Sri Ramakrishna on Himself...

An early example of Sri Ramakrishna’s powers of protean empathy and ability to seize archetypes through which to express his own spiritual states and longing, is seen in his ability to merge with the being of Sita, during the first four years of sadhana at Dakshineshwar:

..the sublime qualities reflected in her face—love, sorrow, compassion, are seldom to be seen even among Goddesses….Overwhelmed with joy and wonder, I fell unconscious on the ground…(31)

Once again, the powers of extraordinary empathy and plastic ability that endlessly allowed him to extend himself is seen in his childlike joy in perceiving the actors of Ramlila, as the players in the divine drama of Rama and Sita:

Oh, what an ecstatic state it was! Even the slightest suggestion would awaken my spiritual consciousness. …One day I witnessed a Ramlila performance. I saw the performers to be the actual Sita, Ram…Then I worshipped the actors and actresses who played those parts (32)

Sri Ramakrishna’s interactions with pundits, sages and scholars of his early sadhana period at Dakshineshwar, contain  some invaluable moments of mutual exchange, and provide contextual moments for the same utterances by Thakur, in the Kathamrita, thereby, setting up a system of echoes and reverberations, which locate Sri Ramakrishna within a continuum of  spiritual practice, embedded in Vaishnava, Shakta and Vedanta traditions. An early example is Thakur’s reference to Vaishnavcharan who said, “Why should one constantly dwell on sin? Be Merry!” (66). This spectacular statement establishes spiritual practice in joy, and is echoed and re-echoed through the Kathamrita, with Thakur saying, “it is not good to talk of sad things in the presence of worldly people. There is need for joy ”. (27^th May, 1883).