Once, somebody told me about Swami Ram Krishna Paramhans that he deceived and left his wife. That person said that he accepted his wife as his mother. I would like to address that question.

As far as my understanding goes, when we get a human body we also get its weaknesses. We, every now and then, consciously or sub-consciously, tend to deal a compromise with the weaknesses of our body. The biggest weakness of a human body is the urge of having sex. No living being on this planet has ever overcome it. At some point of time or the other, we all have desired for it, at the very least. No one can overcome it because then that would go against the nature; its continuity.

Ram Krishna Paramhans was an individual who actually got rid of this urge. He used to address the prostitutes, who were arranged by Rani Rashmoni and her son-in-law Mathur babu, as his “Mother”. So divine was he and his thoughts. He was considered as a mad by most but there wasn’t anything that should have prompted anyone to call him so. It was not his shortcoming but of the people who considered him so. He was submerged so deep into Maa’s thoughts that he used to behave in an unusual manner, far different from that we generally get to see. That might have prompted people to consider him mad.

Once he was associated with a Tantric sadhvi, named Yogeshwari, popularly known as Bharavi Brahmani. The Bhairavi initiated Ramakrishna into the tantric practices, which expose the sense and spirit to all the disturbances of the flesh and imaginations, so that these may be transcended. Under her guidance, he went through a full course of sixty four major tantric sadhanas. He began with mantra rituals such as japa and purascarana and many other rituals designed to purify the mind and establish self-control. He later proceeded towards tantric sadhanas, which generally include a set of heterodox practices called vamachara(left-hand path), which utilize as a means of liberation, activities like eating of parched grain, fish and meat along with drinking of wine and sexual intercourse. According to Ramakrishna and his biographers, Ramakrishna did not directly participate in the last two of those activities, all that he needed was a suggestion of them to produce the desired result. Although Ramakrishna acknowledged the left-hand tantric path as another means of spiritual enlightenment, he did not recommend it to anybody. Because he himself did not indulge himself in these. So great was he.

One should always find out the facts before coming to any conclusion. Although his marriage was never consummated because he regarded Maa Sarada as the Divine Mother in person, it is not He that we should put the blame on. It was, in fact, his parents and our society. Because when he got married to Maa Sarada in 1859, he was 23 and Maa Sarada was just 5. Now, What better term he could have used for such an innocent child. I don’t think any sensible human being would like to argue more on this.

The problem is not with others, its within us. We sometimes tend to believe in conflicting ideologies, that too without finding facts ourselves. Its just another Human behavior or more correctly, weakness. Our minds get attracted more towards what is unusual and conflicting rather than commonly accepted and sometimes true. “There isn’t anything ideal. Best is what suits us best individually in the given circumstances.”