Totapuri and Ramakrishna

[puzzled 3,396]

Totapuri was a sanyasi from Punjab region who meditated on the formless Waheguru, he saw all Gods/Godesses and idols as illusions. He helped Ramakrishna who was a devotee of Kali mata meditate on the formless one. 

Its believed that Totpuri lived for 250 years! 

 

Totapuri, sometimes Tota Puri, was a Parivrajaka, a wandering monk who followed the path of wisdom taught by Advaita Vedanta as well as being the teacher-guru that brought the full fruit of Awakening to Sri Ramakrishna. He was a member of the Naga sect of sannyasins, a highly austere and uncompromising monastic order. Nagas normally live with only "space as clothing" (Digambara), refusing to submit to any comfort the body or mind might enjoy. Totapuri was an adept of the formless reality, the cloudless sky of the absolute. He, like Trailanga Swami, was, it has been claimed by some, to be over 250 years old when he died. He regarded the worship of divine forms as childish. Naked and smeared with ashes, Totapuri strolled through Dakshineswar Temple garden and noticed Ramakrishna seated there, clapping his hands ecstatically and chanting the name of Mother Kali. Totapuri recognized at once that Ramakrishna, despite his appearance as a simple devotee of the Goddess, was inwardly prepared to receive initiation into the knowledge of the absolute, in which all forms and all emotions are left behind.

Totapuri approached Ramakrishna with the proposal that he receive initiation into Advaita Vedanta. Ramakrishna replied, "I must ask my Mother Kali." He entered the temple and received permission from the living divinity that he experienced pulsatiing through the stone image enshrined there. That evening, Toatpuri began instructing him in Formless Meditation. But as Ramakrishna concentrated deeply, the radiant figure of the Goddess appeared to his inner eye. When he reported this to Totapuri, the austere naked monk took a sharp stone and pressed it firmly against Ramakrishna's forehead, instructing him to concentrate on the pain and assuring him that he could transcend the divine form and merge into the infinite expanse of the absolute. Once more, Ramakrishna meditated and, as he later expressed it, "with the sword of wisdom, I cut through the divine form of Kali." Her form dissolved, and his individuality completely disappeared into Her formless aspect. For three days Ramakrishna was completely lost to the world in a near state of suspended animation called Nirodha, seated in the small meditation hut, motionless, all breathing and body functions slowed to a standstill.

Totapuri was amazed, because, like the Buddha's brother or cousin Ananda, Totapuri had practiced for forty years to achieve the same level of experience --- nirvikalpa samadhi --- the disappearance of individual identity in the Absolute. It occurred to Ramakrishna in a single sitting.

 

Ramakrishna remained silent for six days and finally, when he opened his eyes he thanked Totapuri saying "If you had not come, I would have lived my whole life with the hallucination. My last barrier has fallen away." He became Enlightened after he had cut the last barrier. But even the followers of Ramakrishna don't mention the incident because it makes the whole effort of worshipping futile.

 

 

watch @ around 01:4:00

 

[GurjantGnostic 799]

[Guest]

@puzzled Amazing story bro. You should also read about Ramana Maharishi.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is first step, after Nirvikalpa is Sehaj Samadhi which is the ultimate. Ramana Maharishi talks about this.

Can we householders expect to achieve these states.

[GurjantGnostic 799]

[Guest]

On 1/21/2021 at 1:52 PM, GurjantGnostic said:

What ??????? This guy has hacked sikhsangat.com

[Guest]

Okay you were not downvoting but making this confuse sign. So in a way you lied but did not lie. Become a Sikh michael jackson.

[GurjantGnostic 799]

I don't confused bootha either for the record. 

I also don't upvote all my own posts. 

I also don't lie. 

[Guest]

Im downvoting u. I dont lie.

[GurjantGnostic 799]

I don't lie. 

[GurjantGnostic 799]

Jo bole so nihal Sat Sri Akal

[Guest]

Jo Bole So Nihaal

[Guest]

SAAAATTT SRI AKAAAAAALLLL

[GurjantGnostic 799]

Make a Sikh out of you yet bro.