2.0a PREFACE
By the grace of God the discussion on the unique spiritual practices of Sri Ramakrishna as a spiritual aspirant is now presented to the public. We have not presented here merely a philosophical discussion on his unprecedented love for these Sadhanas and on the principles underlying them, but also tried to ascertain the dates of the principal events of his life from his seventeenth to the fortieth year and to narrate them chronologically to the reader. Therefore this part of the book “As The Spiritual Aspirant” may be regarded as the history of his life as an aspirant down to the time when his boy disciples, with their leader Swami Vivekananda, came to his holy feet.
We entertained great doubts at the time of writing the present part of the book, whether we should be able to ascertain the dates of all the important events of the Master’s life. Although he told many of us the facts of his life as a spiritual aspirant, never did he chronologically narrate them to anyone. Consequently, the events of this period of his life have remained confused and complicated in the minds of his devotees. But as a result of investigation we have now been able to ascertain by his grace the dates of many of those events.
There has continued till now a controversy about the year of the Master’s birth; for he himself told us that his original horoscope was lost and the one that was cast afterwards was full of errors. We have been able to solve that dispute by consulting a number of almanacs more than a hundred years old. Therefore, it has become easy for us to ascertain the dates of the events of the Master’s life. The facts about the Master’s worship of Shodasi were not so far known to anyone. It will be easy for the reader to understand that event when he reads this part of the book.
In conclusion, our humble prayer to Him is that the book may receive His blessings and be a source of good to all.
AUTHOR