vedanta has a nondualistic philosophy that God and humans are one. They do not believe in the duality of subject--object, instead they believe we must go beyond the thought of this world and realize that everything is the Absolute Reality (also known as Brahman).
In order to gain awareness of Brahman one needs to attain a state called samadhi, which is the end goal of meditation. Anne Bancroft, author of Religions of the East, interprets `samadhi' as meaning `together with the Lord.'1 There are two levels of samadhi. The person in savikalpa samadhi, the first level, is enlightened and can see the Lord face--to--face but is still conscious of the duality of the self and the entity perceived. Nirvikalpa samadhi, the second level, is the highest state of samadhi when one realizes total oneness with Brahman and is no longer conscious of duality. In this enlightened state a devoted worshiper is no longer a human being but one with God (Brahman) and with all that ever is.
Once a devoted worshiper is permanently established in nirvikalpa samadhi the cycle of samsara is broken. The cycle of samsara occurs when the soul is born as a creature and continues to be reborn until it has found release from the bonds of karma. Karma is the influence of an individual's past actions, both good and bad, on future lives or reincarnations. The cycle of continuous rebirth ensnares the soul until it is finally broken by moksha (liberation).2
The obstacle blocking one from achieving nirvikalpa samadhi and ultimately moksha is called Maya. Maya is the illusion, that things of this world are real in themselves and have names and forms. Maya preoccupies one with the phenomenal world rather than with Reality. The people and objects of this world are viewed dualistically as an aspect, ultimately an illusion, of Maya; they blind one from knowing Brahman.
What if a Hindu reached nirvikalpa samadhi and could attain moksha, but instead chose to return to a lesser enlightenment to help stop human suffering? If people are just an illusion of Maya, why work to end human suffering? Is that not just part of the illusion, of Maya? Why not stay one with Brahman and accomplish the ultimate spiritual goal? If one did come back from nirvikalpa samadhi, how could one combine the non-dualistic view of Absolute Reality gained by enlightenment and yet return to the dualistic phenomenal world of Maya?
In this essay I will address these questions by examining the life of Sri Ramakrishna (1836--1886). He is said to have achieved both savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi; I shall discuss his journey through these stages of samadhi. We shall see that in order to satisfy his hunger for God, Sri Ramakrishna discovered at least two phases of Maya and this revealed to him a very different view of God's place in the world and this plane of reality. He discovered that immersion into God does not prohibit immersion in the world and that the transcendence and eternity of God does not preclude God's involvement in the world. Many religious traditions discuss the relationship between God and the world, but few rise to Sri Ramakrishna's deified universe. Finally, we shall be brought closer to the realization that this world is divine. Because Sri Ramakrishna looked upon everything in this world, including Maya, that is otherwise thought of as an obstacle, as God, discussing his spiritual journey will reveal to us aspects of the divine that normally lie hidden from us. To view this world as divine, Sri Ramakrishna found the words of the poet Ramprasad3 that he often quoted to be profoundly true: `I love to eat sugar, I do not want to become sugar.'4
II
Sri Ramakrishna is the most revered saint in modern Bengal history. Sri Ramakrishna was declared an incarnation of God during his lifetime by prominent scholars of his day; his life and teachings are still revered in India today.
Sri Ramakrishna was born in 1836 into an orthodox Brahmin family. At the age of six, Sri Ramakrishna, whose given name was Gadadhar, had his first religious experience. He lost consciousness and fell into an ecstasy filled with incredible joy. At the age of nine, Gadadhar was initiated into Brahminhood--the priestly caste. As a young adult, Sri Ramakrishna worshiped in the garden temple of Dakshineswar. In the temple of Dakshineswar the Lord was worshiped as a Trinity: Kali, the Universal Mother; Shiva, the Absolute; and Radhakanta, Love. At the age of twenty Sri Ramakrishna became a priest, and soon picked the godhead Kali, the Divine Mother, to worship. His entire soul began to immerse itself in adoration for Kali. Sri Ramakrishna was obsessed to be in the service of the Divine Mother. He craved to see Her face in all Her glory. Nothing else would stop the hunger of his soul. Sri Ramakrishna was not satisfied with ritualistic observances like other priests. He felt so close to the Mother and longed to see Her face to face. Unable to bear with the pain any longer, he decided to end his own life. He rushed toward a sword that was hanging in the sanctuary of Kali when suddenly he felt the veil torn aside--giving him an experience of samadhi. Sri Ramakrishna describes his experience:
The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent, Ocean of Bliss... What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother.5
This vision lasted for two days and then stopped. Once again he yearned for his Divine Mother to reveal Herself. Sri Ramakrishna's pain grew so unbearable that he lost outward consciousness. He saw before him a vision of his Divine Mother in all her splendour; now he could see Her with his eyes shut or open. The Divine Mother continued to appear before him and guided him in his daily duties. Eventually, the scales fell completely from his eyes and he could see a vision of his Mother without meditation or trance. Sri Ramakrishna's visions of his Mother made him feel so close to Her, he clung to Her like a baby. He was no longer restrained by the codes of ritualistic worship. His heart was filled with divine love. According to Swami Nirvedananda, Sri Ramakrishna saw before him his beloved Mother more clearly than any object on earth.6 As time went on, even seeing the vision of Kali alone did not satisfy Sri Ramakrishna. He began to crave for and eventually be blessed with visions of other forms of God.
III
In 1862, an ascetic nun of the Tantric School7, also known as the Bhairavi Brahmani, was in search of a particular blessed soul to whom she felt she had been commissioned by a vision of God to deliver a message. At the very first sight of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bhairavi Brahmani was convinced that he was the blessed child of God for whom she had been looking. After observing him, she informed Sri Ramakrishna that he had passed through the highest states of sadhana (spiritual discipline) and had attained mahabhava, the highest phase of ecstatic love for God. After recognizing his bewildering power of transmitting his own spiritual force, she gathered an assembly of devotees and scholars, well educated in the Vaishnava and Tantric scriptures.8 The mental and physical states Sri Ramakrishna had been going through were compared to the descriptions in the scriptures, convincing the devotees and scholars that Sri Ramakrishna was an Incarnation of God. 9
After conferring with his Divine Mother, Sri Ramakrishna then placed himself on the path led by the ascetic nun. He had already gone through the Tantric initiation and now wanted to be led by the Bhairavi to spiritual practices according to Tantric texts.10 Tantra offered practical methods of realizing the ultimate truth--the essential unity of the devotee's soul with God. After completing the entire course of Tantric practices, Sri Ramakrishna still felt the craving for God.
Guided by his guru, the Brahmin nun, Sri Ramakrishna embarked on the path of Vaishnavism, the worship of Vishnu. Vaishnavism is the Hindu tradition that has the highest attitude toward bhakti, or love. For bhaktas, a passionate attachment to the Lord leads to the Divine. Bhakti is love with no limits; Sri Ramakrishna radiated this love. To make this love grow stronger, Vaishnavism temporarily humanizes God as a master, friend, parent etc. until eventually that disappears as communion with God occurs. The Vaishnavite seeks to remain in the love of God, worshipping God as a Supreme Person. The bhakta must pick a godhead to whom to dedicate oneself. To have his Divine Mother as his godhead filled Sri Ramakrishna with joy. According to Lemaitre, Sri Ramakrishna had reached the hyperconscious state when all vanishes, except for the Divinethis was union with Brahman according to the bhakti philosophy.11
IV
Sri Ramakrishna's guru had guided him along the spiritual journey with admiration, but Sri Ramakrishna felt his Divine Mother calling him to go beyond the visions and dreams of dualism. After his devotion to a Personal God, Sri Ramakrishna was to follow the path of devotion to the Impersonal Absolute in Advaita Vedanta. God was not thought of as a Personal God to worship and love, the Advaita Vedanta School believed in union with the Absolute, the universe that is Brahman. Sri Ramakrishna's new spiritual guide was Totapuri, a monk of the Advaita Vedanta School, the path of Jnana (Knowledge). Totapuri stopped at the Dakshineswar temple in 1864 during his pilgrimage. He had tested his philosophy for forty years rejecting all objects of earthly attachment.
Totapuri headed a monastery in India and trained others in the methods of the Advaita Vedanta, the view of the world as a mere illusion. For the Advaita Vedanta School, if one realizes this world to be unreal, the world does not vanish; the illusion that the world is true vanishes. Guided by this philosophy, Totapuri did not care about rituals and tangible objects of the phenomenal world; he based his identity on union with the Absolute. Totapuri took Sri Ramakrishna under his wings as a student of the Advaita Vedanta after Sri Ramakrishna had permission from his Divine Mother. Totapuri emphasized to Sri Ramakrishna that, even though the power of Maya produces names and tries to impose forms onto Brahman, Brahman is the only Reality. Once Sri Ramakrishna could overcome Maya and realize his identity with Brahman, he would then experience nirvikalpa samadhi.
Totapuri instructed Sri Ramakrishna to forget the phenomenal world, to rid himself of all attachments, names and forms, and to fix his mind solely on Brahman. Sri Ramakrishna tried but failed. He could forget his body and the phenomenal world, but he could not forget the form of his Divine Mother. The event that occurred next would be difficult to condone if it were not done for the purpose of spiritual attainment. After Sri Ramakrishna told Totapuri of his struggle, Totapuri took up a piece of glass and pierced Sri Ramakrishna's forehead between the eyebrows. Totapuri commanded Sri Ramakrishna to use all his mental energy to forget all forms, including that of his Divine Mother and to concentrate on the spot where his forehead had been pierced by the glass. As soon as the Divine Mother's form appeared before him again, Sri Ramakrishna sliced the vision in two, using his thought as the sword. According to Lemaitre, he was lost in the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi.12 Totapuri was bewildered to see his own disciple realize in one day what he himself had taken forty years to attain. Sri Ramakrishna remained in the plane of nirvikalpa samadhi for three days. Nirvikalpa samadhi is the most difficult of all samadhis. It is a state in which the differenciations regarding subject and object vanish altogether. According to Lemaitre, the Books of the Vedanta state that after a devotee is established in nirvikalpa samadhi the body becomes like a withered leaf and dies.13 Only those who have Divine missions are chosen to come down again to help mankind and radiate with Divine Glory. According to Swami Narayanananda, the ordinary man lives in the state of this samadhi for twenty--one days and then leaves the body forever. `For, when a drop of water once enters the ocean how can it retain its individuality?'14 But during the rest of Sri Ramakrishna's life he went back and forth between both the stages of nirvikalpa and savikalpa samadhis, at one point remaining in the intense mood of nirvikalpa samadhi continuously for six months.15 Sri Ramakrishna spent the rest of his life teaching devotees and shaping their lives in the light of the highest spiritual ideal. He never wrote or lectured, but delivered all his teachings by informal conversations, some of which were recorded by his disciples. He taught more by his life than by his words.
V
Totapuri extended his visit at Dakshineswar for eleven months and eventually became a follower of his own former disciple. But before becoming a follower, Totapuri viewed Maya as a stumbling block. The followers of the Advaita School, including Totapuri, wanted to be separate from the world because, to them, Maya's power was over a world filled with ignorance and illusion-- the cause of bondage. Reality is disguised by her world of appearance. Even an ordinary human being is an illusion that must be overcome. For the Advaita School, Maya is the enemy and overcoming her is the way of attaining absolute freedom and perfection. But even after obtaining freedom and perfection, if the devotee returns, She may broaden his world vision.
Sri Ramakrishna agreed with his guru, Totapuri, that the world has an illusory appearance, but he now accepted, not feared, the power of Maya in the phenomenal world. He viewed Her from a perspective of respect and love, as an aspect of Brahman, a mysterious expression of Divinity. As Sri Ramakrishna puts it, `After having directly perceived God in His attributeless aspect, one realizes that the same Deity Who is eternal by nature has assumed the form of the world in a playful mood.'16 To Sri Ramakrishna, Maya is God because everything is God. God alone exists. Everything that has names and forms is of Maya, the transparent veil of Kali that hides Reality from us. The veil and the veil-maker are Brahman.
Through realization of Divine Immanence, Sri Ramakrishna believed there are two distinct phases of Maya: Avidya and Vidya.17 Avidya Maya, or ignorance, is the Maya that fixes the devotee on the perceptions of the phenomenal world and makes him believe that the things of this world are real within themselves. This perspective of Maya is the aspect that the Advaita School is correct in trying to overcome. But Sri Ramakrishna realized that this Maya might be overcome when one returns from nirvikalpa samadhi and understands that Maya is just another aspect of the Divine Mother to love and respect--this phase is Vidya Maya. Sri Ramakrishna realized that after identifying with the Supreme Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi a devotee would return and see Maya as through new eyes. The Divine Mother utilizes Vidya Maya as a game to release one from bondage.
Maya was no longer an obstacle for Sri Ramakrishna; her power disappeared in his eyes. To him everything is the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother become Brahman. He was able to enjoy the play of the Divine Mother and yet spend time with people in need. According to Lemaitre, Sri Ramakrishna saw himself in everyone and everyone in himself. Frequently, he had the experience of merging with the Absolute, but immediately after the ecstasy of nirvikalpa samadhi he would return to view things with Divine love and a heart for the suffering.18 Recalling Sri Ramakrishna's insistence on the necessity for empathy with all creatures, we may infer that his reason for refusing to merge permanently with the Absolute was in order to remain in the phenomenal world for the sake of humanity, because loving humanity is the same as loving another form of God.
Sri Ramakrishna's way of perceiving God changed; he combined the bhakti, the philosophy of the Bhairavi nun, and the jnana, the philosophy of Totapuri. Sri Ramakrishna now adored the Personal God and worshiped the Impersonal Absolute, both while being dedicated to his Divine Mother Kali. Sri Ramakrishna became a master of appropriating certain aspects of a spiritual path as well as seeing the limitations of that path. The jnanis concentrated almost solely on the transcendental aspect of Brahman, the rest being an aspect of illusion. The bhaktas focused on the immanence of God and ignored the transcendental, which they felt would restrain their love for God. They loved the taste of sugar, but did not see why one would need to become one with it. According to Swami Nirvedananda, however, Sri Ramakrishna combined the two.19 Back from nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna understood both the transcendental and immanent aspects of the Divine. God is both with form and without form. According to him:
God the absolute and God the personal are one and the same. A belief in the one implies a belief in the other. Fire cannot be thought of apart from its burning power; nor can its burning power be thought of apart from it. But you must hold on to your particular view until you realize God; and then everything would be clear.20
VI
Sri Ramakrishna had two options: either to stay permanently in nirvikalpa samadhi and attain moksha or give that all up to come back from nirvikalpa samadhi to stay on earth for the welfare of others. Most would pick the first option, but Sri Ramakrishna chose what he believed was the greater enlightenment of staying on this plane of consciousness, enjoying the manifestations of Kali (Brahman), and helping humankind. We may infer that this was even greater than nirvikalpa samadhi itself. `I love to eat sugar, I do not want to become sugar.' The sugar is Brahman. Sri Ramakrishna could not let himself be permanently lost in nirvikalpa samadhi because he would then no longer be able to see the shade of dualism that allowed him to have love and devotion to both Kali and humankind. He realized something that made him take the lesser enlightenment and pass up moksha. To do this, however, he had to stay within the realm of dualism to some extent to see God everywhere. If he became one with God permanently attaining moksha, the dualistic love would be lost. But Sri Ramakrishna could love this way only after returning from nirvikalpa samadhi and looking upon Maya as Vidya Maya. He retained the ego, the `I,' to serve and worship God. He stayed immersed in the world to be immersed in God, but not to be God. Immersion with the world can be immersion with God if looked upon through the Vidya Maya knowledge. For even he himselfh knew he was a form of God, but only under savikalpa samadhi could he love and devote himself to God through the eyes of dualism. He viewed his Divine Mother and all humanity on the same plane of reality, and toward them he kept an equal attitude of love and devotion. Sri Ramakrishna's hunger for Brahman was finally replenished.
Different devotees from different philosophies guided him as he took elements from each. Little did he know then that the people who guided him, the Maya that he wished to overcome, and even his Divine Mother, were all the sugar--Brahman (God). `I love to eat sugar, I do not want to become sugar.' Once he realized what sugar truly was, then he could love this deified universe. In order to love sugar he had to know what sugar was, if he became sugar he would lose that. For Sri Ramakrishna, the highest love and devotion to Brahman was not losing sight of what sugar was.21
References
1.Bancroft, Anne, Religions of the East, (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1974) p.39
2. For further explanation of Hindu terms go to http://www.britannica.com/, Article 108344. Encyclopedia Britannica is copyrighted 1994-2000 by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
3. `Ramprasad's (1718-1778) poetry expresses a passionate mysticism filled with intense longing and struggle. He addresses the Mother Goddess in all of Her seemingly contradictory aspectsas loving mother and "the Dark One ", as the Transcendental Reality and a disreputable trickster embodying the forces of maya " or illusion.' http://www.dabase.net/rampras.htm
4. Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, Princeton University Press, New York, 1951) p. 561.
5. M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans. Swami Nikhilananda, (Ramakishna-Vivekananda Center, New York, 1958) p. 19-20
6. Swami Nirvedananda, Sri Ramakrishna and Spiritual Renaissance, (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 1940), p. 50-51; hereafter `Swami Nirvedananda'.
7. Tantra is a system of esoteric practices used for both the attainment of spiritual experiences and the fulfillment of worldly desires.
8. Vaishnava is the religious tradition that worships the god Vishnu and his incarnations, primarily as Rama and as Krishna.
9. Swami Nirvedananda p. 66
10. Swami Nirvedananda p. 66-67
11. Lemaitre, Solange, Sri Ramakrishna and The Vitality of Hinduism, (Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1969) p.89
12. Lemaitre p. 98-99
13. Lemaitre p. 100
14. Narayanananda, Swami, The Secrets of Mind-Control, (Denmark: N.U. Yoga Trust&Ashrama, 1979) p.190
15. Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, (Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, India, 1971) p. 9, hereafter the Sayings.
16. The Sayings p. 290 Section 928
17. Swami Nirvedananda p. 105
18. Lemaitre p. 101
19. Swami Nirvedananda p. 107
20. The Sayings p.266 Section 856 and p.272 Section 877
21. I would like to thank Dr. Edward Beach for encouraging and assisting me with this paper. I would also like to thank Dr. James Brummer for proofreading and editing.
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