Rajiv Mehrotra - Thakur Sri Ramakrishna

A meticulously researched biography of the 19th-century Hindu mystic, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Thakur is a disciples tribute to a guru something that gives the book an intimate touch. The book traces Thakurs spiritual journey from childhood up to his death, focussing on significant moments, events and people that shaped his life. The writer helps us understand what made Thakur such a driving force in Indian philosophy. Numerous incidents and anecdotes enrich the book and make it a great read.

Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 8 August 2008

This biography traces the life of one of Indias greatest saints and the various powers he possessed with a lifelong communion with Goddess Kali . It must have taken Mehrotra years of immense research to write this magnificent biography, but he has done full justice to this subject. To say that it is an illuminating work is to make an understatement . This book tells how it all came about. And understandably [it] holds one spell-bound with the mystic unfolding of events.

Free Press Journal, Mumbai, 12 July 2008

Mehrotra writes about his spiritual odyssey with all its emotional frenzy and strange transports in great detail, offering an in-depth look at the enormous complexity of the phenomenon of self-realization . The narration is full of incidents and anecdotes and enlivened by Ramakrishnas penchant for humour . A fine, intelligently written book that explores a complex subject with subtlety and skill.

Life Positive, November 2008

Easily the most reader-friendly and yet comprehensive biography of this Great Master, endearingly titled as Thakur Sri Ramakrishna . Mehrotras narrative gift is remarkably precise and richly evocative. It integrates all the details concerning an aspect into a visual and verbal complex of significance that is truly suggestive . Mehrotras inwardness with spirituality in its myriad forms, evident in his earlier book, The Mind of the Guru, and in his close association with H.H. The Dalai Lama and Swami Ranganathananda (who initiated him) attains in this book a remarkable manifestation. His racy style and turn of phrase and image, honed to exquisite evocative nuances of suggestion, make the book indispensable reading ...

The Vedanta Kesari, September 2008

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Copyright Rajiv Mehrotra 2009

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any
mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a
phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use other
than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and
reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.

(This book was earlier published under the title
Thakur: A Life of Sri Ramakrishna in 2008)

ISBN 978-93-80480-86-2

Designed and typeset at
Hay House India

Printed and bound at
Thomson Press (India) Ltd.

This book is dedicated to
the many masters and sentient beings
who through their patience, kindness and generosity
have helped me on my journey

in particular to

The late Swami Ranganathananda
His Holiness The Dalai Lama

and to the memory of

Har Narain & Shanti Mehrotra
Sarada Gopinath

and to

Meenakshi Gopinath

S ri Ramakrishna was one of the great spiritual masters and mystics of all time. His life and strivings were transparent. Deeply rooted in the traditions and philosophies of India and its civilization, his message is for all time and for all people everywhere.

He has inspired not only great spiritual activists such as Swami Vivekananda who founded the Ramakrishna Mission to honour his master but also generations of monks, sadhakas, scholars and lay people around the world. In Sri Ramakrishnas universal teachings they have individually and collectively found pointers and lessons for their own spiritual growth and the inspiration to serve others. They have each emphasized and learnt from different facets of Sri Ramakrishnas religion.

Sri Ramakrishna was both divine and intensely human. It is difficult for any one human mind to fully understand and interpret the life of an avatar. Each account must therefore seem finally incomplete on its own. There have been several excellent biographies in Bengali, English and other languages, each from the vantage point of the author.

This effort through the prism of a serious lay spiritual aspirant grounded in tradition as he embraces the modern is a truly laudable contribution and addition to the literature on Sri Ramakrishna. It offers important new perspectives and insights based on the imperatives of the twenty-first century and the authors personal quest.

Rajiv Mehrotra has long been a friend of the Ramakrishna Mission. He took Diksha from Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj, the thirteenth President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. With his blessings and support, and that of Swami Gokulananda and our Mission in Delhi he produced and presented a television series on the life of Sri Ramakrishna which was released by the then President of India Shri K.R. Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj, Swami Gokulananda and other luminaries to great critical acclaim.

I wish his latest offering to Sri Sri Thakur all success, and invoke His blessings on him and all who read the book.

Swami Gahanananda
President
Ramakrishna Math and
Ramakrishna Mission
January 2007

Authors Note:

Swami Gahanananda Maharaj passed away in November 2007. He has been succeeded by Swami Atmasthananda.

T his book is offered to the reader with great trepidation as my book. Each time I go back to reading the text it feels like I was reading someone elses work. I didnt write this book. It got written. I believe I have been merely a blessed, undeserving intermediary. It draws upon the contributions, insights, writings and support of more people than I can conceivably acknowledge or recall. It is based on what began as a personal journey more than thirty-five years ago when as a teenager I attended the lectures of Swami Ranganathananda with my father in Calcutta. Swamiji was then a young monk and through his long and distinguished career that climaxed as President of the Ramakrishna Mission I was blessed by his wisdom and guiding hand in my quest. In the later years of his life he encouraged me to use my skills as a television anchor and filmmaker to produce a television series on the life of Sri Ramakrishna. While I struggled to research, understand and then write a script he gave me long hours of his valuable time drawing upon his wisdom and rich experience with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, occasionally leading me through practices that I might more fully experience and thus better communicate elements of the narrative. I was not a worthy student.

The television series was only a moderate success and went largely unnoticed in the cacophony of commercial television. The manuscript for this book evolved as part of my continuing process of bringing order to my thoughts and understanding the profound relevance and lessons from the life of Sri Ramakrishna, a need to go beyond the brevity and simplification that writing for the visual media seemed to involve. I went back to a lifelong collection of notes. I had started collecting these much before I thought of a book or a television serial, for my own learning, memorizing and understanding. They were written while reading books, and listening to the monks of the order, especially Swami Ranganathananda. This work is also deeply indebted to the contributions of my friend Indira Rana who passed away while we were still researching the television series together. This book is really by all of them and the many authors and commentators I have read and learnt from over the years. I crave forgiveness from them all for not acknowledging individual contributions and sources. I have no records. I will be grateful to anyone who can help point out specific references or quotes so that these can be duly acknowledged in the future editions.