Akshay Kumar Sen
Akshay Kumar Sen | |
---|---|
British India | |
Occupation | Author, Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna |
Language | Bengali |
Nationality | Indian |
Literary movement | Bengal Renaissance, Ramakrishna |
Notable work | Sri Ramakrishna Punthi |
Akshay Kumar Sen was one of the lay disciples of
Biography
Early days
Akshay Kumar Sen was born in 1854 in a village called Maynapur in the Bankura district of Bengal to Haladhar Sen and Bidhumukhi Devi. He belonged to a very poor family and did not have means to get a good education. He was married and had two sons and a daughter. Sen moved to Calcutta, where he was employed as a private tutor of the children of the Tagore family. In 1885, he had a chance encounter of
Subsequent meetings with Sri Ramakrishna
After the first meeting, Akshay had several other meetings with
Kalpataru (the wish fulfilling tree) day
In December 1885, the condition of
Akshay recalls what happened to him in his own narrative: "When it was about 3 o'clock, the Master came downstairs and walked towards the garden path. The devotees followed him. All others, who were elsewhere, hearing that the Master was walking in the garden, rushed there. We came down at once and quickly went to the place where the Master was walking with the other devotees. I stood on one side behind the Master. Two beautiful champa flowers were in my hands. The great devotee Girish (Chandra Ghosh) was near the Master and talking with him. The Master was charmingly dressed that day. Looking at him once, the form cannot be forgotten. He wore a red bordered cotton cloth. A green coloured coat was on his body. He had a cotton cap which covered his head and also his ears. On his feet there were socks and slippers which had decorations of creepers and leaves on them. His face was shining and luminous. Though the body was emaciated by his terrible illness, his face was charming and rays of light were always playing on it...... A little afterwards, the Master blessed the devotees and raising his right hand said, 'May you have (God)consciousness. What else can I say?' Then the Master returned to the path leading towards the house. I was standing some distance away. From there he addressed me, 'Hello, my boy, what are you doing?' He then came near, touched my chest with his hand and recited something in my ear which, being a Maha-mantra, I shall keep secret. What did I see and what did I hear? I shall only say that my heart's desire was fulfilled that day and I only wish to pass the rest of my days in singing the glory of Sri Ramakrishna."[1]
Literary pursuits
After Sri Ramakrishna's death in August 1886, Akshay decided to pen down some of his teachings in the form of a long narrative poem. He was encouraged in this effort by
Later life
Afterwards Akshaya returned to his native village and despite moderate success of his books he remained poor. He travelled to the birthplace of
on 7 December 1923.References
- ^ a b They lived with God
- ^ Gupta, Mahendranath. "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna" (PDF). Translated by Nikhilananda, Swami.
- ^ "Lay disciples Belur Math". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ "Kalpataru". Archived from the original on 1 January 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ "The wonder that is Sri Ramakrishna" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.