Girish Chandra Ghosh - An appreciation Part 2

From 1880 onward Girish was a sensation on the stage. Yet his life was empty. His personal tragedies clouded his judgement and he became a rebel in the truest sense. He was always a rebel. Now he worked against all social conventions and norms. He was addicted to drinking. It is not evident if he had sinned as he always claimed to have done. He had a propensity of overstating his sinners, by comparing himself to Jagai Madhai, the two ruffians who were converted by Sri Chaitanya. However Girish received the grace soon. In 1879 he had met Ramakrishna in a devotee's house, but he thought that Ramakrishna was full of pretension. He was not impressed. He had seen too much of hypocrisy in the name of religion to be confounded by it. He had some spiritual experiences but nevertheless he continued with his exploits on the stage. 1884 was a phenomenal year. In this year he composed his masterpiece that drew him closer to his guru - Chaitanya Leela - after the great saint Sri Chaitanya Mahprabhu, in Star Theatre. Vinodini, the greatest actress of that time who was a disciple of Girish was to act in the lead role. Chaitanya Leela became extremely famous and many people including devout Vaishnavas came to see it. It is said that some of them thought Girish to be great Vaishnava and therefore came to meet him with great reverence. Girish, who always hated pretensions, opened his wine bottle in front of them and that was the last he saw of them. Girish wanted to be accepted as he was and he could never tolerate the orthodox who betrayed no love for the fallen and the downtrodden. Many of the Vaishnavas of Bengal led a horrible life of deception and debauchery. Instead of following the pure life of Sri Chaitanya, they tried to emulate the love of Radha and Krishna on a physical plane and therefore brought down the ideal. Chaitanya Leela was a roaring success. Girish could only move up from there.

Sri Ramakrishna, having heard of Chaitanya Leela performance wanted to see it and therefore his devotees took him to the theater. It is to be noted that despite belonging to an orthodox Brahmin community, Sri Ramakrishna expressed no aversion for the theater. Nor did he ever express any displeasure for the fallen women who acted in the theater. In fact in response to a devotee's statement that women of disrepute acted in theater, Sri Ramakrishna said that, "I shall view them as mother incarnate", What a profound idea! This very idea revolutionized the stage and the profession of acting. It is little wonder that atleast in Bengal, even after 130 years, Sri Ramakrishna is still regarded as the patron saint of Bengali theatre and possibly there are very few artists and technicians who do not worship his photo before going about their work daily on the stage. This fact has been acknowledged by none other than Utpal Datta, another doyen of Bengali theatre. All this was made possible by Girish and his single pointed devotion to Sri Ramakrishna as we shall see later. However there were many struggles en route. 

When Sri Ramakrishna visited Star theatre Girish knowing him came to receive him but was a little indifferent. When asked about the ticket price Girish non nonchalantly said that Sri Ramakrishna could watch it for free but his associates (which included Mahendranath Gupta or M, the chronicler of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, who later became a very close friend of Girish) would have to pay. The arrangement was accepted and Sri Ramakrishna thoroughly enjoyed the play. After the play was over he went to the backstage to bless the actors and actresses. As per reminiscences of Vinodini, they all took the dust of his feet and he did not object. Compare this to the attitude of the so called reformist Brahma Samaj leaders like Shibnath Shastri. Shibnath stopped coming to Dakshineswar as he felt that Sri Ramakrishna had degraded himself by going to the theater and coming in contact with the fallen women. 

Did this initiate the transformation of Girish? Girish apparently bowed down to Sri Ramakrishna when he saw him and the later bowed in return and Girish repeated and Sri Ramakrushna did it again. This continued for sometimes until Girish gave up. Later Girish recalled, in Rama's and Krishna's time the weapons were bows and arrows and disks. This time the main weapon is the "pranaamastra", implying the universal love and the humility displayed to conquer the egoists. 

One day Girish was sitting in the porch of his house and Sri Ramakrishna had come nearby to Balaram Bose's house which was a stone's throw away. Girish, in his own language felt an irresistible attraction. But he could not go as his ego prevented him from going to anybody's house uninvited. Suddenly somebody came from Balaram Bose's house and told him that thakur Sri Ramakrishna wanted to see him. Girish went without dressing himself. He heard that Sri Ramakrishna was just coming back to his senses and was saying, "no no Babu, this is not pretension, not pretension." Girish understood that the message was for him. He asked one question this time, the question that was burning him for long, "Is a Guru needed for spiritual path?". Sri Ramakrishna said that Girish need not bother as he already had got his guru. This answer calmed Girish, he became more and more attracted towards this strange man. But, in Sri Ramakrishna's language, it would take some more time before his crookedness was straightened.