Girish Chandra Ghosh - An Appreciation - The relationship with Sri Ramakrishna Part 6

The great poet shared a unique relationship with Ramakrishna. He made repeated demands to him that he be born as his son. Ramakrishna refused saying that his father was a pious brahmin. Girish, in a  drunken state abused him profusely for this refusal, but at times while abusing he prostrated on the dirty ground and made pranaam. When Ramakrishna visited his house the next day, Girish was dejected thinking about the colossal blunder that he did. But Sri Ramakrishna's lack of ego made him exclaim that Ramakrishna was nothing but God. That reinforced his belief. Sri Ramakrishna also told him that he would become purer day by day, people would be amazed by his transformation. Exactly that happened. In his later days people used to visit Girish just to hear about Sri Rmakrishna for hours. He was never tired of speaking about his guru. He used to take dip in Ganga during the Dasahara festival saying that he was not doing it to become pure and get absolved from his sins as others do. He was doing it to purify Ganga as she had become impure by coming in touch with sinners. This statement was not egoistic. It was driven by a deep faith that Sri Ramakrishna took all his responsibilities and absolved him from all his sins and karma. It was Girish who could give power of attorney to Sri Ramakrishna. When Ramakrishna asked him, whether he would be able to take God's name regularly he said he could not promise as he led an irregular life. Being an ardent person of integrity Girish could not make a false promise. Even he could not guarantee taking God's name once during the day, while going to sleep or while waking up. So Ramakrishna asked him to give power of attorney - bakalma, which Girish gladly agreed to do. But he did not know what he was signing up. He later would say, had I known what it means to give power of attorney, I would have thought twice. It means, every waking moment of his, every thought, every action, he had to dedicate to God, he had to live and breath Sri Ramakrishna. He could do or say nothing from his little self. Every work that he did, every sentence that he uttered, he had to think whether he was doing it from his little self, driven by his ego, or from the higher Self, ordained by God. Thereby be became completely unselfish and this made him purer and purer. Sri Ramamrishna used to treat Girish as a special case. But he also would warn his younger disciples not to imitate Girish. When told that Narendra (Swami Vievakananda) frequently visited Girish, Sri Ramakrishna warned him. When Naren protested saying that Girish had left all evil companies and only talked of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna said contemptuously that he had grown sense only too late. He narrated a story to suggest how samskars never leave anybody. He also said that he belonged to a different class of devotees - like Ravana, who would enjoy sensual pleasures and would also obtain God in the end. He wanted to draw a distinction between true renunciation and living in the world with worldly desires. However Girish was also one of the disciples to receive an ochre rob of sannyasin from him. He became inwardly sannyasin by losing everything that he had. Later when Swami Vivekananda returned to Kolkata from America, while celebrating the Thankur's birth tithi, he and his gur bhais decorated Girish in the garb of a sannyasin, a bhairava and asked him to talk about Sri Ramakrishna. Girish choked. He said that the grace of Sri Ramakrishna enabled him, a person leading a sensuous life all along to sit in the same row as that of sannyasins who conquered lust and greed. Once when Sri Ramakrishna visited Girish, the latter offered him food purchased from the market, in a vessel that was not new and Sri Ramakrishna, who would have refused such food in other houses of the devotees, gladly took that food. Girish had even offered Sri Ramakrishna a curry that he liked very much, that was cooked in the morning, when the latter visited him in the evening. And Sri Ramakrishna, who could not eat any food already taken by others, ate it gladly. For the sake of devotees God has to bend down. Later Girish repented all these actions, he was ignorant like a child in these matters.

Ramakrishna also had faith on Girish. When Aswini Kumar Datta disdainfully said that Girish took to drinking, Ramakrishna said, let him, how long would he do it! In reality Girish quit drinking sometime after Ramakrishna passed away, after his family members also died one by one. Even during the greatest of his calamities he never took to drinking again.

In the kathamrita or Gospels there are many situations or scenarios where Girish is prominently present. Girish started visiting Sri Ramakrishna in 1884, he could not get his company for more than one and half years. But it was enough to transform him completely. In Balaram Bose's house Girish indulged in light hearted banters with Sri Ramakrishna and then conceded his defeat in that area. He openly declared Sri Ramakrishna as an avatara. Whatever he believed he used to say it out openly, he had no qualms in these matters. He never cared about prevailing opinions. Ramakrishna used to enjoy by encouraging a healthy debate between Naren and Girish. Naren did not believe in avatara while Girish did passionately. In later years while debating on the same topic when Naren, in order to test Girish's faith, said that God cannot incarnate in a human form, Girish, in a fit of tremendous excitement banged on the floor and said, "Yes rascal, He can, I have seen it with my very own eyes." Naren was overwhelmed. There is a heart wrenching scene in Kathamrita, when Girish, in a drunken state, is visiting a visible ill Sri Ramakrishna, and asking for his grace to serve him for a year, as a penance for all his wrong doings and Sri Ramakrishna pacifying him.