How Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa taught the virtues of forgiveness & forbearance to his disciples, through an incident which took place in his own life.
The Kali temple of Dakshineshwar (Calcutta) where Sri Ramakrishna used to live, had been build by Rani Rasmani after she received instructions in a Divine vision to do so. She had entrusted Mathur Babu, her son-in-law with its administration. Both Rani Rasmani and Mathur Babu were ardent devotees of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
This fact made Chandan Haldar, Mathur Babu’s family priest extremely jealous. He was envious of Mathur Babu’s reverence for the Master, Sri Ramakrishna. He wanted Mathur Babu to cherish that reverence for himself.
Therefore he tried his best to control Mathur, but when it did not happen Haldar became convinced that the Master, Sri Ramakrishna had secretly cast a strong magical spell over Mathur Babu in order to make him his loyal devotee.
He began pestering Sri Ramakrishna to reveal the alleged charm-like mantra to him, so that he could control Mathur Babu and captivate the minds of other influential people. The Master patiently told Haldar that all devotees came to him, only due to the grace of the Divine Mother and not through some magic formula.
Haldar, however did not believe Sri Ramakrishna’s honest reply. He kept insisting that Sri Ramakrishna teach him the secret art of controlling others. Haldar’s failure to extract a magical formula from Sri Ramakrishna festered long in his mind. He had no genuine interest in spirituality.
Haldar often visited Mathur Babu’s Janbazar house. One day he arrived at Mathur Babu’s house and found the Master there alone in a poorly lit room. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the floor immersed in God-Consciousness. Looking down at him, Haldar was convinced that the Master was only pretending to be in a state of Samadhi in order to impress Mathur Babu and gain his financial support.
The sight of Shri Ramakrishna in Samadhi at Mathur Babu’s house was more than Haldar could tolerate and all his accumulated anger and jealousy were released. He kicked the Master several times. The boots he was wearing left black marks where they struck the Master’s body.
Later Shri Ramakrishna related this story one day at Shyampukur to Narendra and other devotees only because Doctor Sarkar asked him about it. Sri Ramakrishna said, “Everybody wanted to tell Mathur Babu about it, but I forbade them.”
Sri Ramakrishna never reported the matter because he knew that if Mathur Babu learned about Haldar’s violence towards his beloved Master, he might punish the priest harshly.
When Mathur did in fact find out about it he remarked, “Father, if I had known that then, he would have been killed.” The Master’s reply to Mathur speaks volumes about his profound humility and compassion: “You see, Haldar really believed me to be the possessor of some magic charm. I tried my best to remove this false idea from his mind, but I could not do it.”
The Master’s direct disciple Swami Shivananda commented on this incident: “You see, our Lord had different moods. With respect to Haldar he was not in the mood of the Guru transforming the disciple; in relation to him he was like an ordinary devotee, who must see the Lord in the ignorant, in the wicked.”
Later it so happened, that Mathur Babu eventually had to dismiss Haldar for a serious dereliction of duty some time after his violent act towards the Master.
A devotee does not nurse grievances against anyone. He tries to cultivate Titiksha, forbearance. Titiksha means suffering all afflictions without caring for their redress, being free at the same time from anxiety or lamentation on that score.
– Adi Shakaracharya in the Vivekachudamani, Verse 24
The above post on the “Forgiveness Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna”, has been excerpted from the article Shri Ramakrishna And The Common Person by Swami Tathagatananda of the Vedanta Society, New York. © Vedanta Society of New York; reprinted by permission.
