Half of the month of Paush [Dec.-Jan.] passed away and it was the first day of January 1886.

As the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] felt rather well that day, he expressed a desire to come out of his room and have a walk in the garden for some time. It was a holiday and the householder devotees came one by one and in groups, shortly after midday. Thus when the Master came downstairs at three in the afternoon, more than thirty people were engaged in conversation in the garden under the trees, or inside the house. As soon as they saw him, all got up out of reverence and bowed down to him. He came down to the garden path through the western door of the hall on the ground floor and was slowly proceeding southward to the gate when all followed him at a little distance. When he came to the middle of the path leading to the gate, he saw Girish, Ram, Atul and a few others, sitting under the trees to the west of the path. They also saw him and saluted him from there and came joyfully to him. The Master addressed Girish, all of a sudden before anybody had spoken a word, and said,

Girish, I find, you say to one and all everywhere so many things about 'this' (that I am an incarnation of God); what have you seen and understood (about me) to make you do so?

Girish remained completely unmoved, and kneeling down on the ground near the Master's feet, said in a choked voice with his hands folded and face turned upwards,

What more can I say of Him, whose greatness Vyasa and Valmiki [composers of the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana] could not find words to express?"

The Master was charmed at the fervent utterance of Girish, and blessing all the devotees assembled there through their representative Girish. said,

What more shall I say to you? May you all be blessed with the spiritual awakening.

Beside himself with love and compassion for the devotees, hardly had he said those few words when he entered into Bhavasamadhi. Those words of profound blessing, untouched by the slightest tinge of the ego-sense, directly entered the devotees' hearts, where they raised high billows of bliss. They forgot time and space, forgot the disease of the Master, forgot their previous determination not to touch him till he recovered, and were aware only that an extraordinary divine Being, out of sympathy for them in their plight, feeling excruciating pain at their misery and overflowing with compassion for them, had come down from heaven and called them affectionately to Him for giving protection, like a mother sheltering her children against all ills by covering them lovingly with the upper part of her sari.

They became eager to bow down to him and take the 'dust of his feet;' and filling the quarters with cries of "Victory to Ramakrishna", began saluting him one after another. As they were thus bowing down to him, the sea of the Master's compassion transcended all bounds and brought about a wonderful phenomenon.

We had almost daily seen the Master at Dakshineswar losing himself in grace and compassion for certain devotees and blessing them by his extraordinarily potent touch in the state of divine semi-consciousness. He now began touching each of the devotees assembled on that day in that divine mood. The joy of the devotees, it is superfluous to say, knew no bounds at that act of the Master. They felt that he would not henceforward keep concealed the fact of his divinity either from themselves or from anybody else in the world; and nevertheless, knowing, as they did, their own defects, their spiritual destitution, their incapacity, they had not the slightest doubt that all alike, the sinner as well as the afflicted, would find a refuge at his feet, a touch of which dispelled all fear for ever. Unable to utter a single word owing to that wonderful occurrence, some were only looking steadfastly at him as if they were under the spell of a Mantra, some others called aloud to all within the house to come and be blessed by receiving the Master's grace, and still others collected flowers and worshipped him with them, uttering Mantra. Soon the ecstasy of the Master came to an end and the devotees too were again in the normal state of their consciousness. Bringing thus to an end his walk in the garden that day, he went into the house and sat down in his room.

Some devotees like Ramchandra have described the happening of that day as the transformation by the Master of himself into the wish-fulfilling tree (Kalpataru). But, it is more reasonable, it seems to us, to call it "the self-revelation of the Master" or "the bestowal of freedom from fear on all devotees by revealing himself". The Kalpataru, it is said, gives to all whatever good or bad they ask for. But the Master did much more; he made clear through that event the fact of his being a God-man and of his bestowal of protection against, and freedom from, fear on all, without the slightest discrimination.

Be that as it may, of all the people that felt blessed by having his grace on that day, Haranchandra Das is worthy of being particularly mentioned. For, as soon as he bowed down to him, the Master in ecstasy placed his lotus foot on Haran's head. It is only on a few occasions that we saw him bestow his grace in this way. Ramlal Chattopadhyaya was present there on that occasion and also received the Master's grace. Asked about it, he said,

I could formerly see a part only of the holy Person of my chosen Ideal with my mind's eye at the time of meditation---when I saw the lotus feet, I could not see the face; again perhaps I saw the Person from the face to the waist, but could not see the holy feet; and whatever I saw never seemed to be alive. But no sooner had the Master touched me that day than the form of my chosen Ideal appeared suddenly from head to foot in the lotus of my heart and moved and looked benign and effulgent. . . .

We asked a few others including Vaikunthanath about their experience on that day. We shall bring this subject to a close by recording what Vaikuntha told us. Vaikuntha met the Master at about the same time as we did. We have already mentioned [in the previous chapters] something of how the Master gave him instructions and moulded his life since then. The Master rendered his life full of bliss by initiating him in a Mantra. Vaikuntha engaged himself in Sadhana since that time and was striving his best that he might have the vision of his chosen Ideal. Knowing that he could not succeed in his attempt without the Master's grace, he was from time to time plaintively praying to him for it, especially when the Master became physically ill and came to Calcutta and then to Kasipur for treatment. During this period also, twice or thrice, Vaikuntha got the opportunity of humbly beseeching him for the fulfilment of his heart's desire. The Master smiled graciously, comforted him, and said, "Why don't you wait? Let the disease of the body be cured a little, and I shall do everything for you."

Vaikuntha was present on the spot at the time of this day's occurrence. As soon as the Master had blessed two or three of the devotees by his potent touch, Vaikuntha came before him, bowed down to him with devotion and said, "Sir, please bestow your grace on me!" The Master said, "But you have been given everything." "When you say," said Vaikuntha, "everything has been given, it is certainly so; but kindly do so, that I too can understand it." Saying, "So be it", the Master touched his chest only for a moment in the ordinary way. "But," said Vaikuntha,

as the result of it, a great revolution took place in my mind. I saw the figure of the Master lit up with a gracious smile in the sky, in the houses, trees, plants, men and in whatever else I looked at. I did not know how to contain my delight within myself, and seeing both of you Sarat and Latu, on the roof, I called aloud saying 'O you all! Wherever you be, come without delay!' That mental attitude and vision of mine continued for some days throughout my waking state. I became amazed and charmed with the holy vision of the Master in all things. It continued to be so wherever I went, to the office or elsewhere on any business.

I could not attend to the work on hand and it suffered. On finding that my work was suffering, I tried to forge! that vision for sometime but failed in my attempt to do so. I then understood a little why Arjuna felt afraid to see the universal form of the divine Lord and prayed to Him to withdraw it. [The Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter XI] I remembered the statement of the scriptures that liberated souls always remain in the same elevated state. Only after this experience I could understand the extent of desirelessness the mind has to develop to have the capacity to remain in that high state. For hardly had a few days passed when I felt it difficult to live in the same mental attitude and with the same vision. Sometimes it occurred to me, 'Am I going mad?' I then prayed to the Master again with fear, 'O lord, I am not able to contain this mental state; please ordain that it may come to an end.' I now think, 'Woe be to human weakness and stupidity! Why did I pray so? Why did I not keep my faith firm in him? And why did I not wait patiently to see its ultimate developments? I might at most have become mad or the body might have dropped off.' For as soon as I prayed in that manner, the said vision and mental state came to an end one day. My firm conviction is that they were removed by the same extraordinary Being from whom I had got them. But he preserved compassionately a partial capacity of the mind to recapture it, perhaps because there arose no prayer in my mind for its complete removal. I felt blessed and amazed at the sudden appearance of this vision a few times daily---the vision of the gracious figure of the Master made effulgent by the divine mood.

You can learn more about Sri Ramakrishna and his teachings from the following books and by attending lectures and classes at any Ramakrishna Order Vedanta Center nearest you.

Suggested books for further reading

Life of Ramakrishna, by Romain Rolland (recommended for beginners)
Ramakrishna and His Disciples, by Christopher Isherwood (recommended for beginners)
The Way to God, As Taught by Sri Ramakrishna, by Swami Lokeswarananda
Life of Sri Ramakrishna, Compilation from various sources
Ramakrishna As We Saw Him, edited by Swami Chetanananda
Meditation on Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, by Swami Tathagatananda
Ramakrishna: The Great Master, by Swami Saradananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, tr. by Swami Nikhilananda