As both blades of a pair of scissors are needed to cut a piece of cloth, so both self-effort and grace are needed to realize God. The grace of God is always blowing, like the wind over the sea. A sailor who unfurls the boat’s sail catches the wind and reaches the destination smoothly. Sri Ramakrishna’s grace was blowing over Bhavanath Chattopadhyay’s life, but Bhavanath suddenly pulled down his sail, putting his spiritual journey in peril. His condition was like that of a man who has put his left leg in one boat and his right in another. Through the Master’s grace, Bhavanath ascended to a higher plane of consciousness, but the mysterious Mahamaya entangled him and brought him back down to the world.
In 1885, the Master was diagnosed as having cancer. Then in September he moved to Calcutta for treatment. Bhavanath’s visits to the Master gradually became fewer as he struggled to find employment and became involved in family affairs. On 11 December 1885, the Master was taken to a garden house in Cossipore, a suburb of Calcutta. On 23 December M. remarked that one purpose of the Master’s illness was the final sifting of disciples.
Master: “What you said about the sifting of disciples was right. This illness is showing who belongs to the inner circle and who to the outer. Those who are living here, renouncing the world, belong to the inner circle; and those who pay occasional visits and ask, ‘How are you, sir?’ belong to the outer circle.
“Didn’t you notice Bhavanath? The other day he came to Shyampukur dressed as a bridegroom and asked me, ‘How are you?’ I haven’t seen him since. I show him love for Narendra’s sake, but he is not in my thoughts anymore.”
Bonds of affection and friendship are tested when one is sick or facing other great difficulties. Bhavanath failed that test. Although his heart was with the Master, he was engulfed in family responsibilities and problems of unemployment and lack of money. The Master expected Bhavanath to be present more often during his terminal illness. The Master was very childlike, and it seems that he was a little piqued when he said, “He is not in my thoughts anymore.” But the Master’s affection for Bhavanath was not completely cut off. The Master disciplined his disciples like a chastising father, but he was also a compassionate mother. Any temporary withdrawal of affection was a terrible blow to his disciples; they had no peace until they reestablished their connection with their beloved Master.
M. recorded on 22 April 1886: “Bhavanath and Narendra were sitting at a distance, talking together. Bhavanath had married and was trying to find a job; so he could not visit Sri Ramakrishna frequently at Cossipore. He had said to M.: ‘I understand that Vidyasagar wants to start a new school. I have to earn my livelihood. Will it be possible for me to secure a job in that school?’ The Master was much worried about Bhavanath’s being entangled in worldly life. Bhavanath was twenty-three or twenty four years old.”
Master (to Narendra): “Give him a lot of courage.”
Narendra and Bhavanath smiled. Sri Ramakrishna said to Bhavanath, by signs: “Be a great hero. Don’t forget yourself when you see her [your wife] weeping behind her veil. Oh, women cry so much — even when they blow their noses! (Narendra, Bhavanath, and M. laugh.)
“Keep your mind firm on God. He who is a hero lives with a woman but does not indulge in physical pleasures. Talk to your wife only about God.”
A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna said to Bhavanath, by a sign, “Take your meal here today.”
Bhavanath: “Yes, sir. I am quite all right. Don’t worry about me.”
Bhavanath must have visited the Master again before he passed away on 16 August 1886, but there is no evidence of this in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna or in Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play. When the Master passed away, two group photographs were taken; Bhavanath is present in both of them.
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Swami Ramakrishnananda later recalled: “Bhavanath was one of those whom the Master spoke of as having been ‘born perfect’. He also said that Bhavanath and Narendra had a special affinity. But Bhavanath married. One day the Master told me to go to him, saying I could learn much from him. I wondered why he should send me to a householder to learn, but when I saw Bhavanath I understood. As we sat talking of God, he went into meditation, and tears of bliss and devotion poured down his cheeks. One could see that he was completely immersed in God.”
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Swami Vivekananda maintained his friendship with Bhavanath even when he was in the United States. In 1894 he wrote in a letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda: “How is Bhavanath, and what is he doing? Do you visit him, and look upon him with an eye of regard? Yes, brother, the distinction between sannyasin and layman is a fiction. My friend, it is difficult to judge what is in a particular individual. Sri Ramakrishna has spoken highly of him; and he deserves our respect. Fie upon you if you have no faith even after so much experience! Does he love you? Please convey to him my hearty love and esteem.”
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Towards the end he remained in an ecstatic mood. He seemed to be seeing the Master. Sometimes he would utter loudly, “Kali, Kali! Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna!”He asked his relatives to burn incense in his room and not to touch his body. In the early part of 1896, at the age of thirty-three, Bhavanath died in that rented house in Calcutta. His body was cremated at the Cossipore cremation ground where Sri Ramakrishna’s body had been cremated.
Sri Ramakrishna had householder devotees as well as monastic disciples. He said: “There are two kinds of yogis, the ‘revealed’ and the ‘hidden.’ The householder may be a ‘hidden’ yogi. No one recognizes him. The householder should renounce mentally, not outwardly.” Bhavanath was a hidden yogi. Perhaps the Master demonstrated through him how a householder should live in this world. (Source: They Lived with God)
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