Birth Information:
18th Feb. 1836
6:23 am
Kamarpukar (a village located at 60
miles from Kolkata), West Bengal, India.
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Ramakrishna Paramhamsa is one of the
most famous saints and DEVOTEE of God in the modern India. He is counted among
the greatest spiritual teachers [a real GURU] in the recent history –
someone who could see God !!
He was a great devotee of Goddess
Kali, and he had the direct vision of GODDESS KALI. Thus, in a world where
people’s faith in traditional religions has been considerably reduced by the
relentless attack of the forces of atheism, materialism and scientific
thinking, Sri Ramakrishna established the possibility of having direct
experience of GOD. His life has enabled thousands of people to regain faith in
God and in the eternal verities of religion. He showed how the ancient ideals
and experiences described in the scriptures could be realized even while
following the normal modern way of life.
He was born in Aquarius ASC. with Sun,
Moon and Mercury placed in the ASC. So, we see his body (ASC.),
Mind (Moon), Soul (Sun) and Intelligence (Mercury)
were all potentially capable of operating in harmony as all the four parameters
were placed in the same sign Aquarius in the 1st H in his birth
horoscope. So it was less likely for him to experience any kind of
contradictory pull due to body wanting something, and mind wanting something
else, and soul wanting some other thing … and so on.
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Aquarius is ruled
by two planets – Saturn and Rahu.
So, his horoscope has two ascendant lords, Saturn and Rahu. And since Sun, Moon
and Mercury are also in Aquarius, so both Saturn are Rahu are obviously the
sign dispositors of Sun, Moon and Mercury also. And interestingly, Saturn is
exalted in the 9th H/Libra and Rahu is exalted [or in own sign] in
the 4th H/Taurus.
· 1st L Saturn placed in exaltation
in the 9th H is a hint that his life will be devoted to learning,
higher knowledge, philosophy, religion, God realisation, and temple (or
University) … etc. And the 9th
H (along with the 1st L Saturn sitting therein) is also receiving
the drishti (Vedic Aspect) of Jupiter.
NOTE-1: Both Saturn and Jupiter are RETROGRADE, so they
were both carrying the elements of strong IKSHA-SAKTI (power of will) and unconventionality
in whatever they were indicating in the horoscope of Sri Ramakrishna.
NOTE-2: Saturn and Jupiter are both in trine to Sun
in his horoscope. So, Saturn had just become retrograde and Jupiter’s retrogration
is about to end when he was born. When a planet is close to the TRANSITION
between direct and retrograde motion and vice-versa, the planet moves very
slowly. This gives the planet the power to operate with Gyan SHAKTI (energy of knowledge).
· The other 1st L Rahu is placed in
exaltation in the 4th H – the house of mother.
· Rashi dispositor of both Saturn and Rahu is
the same planet Venus who is himself placed in his sign of exaltation Pisces in
the 2nd H.
Both the ascendant lords exalted and
their common dispositor Venus also exalted, he was indeed a special birth.
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So, if we combine the indications of
both the 1st L’s Saturn and
Rahu, then we see, Saturn is connecting him to the 9th H of
knowledge and God and Rahu is connecting him to the 4th
H of mother [and both are connected with Venus] – so we can understand
that why he tried to seek God as mother, and due to both Saturn and Rahu being
cruel planets he was attracted towards supreme-divine-mother’s ferocious
manifestation as Goddess Kali, who is angry to kill all the demons and negative
forces. His Moon is placed in the Purva Bhadrapada nakshatra in the 1st
H, which is also connected to Rudra or Kali, and strong influence of MOTHER
(Kali Maa) in his life.
NOTE: few motherly women also played
very important role in Sri Ramakrishna’s, one of them was Rani Rasmani.
Ramakrishna worked as a priest in the Dakshineswar Kali Temple
founded by Rani Rasmani where he had the vision of Kali Maa.
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Interestingly, his 10th H
of visible KARMA is Scorpio which is ruled by Mars. Mars is also placed in his
exaltation sign Capricorn in the 12th H of private prayer,
meditation, ecstasy and intoxication. Ketu is placed in the 10th
H/Scorpio, so he was not interested in the mundane KARMA of earning
livelihood in this material world.
Now if we combine the indications of
the placements of the two Lagna Lords Saturn, Rahu and then Ketu and 10th
L Mars, then we see HE was a man who had no interest in the illusory-pleasures
of this material world (not interested in MAYA) and he was always wanting to
only connect with God and to the transcendental awareness.
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Early
Life, Two
Deaths and THE VISION of THE MOTHER
All these energies in his birth
horoscope [which I described above] were active since the time he was born as
he was running through Jupiter MahaDasha (MD) at birth. Jupiter
is sitting in the 5th H of devotion and Jupiter is seeing the 9th
H (and 1st L Saturn sitting therein) and 1st H.
Ramakrishna
was very close to his father [Lagna lord placed in the 9th H]. His
father [mother also] was himself a very spiritual man and strongly devoted to Bhagwan
Sri RaaMa. As per Ramakrishna, he had a strong influence of his father’s
devotional path in his early childhood. But, his father died when Ramakrishna
was around 7 years old.
Jupiter MD continued
till the Sep. 1849. He was 13.5 years old at that time.
And then started
the most important 19 years period of Saturn MD in his life. It is during this Saturn MD between 1849 and 1868
[between 13.5 to
32.5 years of his age] when he experienced the ultimate vision of Kali
Maa.
One of his
elder brothers Ramkumar (who was more like a father to Ramakrishna) also died
in the year 1856 when Ramakrishna was only 20-year-old. He was running through
Saturn/Venus period at that time.
With the
deaths of his father and his brother, Ramakrishna realised the utter
impermanence of human life and he became more and more disillusioned with material
drama of life. He became more engrossed in the worship of the Divine Mother.
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MARRIAGE
Seeing the apparent CHAOS that Ramakrishna was going through
emotionally at that time, his mother and his elder brother, Rameswar, decided
to get Ramakrishna married, thinking that marriage would be a good stabilizing
influence upon him. He was married to Sarada Devi in the year 1859. He
may have been running through Saturn/Sun period in his birth horoscope.
Sun
is 7th L and placed in the 1st H, from where Sun is
seeing the 7th H.
Sarada
Devi was 5 year old little girl and Ramakrishna was 23 year old at that time.
So even after marriage Sarada Devi continued to live with her parents and
Ramakrishna continued his spiritual journey.
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After the
daily worship in the Dakshineswar
Kali Temple, he
would sit in the temple looking intently at idol of the Goddess and get
absorbed in HER, and slowly he would go in a state of trans while singing the
devotional songs composed by great devotees like Ramprasad and Kamalakanta.
He regarded their songs as an aid in his worship, and was
certain about getting the vision of the Mother as Ramprasad did. With an ardent
heart he would say, "Maa you showed yourself to Ramprasad… Mother, why then you don’t reveal yourself to
me? I don't want wealth, friends, relatives, enjoyment of pleasure, and the
like. I only want to see You"
In this way, he spent his days and nights altogether in
prayer, singing and meditation, while his longing for her vision kept
increasing daily. As the days passed, Ramakrishna's food intake and sleep
gradually declined, and when not engaged in either worship or meditation, he
was seen to be in a state of turmoil over whether he would have a vision of the
Mother. Seeing the evening sun, he would cry, "Mother, another day is gone
and still I have not seen you!
In time, his longing for HER vision became extreme, and was
engaged in either worship or meditation for almost twenty-four hours a day.
Despaired, and feeling an unbearable pain at the thought that he might never
have HER vision.
One day, as he later recounted: "In my agony I said to
myself, 'What is the use of this life?' Suddenly my eyes fell on the sword that
hangs in the temple. I decided to end my life with it then and there. Like a
madman I ran to it and seized it. And then — I had a marvellous vision of the
Mother and fell down unconscious."
He became overwhelmed, and before fainting, observed that to
his spiritual sight — houses, doors, temples and everything else around
vanishing into an empty void and "What I saw, was a boundless infinite
conscious sea of light!
“However far and in whatever direction I looked, I found a
continuous succession of effulgent waves coming forward, raging and storming from
all sides with a great speed. Very soon they fell on me and made me sink to the
unknown bottom. I panted, struggled and fell unconscious. I did not know what
happened then in the external world — how that day and the next slipped away.
But, in my heart of hearts, there was flowing a current of intense bliss, never
experienced before, and I had the immediate knowledge of the light that was
Mother."
Thoroughly convinced of her existence, Ramakrishna now lived
at her abode, all the time, and like a child disinclined to leave its mother,
so was he to leave his Divine Mother. Hovering in an ocean of bliss, he guided
various seekers to the Mother, realising one cannot experience it anywhere but
from Her.
When someone once asked him about Kali worship, he said:
"I do not worship Kali made of clay and straw. My Mother
is the conscious principle. My Mother is pure Satchidananda —
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. That which is infinite and deep is always
dark-coloured. The extensive sky is dark-coloured and so is the deep sea. My
Kali is infinite, all-pervading, and consciousness itself.
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Wife Sarada Devi
came to live with Ramakrishna in the Dakshineswar Temple at the age of
eighteen. Ramakrishna was 36-year-old at that time and he was now running through
the Mercury MD [year 1868 to year 1885] in his birth horoscope. By the time his wife joined him, Ramakrishna
had already embraced the monastic life of a sannyasi; the marriage was
never consummated.
WHAT
EXPLAINS THIS? – He has 6th
H ruler Moon placed in the 1st H. 6th H ruler Moon is not
only conjunct with the 7th H ruler Sun but Moon is also seeing the 7th
H from his seat in the 1st H. We also know that when Moon and Sun are
very close then Moon acts like a malefic planet. So, this Moon was a naturally malefic
6th H ruler placed in the 1st H of his horoscope and was also
affecting the 7th H and the 7th H ruler Sun. Among many
things, 6th H also has the energy of CELIBACY. Even his Lagna Lord Saturn
is also seeing the 6th H from his seat in the 9th H. So
he choose to remain a celibate (for spirituality = 9th H) throughout
his life.
As a priest, Ramakrishna performed the ritual ceremony – the Shodashi
Puja in his room, where he worshipped his wife, Sarada Devi as the Divine
Mother. Ramakrishna regarded Sarada Devi as the Divine Mother in person,
addressing her as the Maa (Holy Mother), and it was by this name that she was
known to Ramakrishna's disciples.
Sarada Devi outlived Ramakrishna by thirty-four years and
played an important role in the nascent religious movement.
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Sri Ramakrishna had no biological
child. Jupiter placed in the 5th H is not considered very favourable
for giving children. 5th L Mercury is also squeezed between Moon and
Sun in 1st H/Aquarius. I have explained the effects of Moon above.
But Jupiter in the 5th H gave
him many spiritual children – his disciples. One of his most famous disciples is
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA who took the message of his Guru (and messages of Vedas) to
the west. Exalted 1st L Saturn in the 9th H and the
exalted 9th L Venus in the 2nd H made Ramakrishna a great
Guru. Many of his disciples could also directly experience God under his
guidance.
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ALL RELIGIONS
LEAD TO THE SAME GOD
Impelled by
a strong inner urge to experience the different aspects of God he followed,
with the help of a series of Gurus, the various paths described in the Hindu
scriptures, and realized God through each of them.
With his
unquenchable thirst for God, Sri Ramakrishna even attempted to find God through
the paths of Islam and Christianity, and attained the highest
realization through each of them in a short span of time.
He expressed
the quintessence of his twelve-year-long spiritual realizations in a simple
dictum: Yato mat, tato path “As many faiths, so many paths.” He
now habitually lived in an exalted state of consciousness in which he saw God
in all beings.
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According
to traditional accounts, before his death, Ramakrishna transferred his
spiritual powers to Vivekananda, and assured him of his avataric status.
Requesting
other monastic disciples to look upon Vivekananda as their leader, Ramakrishna
asked Vivekananda to look after the welfare of the disciples, saying,
"keep my boys together", and asked him to "teach them".
He
died in the early morning hours of 16th August 1886 when he was
running through KETU/VENUS period.
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Author – Bhāskara J,
Vedic Astrologer
CLICK HERE for getting an astrology reading from the Author.