Raw Authenticity For Sri Ramakrishna

I know one person... very recently few years before he passed away. I think when he passed away he was 90. From the age of 18... he started spreading Ramakrishna. And at that time there was no Ramakrishna mutt in... There was a small place, but not the organisation; nobody knows about Ramakrishna. And there was lot of rumours that Ramakrishna is a homosexual and all that. There was lot of scandals around him when he just passed away. More than 30 years they were suffering the scandal. There was two rape charges on Vivekananda in US. So they were suffering. All that was a very big torture when Ramakrishna Mission was at crossroads.

This guy has decided to spread Ramakrishna... how you know. He is a Government Employee - must be pre Independence because 90...18 years he started means ...must be pre Independence period. Morning when he goes to office from the house, he will go by walk carrying Ramakrishna’s photo on head. He will just keep a photograph on the head and walk. Everybody will ask, “Who is he, who is he.” He will have a small paper in his hand, “Please come to this address in the evening I will talk about him I will tell you about him.”

32 years he walked!! 32 years... the government job.

Authenticity means...and after 10 years people have started standing in the queue... when morning and evening when he walks in the street to see the Ramakrishna’s photo he is carrying; like a a temple deity darshan. He created the whole Ramakrishna mission in South Bharat. His name is Ramamurthy. He was not even a sadhu. All sadhus, the great sadhus of Ramakrishna order in South Bharat – Chidbhavananda... and Tapasyananda, Yatheeshwarananda.. all of them were his students – means, learnt about Ramakrishna in his class. When I saw him in the mutt, I always used to touch his feet. Once I was reprimanded by one of the senior sadhu, “You are a sadhu you should not touch a householders feet.” He was a householder. I said, “What do you mean? Do you know his Integrity? It is not a joke to carry somebody’s picture even if he was accepted as a God... day in and day out on the head, from the house to office and from office to house.” You understand what a raw way of.... what we will tell, “Ehh instead of that I will put a hoarding, I will just put a banner, maybe I will put an ad in the internet. Great! But all that after 2 days we won’t do; we will not have the integrity, sincerity, authenticity. Whenever we use sophisticated methods we sacrifice Authenticity. So Authenticity is a raw, crude, core, concept which comes out of you authentically.

Many of us won’t even wear that vibhuti or kumkum because of feeling shy. Understand. Many of us don’t wear even that. I am so happy when I saw him wearing this urdhva pundra. Especially this urdhva pundra namam nobody wears in South Bharat. Now (4:18)mothanda. And they use this to make fun; so nobody wears. At least vibhuti you can see some people wearing in the villages. This urdhva pundram nobody wears. It’s not that there are no Vaishnavites. In South Bharat Vaishnavites gave up religion first, then Saivites followed. In North Bharat Saivites gave it up first, then Vaishnavites followed. It is more commitment to yourself not even to others. But even though it is a commitment to yourself, you don’t do because somebody else may make fun because our Authenticity was not right.