1.0a PREFACE
By the grace of God, the First Part of Sri Ramakrishna, The Great Master is now published. It contains a detailed account of the early life of Sri Ramakrishna and the purpose of his advent. An attempt is made herein to present to the reader the mental picture we have formed through hearing from various people a number of unrelated incidents from the Master’s life at that time. Although persons like Hridayram Mukhopadhyaya, Ramlal Chattopadhyaya and others gave as much help as they could for ascertaining the correct dates of certain events, there still remains, in places, some doubt on such points. They could not produce the horoscopes of Sri Ramakrishna’s father, his elder brother and other near relatives; but they gave instead the approximate dates of certain events connected with the Master’s life, saying, for example: “At the time of Sri Ramakrishna’s birth his father was sixty-one or sixty-two year’s old”; “Ramkumar, his eldest brother, was his senior by thirty-one or thirty-two years”; and so on.
Nevertheless the reader will be convinced, when he reads the fifth chapter of this part, “A Great Soul Is Born”, that there is no doubt regarding the date of the birth of Sri Ramakrishna as recorded therein. We have been reassured about this and many other events recorded in this book by the Master’s own words, some of which were heard by the author himself. It is to the Master, therefore, that we are beholden for this information. When we first set about describing certain periods of his life, it seemed impossible for us to narrate the events of his childhood and youth in such a detailed and connected way. Realizing, therefore, that it is by the grace of the Lord, who “makes the dumb wax eloquent and the lame nimble enough to cross a mountain”, that this has become possible, we bow down to Him again and again.
It may also be said, in conclusion, that if the reader, after finishing this part of the book, goes through the other parts, namely, “As the Spiritual Aspirant” and “As the Spiritual Teacher (I & II)”, he will find the history of the Master’s life recorded chronologically from the date of his birth to the year 1881.1