November 1881
The relationship between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda began in November 1881when they met at the house of Surendra Nath Mitra. Ramakrishna asked Narendranath (the pre-monastic name of Vivekananda) to sing. Impressed by his singing talent, he invited him to Dakshineswar.
In college Naren’s intellect and academic excellence attracted the attention of his professors. The principal of the college W. W. Hastie remarked, “I have traveled far and wide, but I have never yet come across a lad of his talents and possibilities. He is bound to make his mark in life.” Naren found the curriculum too narrow and would often study topics that took his fancy on his own. Consequently he studied Western logic and philosophy in great depth and also studied ancient and modern history of western nations.
Though Naren partied with his friends and was often the life of the party he somehow found this deeply unsatisfying. His restlessness found him exploring subjects outside his curriculum and also exploring ideas outside his religion. Soon he was attracted to a religion called “Brahmo Samaj”. This religion advocated the idea of a formless God, gender equality, and did not believe in the Indian caste system. After a few years with Brahmo Samaj he once again grew restless realizing that he was no closer to achieving God realization than before.
One day in a class on Wordsworth, conducted by Principal Hastie, the discussion turned to the topic of ecstasy. Hastie found it difficult to explain the ecstasy of a poet. He then remarked that to best understand this, students should see the spiritual ecstasy of Sri Ramakrishna, the priest of a temple in Dakshineswar. Naren was in such a restless state that he took upon himself to do just that. He collected a few friends and together they visited Dakshineswar and met Sri Ramakrishna.
When they met, Sri Ramakrishna asked Naren to sing a few songs. On hearing Naren sing Sri Ramakrishna went into Samadhi and he immediately realized the spiritual potential of this lad. He then took him aside and began shedding tears of joy. Amidst sobs and with great tenderness Sri Ramakrishna began telling Naren how he was waiting for him for a long time and that he had a great spiritual mission to fulfill.
Naren was bewildered to hear this and felt that Sri Ramakrishna was a madman. Naren and Sri Ramakrishna were polar opposites and Naren found it hard to grasp the full importance of what he was hearing. Naren was educated while Sri Ramakrishna illiterate. Naren came from a wealthy family while Sri Ramakrishna was a destitute. Naren believed in the intellect and rationality while Sri Ramakrishna was a God intoxicated mystic who spoke from his heart rather than intellect. Anybody who would have looked at the pair would have found it hard to predict that these two would have a guru-disciple relationship one day.
On his second visit to Dakshineswar Sri Ramakrishna went into his usual trances. During this he happened to touch Naren and accidentally sent him into a trance of his own. Naren described the incident afterwards, “The touch at once gave rise to a unique experience within me. With my eyes open I saw the walls and everything in the room whirl rapidly and vanish into naught, and the whole universe together with my individuality was about to merge in an all-encompassing void! I was terribly frightened and thought I was facing death! Unable to control myself I cried out for help and Sri Ramakrishna laughed and touched me again and restored me back to my senses.” This incident wounded Naren’s pride and marked a turning point. At this point he was not sure if the experience was a result as some sort of mesmerism or hypnotism and not sure if he could trust his own experience as something authentic. But the seed was sown. Naren had tasted briefly a new level of conscious experience for the first time.
In spite of their differences Naren felt a pull towards Sri Ramakrishna and he kept coming back. He was not yet willing to give up logic and reasoning and he did not give any credence to this talk of his future greatness. Once he told Sri Ramakrishna, “Since you love me and wish to see me great, these fancies naturally come to your mind.”
Nevertheless Naren slowly began to realize that Sri Ramakrishna was indeed experiencing something extraordinary and authentic. What had initially appeared to him as eccentric behavior now seemed as a child-like behavior of a God-intoxicated man. But Naren was yet in no mood to accept Sri Ramakrishna as his guru or accept his teachings. One day he told Sri Ramakrishna, “Even though I love you it does not mean that I shall accept your words without exercising my critical judgment.” Sri Ramakrishna rejoiced at the intellectual sincerity of Naren. Of all his disciples Naren was the only one who dared challenge him.
For the next 3 years Naren continued to question Sri Ramakrishna and his beliefs. Just as he we becoming convinced on the truth of Sri Ramakrishna’s message something happened that threw everything off kilter.
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