Once a disciple who had never seen Sri Ramakrishna, had an intriguing conversation with Holy Mother Sarada Ma.
Disciple: “Mother, that photograph of Sri Ramakrishna which you have with you is a very good one. Is that a good likeness of the Master?”
Sarada Ma: “Yes, that picture is very, very good…I kept the photograph with the pictures of other gods and goddesses and worshipped it. At that 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, ‘Hallo, what is all this?’ Then I saw the Master take in his hand the Bel leaves and flowers kept there for worship, and offer them to the photograph. He worshipped the picture. This is the same picture.”
Source: The Gospel of the Holy Mother.
Isn’t It Strange that Sri Ramakrishna Worshipped His Own Photo?
Now upon reading the above quote of Sarada Ma in our Whatsapp broadcast, some of you have been very puzzled. You have asked – “Why did Sri Ramakrishna worship his own picture? Does this not display a huge ego?”
Not at all! In Vedanta the extremes unfortunately tend to look alike. What this means is that before our ignorant eyes, the actions of a God-realized sage can appear to be the same as those, of a fake guru with a tremendous ego. However if we switch on the discerning powers of our intellect then we can easily cleave and separate the two.
Knower of God IS God
The first thing we must note is that this picture of Sri Ramakrishna, which Sarada Ma worshipped, had been clicked under the supervision of Swami Vivekananda, at the precise moment when the sage had been immersed in Samadhi. You can learn more about this photo here.
The picture is extraordinarily special because it captures the moment when the sage was merged with God; when he had become ONE and the SAME as God. In that moment when the photo was taken, Sri Ramakrishna had broken the bonds of the ego and had risen far above the ordinary human consciousness to the highest and most difficult-to-attain state of Sat-Chit-Ananda God-Consciousness; alternatively known as Brahman in Vedanta.
The Hindu scriptures emphatically declare that brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati – A Knower of Brahman (God) IS Brahman (God). (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.9).
A Photo of God Himself
Thus this photograph of Sri Ramakrishna in samadhi is the photograph of God Himself. Suppose Sri Krishna were living on earth today and we were able to take a picture of him delivering the updesha (sermon) to Arjuna. This photo of Sri Ramakrishna is equivalent to that.
Photos of Avatars Contain Embedded Their Powerful Spiritual Force
The photograph of an Avatar, that too in samadhi is not ordinary. To understand its power consider a thought experiment. Suppose I show you the photo of an angry person and ask you to concentrate on it. After some time your mind will start feeling uneasy. The emotional state of the angry person captured in the photo, will have started to affect your mind as well.
If the photo of an ordinary person can have such an effect, then imagine the manifold transformative effect on our mind, that a photo of an Avatar immersed in samadhi shall have.
Mother Mirra has explained this truth:
“In every picture, photograph, there is an accumulation, a small accumulation representative of the force of the person whose picture it is, of his nature and, if he has powers, of his powers.”
The photograph of Sri Ramakrishna in Samadhi, not only contains the imprints of his state of God-consciousness, which are present in the Avatar’s facial expression, hand mudra as well as his body posture; but more importantly the photo contains embedded within it, Sri Ramakrishna’s formidable spiritual force, which elevates a worshipper and has the power to put him/her in the state of Sat-Chit-Ananda Consciousness.
Many aspirants say that when they meditate on the photo of Sri Ramakrishna, they can see him smiling and coming alive. These experiences are absolutely true. These people have succeeded in establishing an inner contact with the Avatar’s spiritual force embedded within the photo. This force has elevated their consciousness to a level where they can obtain a glimpse of the living presence of Sri Ramakrishna in the image.
Now if Sri Ramakrishna is God Himself, Why Did He Worship His Own Picture?
When Sri Ramakrishna came across his own photo in Sarada Ma’s puja – he did not think: “Oh, my photo is here! I am being worshipped! I am a very important person now!” This is the way an ordinary person, who has an ego, and who has never ascended to a higher state of consciousness, would think.
Avatars think and act quite differently, because they have no ego. They have already burnt up their ego in Samadhi. Since Sri Ramakrishna had already attained to Sat-Chit-Ananda, during Samadhi, he no longer identified with his finite human self. He identified firmly with his infinite Divine Self. In fact Sri Ramakrishna had a tough time keeping his consciousness down, focused on the human plane. His consciousness had a natural tendency to soar to Sat-Chit-Ananda and remain immersed in that bliss.
And it was this infinite Sat-Chit-Ananda Divine Self that Sri Ramakrishna always worshipped. When he offered flowers and bel leaves to his picture, he was not worshipping his human self. Recall what Mother Mirra has stated above – Within the photo of a sage, there is an accumulation of some portion of the state of consciousness they are in. Since Sri Ramakrishna was immersed in Samadhi, there was an accumulation of Sat-Chit-Ananda in his photo. It was this that Sri Ramakrishna was worshipping.
When Sri Ramakrishna Worshipped a Cat
As a matter of fact, even when Sri Ramakrishna used to worship the Divine Mother Kali in the temple, instead of placing the flowers at Her feet, he would often place them on his own head and at his own feet. Why?
Firstly, because Ma Kali was none other than Sat-Chit-Ananda. And secondly, Sri Ramakrishna’s own state of consciousness was so high that he could directly experience that the Divine Mother Kali was not just present within the idol in the temple. She resided everywhere including in Sri Ramakrishna’s own soul.
She was present even in the soul of the cat sitting nearby. And so one day Sri Ramakrishna offered the prasad to the cat instead of placing it before the idol. Similarly when he experienced that Ma Kali was present in his own soul, he placed the flowers meant for Her on his own head and at his own feet.
Sri Ramakrishna: “The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kali temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness – all was Consciousness.
I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss – the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kali temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother – even the cat.”
Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by M
Summary
So to conclude the actions of great Avatars may seem puzzling and mysterious to our ignorant eyes, but they are always rooted in knowledge, and are not motivated by the petty ego that dominates the ordinary mind.
What kind of yogic powers do God-realized sages possess? How are they able to help devotees even after giving up the body? Find out by subscribing to our Yogic Powers of Pandit Shriram Sharma Newsletter on the Spiritual Bee Academy App.
