IN THE HISTORY of the arts genius is a thing of very rare occurrence. Rarer
still, however, are the competent reporters and recorders of that genius. The
world has had many hundreds of admirable poets and philosophers; but of
these hundreds only a very few have had the fortune to attract a Boswell or
an Eckermann.
When we leave the field of art for that of spiritual religion, the scarcity
of competent reporters becomes even more strongly marked. Of the day-to-day
life of the great theocentric saints and contemplatives we know, in the
great majority of cases, nothing whatever. Many, it is true, have recorded
their doctrines in writing, and a few, such as St Augustine, Suso and St
Teresa, have left us autobiographies of the greatest value. But all doctrinal
writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer
tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers from the further
disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes other people and in
what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left neither
writings nor self-portraits, and for a knowledge of their lives, their characters
and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by
their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent
as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to
this enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of
Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for
his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge
of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small
happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting
and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances
in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as
my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had
so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's
daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail.
Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher
been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this
fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the
social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna
did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But
after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something
peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to
our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What
a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life
were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned,
unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely
mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in
which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and
where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to
the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality
is in itself a liberal education in humility, tolerance and suspense of
judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of
a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at
the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the spirit.
ALDOUS HUXLEY