Talks Excerpt 636. Swamiji speaks about Sri Ramakrishna giving Tota Puri ‘full’ realisation.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Sri Tota Puriji gave Sri Ramakrishna the path to nirvakalpa samadhi, the experience of God without form. Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, was a worshipper (in the beginning) of God with form [saguna] and after [Self] Realisation he was ‘still making chapatti,’ in the words of Tota Puri. (But if Sri Ramakrishna did not make that chapatti how would we ‘eat’ it today? We must eat [spiritually].) This refers to the time when Sri Ramakrishna was clapping his hands and saying ‘Hari Om, Hari Om, Hari Om, Kali Om, Kali Om, Hari Om,’ and Tota Puri, seeing this said, ‘What is this?’ Master said, ‘I’m praying to my Mother.’ Tota Puri said, ‘Don’t you know this is all maya – nothing exists?’ Sri Ramakrishna (who later favoured Tota Puru with [savikalpa samadhi] realisation) said: My Mother exists, I am telling you.’ Tota Puri again said, ‘Nothing exists.’

Later that night Tota Puri had severe stomach trouble. But when he tried to drown himself [consciously give up the body in what is called ‘jal samadhi’], he found that he could not, because the water in the Ganga was not deep enough. And then he saw the Divine Mother standing there smiling at him.

The Mother had filled the earth with Her presence and Tota Puriji was blessed to have Her darshan. When he went back to Sri Ramakrishna, Master aptly said: ‘Maharaj, you are very calm today, your realisation is now complete.’ Before this, he was not complete. Then Tota Puri said, ‘Now I know your Divine Mother Maya exists and that which is nirguna (God without form) also exists. That is why the Mother brought me here.’

[Tota Puri had previously only experienced nirvikalpa [without form] samadhi. Master wanted him to know ‘both sides of the same coin’ and gave him the experience of savikalpa [with form] samadhi. Master referred to this state of full knowledge and experience, as ‘vijnana‘.]

Instead of staying at Dakshineswar for three days [his normal time at any holy place] Tota Puri stayed for eleven months. So you can see that we have to accept both the shakti and the purusha, and then go beyond them.

When the Avatars come they show the gurus what to do. And this is the greatness of Sri Ramakrishna: he taught all the gurus. He did not leave any out. He taught them and took them higher and higher. He made a bridge between one called maya [partial truth as Swamiji referred to it], and another called Satchidananda.

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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.