Sri Ramakrishna is one of those rare sages, whose picture was taken, while he was immersed in Samadhi. This picture (shown above) is known as the shrine pose. There is a fascinating story regarding how this picture came to be taken in front of the Krishna temple at Dakshineswar in 1884. At that time Sri Ramakrishna was 48 years old.
Bavanath Chatterjee, Sri Ramakrishna’s devotee from Baranagore, had long wanted a photograph clicked of the sage. One day he requested him very strongly to give his consent, and on the afternoon of the next day brought a photographer along with him from Baranagore. However he could not make the Master agree. The Master just walked away and sat near the Radhakanta (Krishna) temple.
Swami Vivekananda Intervenes
In the meantime Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) arrived on the scene and heard everything. He said, “Wait a bit. I shall put everything straight.” Saying this, he went to the veranda on the west-side of the Radhakanta temple, where Sri Ramakrishna was sitting, and started a religious conversation with him.
The Master soon went into samadhi. Swamiji went and called the others and ordered them to get ready quickly to take the picture.
In the state of samadhi the Master’s body was bent on one side and therefore the cameraman went to make him sit erect by softly adjusting his chin. But as soon as he touched his chin the whole body of the Master came up like a piece of paper – so light it was!
Swamiji then told him, “Oh, what are you doing? Be quick. Get the camera ready.” The cameraman took the exposure as hurriedly as possible. The Master was completely unaware of this incident.
After some days when Bavanath brought the printed copy of the photo the Master remarked: “This picture is nicely taken. This represents a high yogic state. The mood is very high – fully merged in Him. This form will be worshipped in every home as time goes on.”
Sarada Ma’s Story
Photographs being rare in the 1880s, there is an interesting story of how a copy of the ‘shrine pose of Sri Ramakrishna’, came in Holy Mother Sarada Ma’s possession.
Once a disciple asked her, “Mother, that photograph of Sri Ramakrishna which you have with you is a very good one. One feels it when one sees the picture. Well, is that a good likeness of the Master?”
Holy Mother replied, “Yes, that picture is very, very good. It originally belonged to a brahmin cook. Several prints were made of his first photograph. The brahmin took one of them. The picture was at first very dark, just like the image of Kali. When he left Dakshineswar for some place – I do not remember where – he gave it to me.
I kept the photograph with the pictures of other gods and goddesses and worshipped it. At one time I lived on the ground floor of the Nahabat. One day the Master came there, and at the sight of the picture he said, ‘Hello, what is all this?’
Lakshmi and I had been cooking under the staircase. Then I saw the Master take in his hand the bel leaves and flowers kept there for worship, and offer them to the photograph. This is the same picture. That brahmin never returned, so the picture remained with me.”
Note
The picture, to which Sri Ramakrishna offered flowers and bel leaves, is now in the shrine at the Udbodhan Office in Calcutta, where it is worshipped daily. This fact was authenticated by Swami Madhavananda, Swami Vireswarananda, and Swami Nirvanananda. Swami Atmabodhananda, who was the head of Udbodhan for many years until his death in 1959, stated that the Udbodhan print was the same one that Sri Ramakrishna worshipped at the nahabat.
In 1982 Swami Chetanananda received a negative from the original picture of Sri Ramakrishna mentioned above. It was made by Braja Kishore Sinha, the Curator of Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. Swami Chetanananda brought that negative to the United States and gave it to Mr. John Hench, Vice President for Creative Development of Disneyland, who worked on this picture for two years. Mr. Hench carefully removed the scratches, black dots, and other imperfections from this historical, one hundred-year-old photograph without disturbing its originality.
Source: Vedanta Society of St. Louis
