Visiting the Ramakrishna Temple of Dhaka-Part II

Sri Ramakrishna

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 10:00

There are many missions established by Ramakrishna and his disciples across India as well as in my native country Bangladesh. Each of this mission not only work as a place for teaching of higher truth but also deeply engaged in wholesome educational and social work. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission located at the junction of Old and New Dhaka.

Even though the mission ground is part of the chaotic city landscape, yet once one enter the compound the energy is quite different, specially surrounding the temple located inside. The library of the mission is also a beautiful resource. I was surprised to find some very good Sufi books collected along with books of Hindu tradition. It was heart warming to see that the students of Ramakrishna haven't forgotten their master's love for the Sufi path.

The interconnectedness of language and that which is conveyed as sacred is a favorite subject of mine. While reading and glancing few books from the mission library on hinduism, what occurred to me is that the spirituality embodied and expressed in the language of the land is far more powerful than spirituality that is foreign and imported. What I mean needs some explanation perhaps.

The Hindu tradition (which again is not a monolithic faith, but truly a collection of different streams) - which is native, which nourished and developed in organic way with hundreds and thousand of years from this very land and its people and their experience. Whereas Islam is a relatively new religion, came to this part of the world (Bengal) only about close to or less than one thousand years, by the hands of the saints of Peria (not Arabia, something of note as the mood of spirituality of the two places are quite different).

The haqiqa described in the higher teaching of Hinduism if read in the native language for people in this land then is much more accessible to heart and mind than to read in foreign terms. Whenever I read a Hindu text, the haqiqa (non-dualistic teachings) described there using Hindu terminology is never foreign to me, someone born in Muslim faith and not familiar with Hinduism as such. This speaks for the power of native spirituality, the wisdom tradition of the land and its accessibility to the people of that land. The same principle is applicable for any other native faith tradition and people of that land, whether be in native indian of North America or Celtic tradition of North-West Europe.

As the sun was set, I went to visit the temple to pay my respect to Sri Sri Ramakrishna. The temple is quite beautifully surrounded by a peaceful aura and inside is a simple statue of Sri Ramakrishna himself sitting in his familiar lotus posture. There is nothing excess there, except the overflowing devotion. It was time for evening invocation and the devotees sang devotional chant. The students of the mission also gathered in their simple white clothes. It was wonderful to see the young ones in motionless and sitting meditative. Such a rare scene for our time. After a while I came out to enjoy the summer breeze at the garden of the temple, so were multitude of people as well.

Before I decided to leave the mission I came back to the temple (or rather the temple attracted me again) for the last time and found that a devotee is singing with a blissful voice full of devotion a song from Rabindranath Tagore:

"Shukhe Amae Rakhbe Keno,
Rakho Tomar Kole
Jaak na Shukh Jole."

My weak translation is something like this:
'What am I to do with my selfish pleasures,
rather keep me in Your divine lap.
Let all else pass away.'

'Ah! this song is so perfect', I said to myself, specially in remembrance of Ramakrishna who all his life adorned God as Divine Mother. As the devotee finished his song accompanied by harmonium, I watched him as he paid his homage with a beautiful bow to the statue of the Ramakrishna which is there with a great presence to remind the presence of God, in whom Ramakrishna passed almost his entire life intoxicated and perfumed of the divine fragrance.

Chat With The Devotees Of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa