World Teacher

A world teacher is the one who, in the first place, lives on truth, purity and austerity alone, in order to serve man and God. He is so for his glowing spiritual grandeur and immaculate character. He unconsciously holds out a sweet charm and draws numerous followers from far and wide. In his proximity they intensely feel that he harnesses a divine power and is a blissful saint of the highest order. Hence he naturally stands out conspicuously as a beacon. People often witness his God-intoxicated inebriation with bated breath, and eagerly watch his elevated mood with wonder.

They hang on to his words and internalize them. Given such experiences, they believe that he is God sent and capable of emancipating them from their worldly afflictions They find in his life and work answers and remedies which always remained elusive to them. They accordingly think that he is a world teacher. More so, because they are inspired and transformed by his sublime tutelage. His love and compassion for mankind know no bounds. They spring from his love of God where there exist no divisions or exclusions. He blazes the trail towards God, annihilating confusion and conflict created about religion. In order to carry out his divine mission of re-establishing and redeeming religion and society with truth, he gladly puts his life at stake.

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He is prepared to suffer severe hostility and extreme torture for the accomplishment of his cause. Failing to control and bring him to heel, his detractors try to stop and ruin him. They suspect their decimation is definitely in his hands. But he is not the least perturbed by their evil plans. He is fearless and resists none doing him harm. He is always awake to his divine descent and kinship, as well as to the providential onus on him to show the way to salvation. He regenerates the human soul and society through moral and spiritual resurgence. A world teacher in the realm of politics, though unimaginable, was found in Mahatma Gandhi. Scholars who have studied his life deeply have to say: “From very ancient times, we understood that every human being has the potentiality to evolve into a brahmana (truth-loving, God-abiding, learned and sacrificing) of this type, without any enmity or hatred, and with a heart full of love and compassion.

We had Mahatma Gandhi in the modern period. In one sense, caste-wise he was a vaisya; but, by his character, he was a brahmana. He showed no hatred to anyone…” He sacrificed his life to political rivals who assassinated him using a furtively trained and indoctrinated person. But the legacy of spiritual, moral and ethical values he left behind in politics, dwelling on truth and non-violence, is a lofty ideal to be emulated. Since his demise, uncountable people have drawn on his political precepts and perception, believing them to be the real teaching for political struggle and freedom. He raised himself as an icon in politics by his “patience, purity and perseverance vis-a-vis conflict, chaos and conspiracy for the sake of righteousness, achieving the appellation “Mahatma” from Rabindranath Tagore. He is worshipped in many nations as a political saint.

In his book “Universal Message of The Bhagavad Gita”, Swami Ranganathananda (the 13th President of Ramakrishna Mission) significantly writes: “That person is an extraordinary person who though he or she has no wealth, no power, no resources, is yet full of joy, full of cheer; though he or she has no helpers, is infinitely strong; ever satisfied though not experiencing sense pleasures; though he or she is incomparable, looks upon all others as his or her equal. “Asamah samadarsanah, he or she is asamah, like Mount Everest; no other peak can be equal to it, but yet he or she treats all as one’s equal.’ In our life, we see one person in the political field who approached the ideal depicted in this particular sloka (Vivekchudamani, Verse 543) of Sankaracharya.

That was Mahatma Gandhi. This kind of greatness is called spiritual greatness. Ordinary greatness cannot produce this quality.” Two thousand years ago priests colluded with politicians (rulers) and killed Jesus Christ, hatching a conspiracy. But he died a terribly painful death with the name of God on his lips, having not a single word of curse for his killers, like Gandhiji. He, too, had to face such a tragic end at the hands of his countrymen. Both of them were full of God and Truth. They were not understood by some in their motherlands, stigmatizing their national histories by those despicable and dastardly acts. Similarly, centuries before Christ, Socrates had to die at the hands of his own people for teaching them the highest good.

“Though the oracle of Delphi had told the Greeks, ‘man, know thyself’, they knew man only from the external point of view; eating, drinking, pleasure, comfort and then imperialism and war was all that they knew. They were very gifted in all these fields. The only one who knew this truth was Socrates, and therefore the Greeks could not understand this man. And they brought a charge against him of misleading the youth. Imagine such a great soul being charged in the court by the Athenian state as one who misled the youth of Athens and was condemned to death by drinking hemlock poison!” He taught about the supreme Self, which he himself realised and found to be the ultimate truth, by knowing which man could become liberated from his worldly miseries forever and grow blissful.

A world teacher is born in accordance with the spiritual laws. Sankaracharya says people practise the dharma for a long time. Then lust arises among them; discrimination and wisdom decline. Unrighteousness prevails in the world; the Creator, wishing to ensure the continuance of the universe, incarnates Himself, in part, as world teacher. He is born for the protection of the good people on earth and their spiritual ideal. By the protection of their ideal the eternal dharma is preserved. The Lord, the eternal Possessor of Knowledge, Sovereignty, Power, Strength, Energy, and Vigour, brings under His control maya – the primordial Nature, belonging to Him. And then, through that maya, He is seen as though born, as though endowed with a body.

Buddha, Mahavir, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Chaitanya and Ramakrishna were world teachers. They were born among different races at different times in different situations. But their advent took place with the one common purpose of alleviating the misery of the masses with spiritual remedies, integrating them in faiths suited to them as per their specific roots and socio-cultural needs and milieu. The way they did it was through subtle ‘adjustments’ which would have been impossible for ordinary persons. They were equipped with the Divine Power, Knowledge and Wisdom, as Sankaracharya has said, required to complete their work as world teachers. They are a class by themselves and unforgettable because of their undiminishing impact on human civilization.

Ramakrishna was a world teacher born in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century (1836). His advent happened when there was a pressing need for another “adjustment” in the world being divided into Occidental and Oriental civilizations based on materialism and spirituality respectively, both indispensable for the peaceful co-existence of mankind. “It is also fitting that when the Oriental wants to learn about machine making, he should sit at the feet of the Occidental and learn from him. When the Occidental wants to learn about the spirit, about God, about the soul, about the meaning and mystery of the universe, he must sit at the feet of the Oriental to learn.”

He “put in motion such a wave in India”. He brought about equilibrium between the two by teaching an inclusive religion which he himself practised in broad daylight before the public. People saw it and learnt a new lesson relevant in the modern times. Thinkers at home and abroad discussed and wrote on his life and teachings during his lifetime, considering them congenial to human development in this age. Ramakrishna’s deep love and respect for all the world teachers who came before him was legendary. He demonstrated this by practising their teachings seriously, and had upheld them conscientiously with cogent and facile articulations. “Spiritual ideas spread when they are understood and practised by men and women of more than ordinary good qualities; like lighting one lamp from another already lighted lamp, it slowly improves the moral and spiritual health of the community.”

Ramakrishna’s ideas were properly understood and assimilated by Swami Vivekananda. The Swami made it the mission of his life to spread his teaching to mankind. He presented it before the world in simple language and arguments in the light of history, sociology, science and philosophy, which was appreciated across the globe. Vivekananda told the West: “This is the message of Sri Ramakrishna to the modern world: Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, or churches, or temples; they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man, which is spirituality; and the more this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good.

Earn that first, acquire that, and criticize no one, for all doctrines and creeds have some good in them. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words, or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realization. Only those can understand who have felt. Only those who have attained spirituality can communicate it to others, can be great teachers of mankind. They alone are the power of light.” When the world is rife with religious and communal hatred alongside burgeoning materialism now, Ramakrishna’s comprehensive teaching is a vigorous countering force against their arrogant advance. As a world teacher he founded it on simple pragmatism intelligible to all, whether educated or not, making his “Gospel” so dear and intimate. He objectively removed obfuscation regarding faiths and “harmonized” them, binding mankind in bonhomie and brotherhood.

People cutting across countries and communities see in it a sure solution to human problems in this era. It is like an oasis for those thirsting for perpetual rest and tranquillity. A world teacher is heavenly born. Every moment from his birth to death is meant as a lesson for man. He is a real leader. No political leader can match him. Falsely promoting any truth-defying, power-hankering and fame-hungry flashy deceiver as a world teacher is abominable as well as reprehensible.

(The writer is associated with Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur)