Totapuri

According to Swami Nikhilananda, in his introduction to the The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Totapuri was likely born in the Punjab. He was trained at an early age in Advaita Vedanta and looked upon the world as an illusion.

He regarded the gods and goddesses (and all its rituals) of dualistic worship as mere fantasies of the mind. He spent forty years practicing austere disciplines of self-exertion and will-power on the banks of the sacred Narmada and "liberated himself" from the sense objects of the universe and realized his Identity with the Absolute.

By the time he arrived at Dakshineswar Temple (after a visit to the estuary of the Ganges) in 1864, he was a wandering monk of the Shankara Order and the head of a monastery in the Punjab and claimed leadership of seven hundred sannyasins.

Totapuri recognized in Sri Ramakrishna an advanced seeker of Truth and thought he would be a fit recipient of the Vedantic ideal. He therefore asked Sri Ramakrishna whether he would like to practice Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna replied that he would do so, if his 'Mother' permitted him. Totapuri asked him to get his mother's permission quickly, as he would not stay at Dakshineswar for long. Sri Ramakrishna went to the Kali temple and heard Her command: 'Yes, my boy, go and learn of him. It is for this purpose he has come here.


[ The cottage at Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna practiced Totapuri's Vedanta. ]

He was "a teacher of masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice". Ramakrishna would soon affectionately address the monk as Nangta, the "Naked One", because his total renunciation of the world included clothing.

Ramakrishna referred to Totapuri as a Jnani and liked to tell the story of Totapuri giving him the Gift of the Absolute while he, Ramakrishna, gave Totapuri the Gift of Worship of the Goddess.

excerpts:

Totapuri's Advaita Vedanta,
according to Swami Nikhilananda

Totapuri's Awakening of Ramakrishna
according to Osho from Zen Wind, Sufi Fire
 

bibliography:

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
"M" . Translation by Swami Nikhilananda.
1973, New York:
( to order direct
from Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center )

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