Publication Date: September 1, 1965
This biography of Ramakrishna was written for the West by one of England's most talented authors. The writing is beautiful in itself, but the story of a most unusual man with unheard of spiritual yearning is what this book is really about.
Isherwood unfolds a fantastic story with a calm finesse.... This is a fresh and important contribution to religious mysticism" --New York Times, 1965
From the Author:
"This is the story of a phenomenon. I will begin by calling him simply that, rather than "holy man,""mystic,"or "saint"; all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others.
"A phenomenon is always a fact, an object of experience. That is how I shall try to approach Ramakrishna . . . I only ask you to approach Ramakrishna with the same open-minded curiosity you might feel for any highly unusual human being."
From the Back Cover: India has produced many spiritual giants because of her wealth of spiritual tradition. One of the greatest was Ramakrishna (1836-1886). His life was a testament to truth, universality, love and purity.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Story Begins
This is the story of a phenomenon. I will begin by calling him simply that, rather than 'holy man', 'mystic', 'saint', or 'avatar'; all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others. A phenomenon is often something extraordinary and mysterious.
Ramakrishna was extraordinary and mysterious; most of all to those who were best fitted to understand him. A phenomenon is always a fact, an object of experience. That is how I shall try to approach Ramakrishna.
Modem advertising has inflated our value-judgments until they are nearly worthless. Every product and person is said by its publicist to be the best. I want to avoid the competitive note here so I will say only this: Ramakrishna's life, being comparatively recent history, is well documented.. In this respect, it has the advantage over the lives of other, earlier phenomena of a like nature. We do not have to rely, here, on fragmentary or glossed manuscripts, dubious witnesses, pious legends. What Ramakrishna was or was not the reader must decide for himself; but at least his decision can be based on words and deeds Ramakrishna indubitably spoke and did.
You will find a full bibliography at the end of the book. But I must also mention here the two great works which provide almost all of my source material. This book is really no more than an introduction to them, and I shall quote from them and paraphrase them throughout it. One is The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by M.; the other is Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master by Swami Saradananda. M. is the pseudonym of Mahendra Nath Gupta, the headmaster of a Calcutta high school, who first met Ramakrishna in 1882 and thereafter visited him regularly during the remaining four years of Ramakrishna's life.
After each visit, M. noted down everything which had been said and one in his presence by Ramakrishna and those who were with him.
The result is a very big book, which is probably close to totally rate reporting. Saradananda was still in his teens when he met Ramakrishna and became his disciple. It was not until many years later that he began to write the articles which accumulated to form Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, a biography which covers all of Ramakrishna's life except its last few months. Although Saradananda did not begin his work until more than twenty years after Ramakrishna's death, there is no doubt of its authenticity. Many of those who had known Ramakrishna were then still alive, and Saradananda fully compared his memories with theirs. The Great Master has also the value of having been written by a monastic disciple, who has actually shared the extraordinary experiences he describes. Nothing beyond my spiritual experience has been recorded in the book, Saradananda once told a questioner. This seemingly cautious answer is fact a claim so tremendous that it silences all suspicion! of boastfulness; a man like Saradananda could not have made it unless it was literally true.
As for myself, it would be dishonest to pretend I am addressing you as an impartial biographer. I myself am a devotee of Ramakrishna; I believe, or am at least strongly inclined to believe, that he was what his disciples declared that he was: an incarnation of God upon earth.
Nevertheless, I am not writing this book primarily for confirmed believers or unbelievers. The sort of reader I am writing for is the one who is not afraid to recognize the marvelous, no matter where he finds it; the sort of reader who is always on the lookout for a phenomenon.
I only ask you approach Ramakrishna with the same open-minded curiosity you might feel about any highly unusual human being: a Julius Caesar, a Catherine of Siena, a Leonardo da Vinci, an Arthur Rimbaud. Dismiss from your mind, as far as you are able, such categories as holy-unholy, sane-insane, wise-foolish, pure-impure, positive-negative, useful-useless. Just say to yourself as you read: this is humanly possible. Then later, if you like, consider the implications of that possibility for the rest of the human species. … QO0tcg
This biography of Ramakrishna was written for the West by one of England's most talented authors. The writing is beautiful in itself, but the story of a most unusual man with unheard of spiritual yearning is what this book is really about.
Isherwood unfolds a fantastic story with a calm finesse.... This is a fresh and important contribution to religious mysticism" --New York Times, 1965
From the Author:
"This is the story of a phenomenon. I will begin by calling him simply that, rather than "holy man,""mystic,"or "saint"; all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others.
"A phenomenon is always a fact, an ob
From the Back Cover: India has produced many spiritual giants because of her wealth of spiritual tradition. One of the greatest was Ramakrishna (1836-1886). His life was a testament to truth, universality, love and purity.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Story Begins
This is the story of a phenomenon. I will begin by calling him simply that, rather than 'holy man', 'mystic', 'saint', or 'avatar'; all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others. A phenomenon is often something extraordinary and mysterious.
Ramakrishna was extraordinary and mysterious; most of all to those who were best fitted to understand him. A phenomenon is always a fact, an ob
Modem advertising has inflated our value-judgments until they are nearly worthless. Every product and person is said by its publicist to be the best. I want to avoid the competitive note here so I will say only this: Ramakrishna's life, being comparatively recent history, is well documented.. In this respect, it has the advantage over the lives of other, earlier phenomena of a like nature. We do not have to rely, here, on fragmentary or glossed manusc
You will find a full bibliography at the end of the book. But I must also mention here the two great works which provide almost all of my source material. This book is really no more than an introduction to them, and I shall quote from them and paraphrase them throughout it. One is The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by M.; the other is Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master by Swami Saradananda. M. is the pseudonym of Mahendra Nath Gupta, the headmaster of a Calcutta high school, who first met Ramakrishna in 1882 and thereafter visited him regularly during the remaining four years of Ramakrishna's life.
After each visit, M. noted down everything which had been said and one in his presence by Ramakrishna and those who were with him.
The result is a very big book, which is probably close to totally rate reporting. Saradananda was still in his teens when he met Ramakrishna and became his disciple. It was not until many years later that he began to write the articles which accumulated to form Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, a biography which covers all of Ramakrishna's life except its last few months. Although Saradananda did not begin his work until more than twenty years after Ramakrishna's death, there is no doubt of its authenticity. Many of those who had known Ramakrishna were then still alive, and Saradananda fully compared his memories with theirs. The Great Master has also the value of having been written by a monastic disciple, who has actually shared the extraordinary experiences he describes. Nothing beyond my spiritual experience has been recorded in the book, Saradananda once told a questioner. This seemingly cautious answer is fact a claim so tremendous that it silences all suspicion! of boastfulness; a man like Saradananda could not have made it unless it was literally true.
As for myself, it would be dishonest to pretend I am addressing you as an impartial biographer. I myself am a devotee of Ramakrishna; I believe, or am at least strongly inclined to believe, that he was what his disciples declared that he was: an incarnation of God upon earth.
Nevertheless, I am not writing this book primarily for confirmed believers or unbelievers. The sort of reader I am writing for is the one who is not afraid to recognize the marvelous, no matter where he finds it; the sort of reader who is always on the lookout for a phenomenon.
I only ask you approach Ramakrishna with the same open-minded curiosity you might feel about any highly unusual human being: a Julius Caesar, a Catherine of Siena, a Leonardo da Vinci, an Arthur Rimbaud. Dismiss from your mind, as far as you are able, such categories as holy-unholy, sane-insane, wise-foolish, pure-impure, positive-negative, useful-useless. Just say to yourself as you read: this is humanly possible. Then later, if you like, consider the implications of that possibility for the rest of the human species. … QO0tcg