Tota Puri : Nāga sannyasi who initiated Sri Ramakrishna into Sanyāsa. The latter used to refer to him as Nengta, naked. Totāpuri was a great Vedantist & a man of profound knowledge. He became Jivanmukta [see SABCL: 5:576] as a result of austere spiritual practices over forty years. He was ignorant of the path of devotion, but he was moved to tears when once Sri Ramakrishna sang to him a devotional song. Totāpuri stayed at Dakshineshwar for eleven months, & there used to be frequent conversations between him & Sri Ramakrishna.
... that his disciples had a very uphill job—to do everything by themselves. Buddhist Yoga is an uphill business like the Adwaita Vedanta. You have to do the whole thing of your own bat, and even Tota Puri, Ramakrishna's teacher in Adwaita, was after thirty years of sadhana far from his goal, so much so that he went off to the Ganges to drown himself there—only Ramakrishna and Kali interfered in a ...
... that divine passion in it. It is not surely the Bhakta but the man of knowledge who demands experience first. He can say, "How can I know without experience?", but even he goes on seeking like Tota Puri even though for thirty years, striving for the decisive realisation. It is Page 468 really the man of intellect, the rationalist who says, "Let God, if he exists, prove himself to me first ...
... divine passion in it. It is not surely the Bhakta but the man of knowledge who demands experience first. He can say, "How can I know without experience ?" but he even goes on seeking like Tota Puri 17 even though for thirty years, striving for the decisive realisation. It is really the man of intellect, the rationalist who says, "Let God, if he exists, prove himself to me first, then I will ...
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