SPEECH OF HON’BLE GOVERNOR PUNJAB AND ADMINISTRATOR, UT CHANDIGARH, SHRI BANWARILAL PUORHIT ON THE OCCASION OF ANNUAL CELEBRATION “LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF SHIR RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHANSA” AT CHANDIGARH ON APRIL 2, 2023 AT 6.00 PM

Friends,
India is a land that is blessed with a rich cultural and intellectual milieu.
Our land is home to writers, scholars, saints and seers who have expressed themselves freely and fearlessly.
And whenever the history of human civilization has entered the era of knowledge, India has shown the way.
India’s soil is that soil from where change has always originated.
And this change originated from within, driven by our saints and seers who made it their mission to transform society and undertake mass movements to eradicate evils that may have entered into our society.
We have always been open to new ideas.
That is why our civilization stands tall, overcoming all obstacles.
Those civilizations that did not change with time vanished.
Our Saints did things that may seem small to some, but their impact was big and this altered the course of our history.
I am glad to take this opportunity to pay my homage to the memory of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. 
I do not know that I am particularly fitted to speak about the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, because he was a man of God and I am a man of earth, engaged in earthly activities.
I have always admired great men of God, and have been influenced by reading what was written about them by their disciples.
  These extraordinary personalities have powerfully influenced their generation and the succeeding generations. They have powerfully influenced great men and changed the entire direction of their lives.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa obviously was completely outside the run of average humanity. He appears to be in the tradition of the great rishis of India, who have come from time to time to draw our attention to the higher things of life and spirit.
From early days,  Sri Ramakrishna had strong dis-inclination towards worldly affairs. He was fond of serving holy men and listening to their discourages. He was oftentimes found to be absorbed in spiritual moods. At the age of six, he experienced the first ecstasy while watching a flight of white cranes moving against the background of black clouds. This tendency to enter into ecstasy intensified with age.
When Sri Ramakrishna was appointed as the priest of Kali Temple, he spent hours in loving adoration of her image, forgetting the rituals of priestly duties. His intense longing culminated into the vision of Mother Kali as boundless effulgence engulfing everything around him.
Impelled by a strong inner urge to experience the different aspects of God he followed, with the help of a series of Gurus, the various paths described in the Hindu scriptures, and realized God through each of them.
Sri Ramakrishna attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the highest spiritual experience mentioned in the Hindu scriptures. He remained in that state of non-dual existence for six months without the least awareness of even his own body.  In this way, Sri Ramakrishna re-lived the entire range of spiritual experiences of more than three thousand years of Hindu religion.
Speaking of Sri Ramakrishna in this gathering seems to me like carrying coals to Newcastle, but I cannot stop myself from mentioning those attributes that make him so relevant to present times.
He was a part of the tradition of Bhakti saints and in the Kathamrit we find many references to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - his trances, his songs, his utter devotion.
But, Sri Ramakrishna renewed the tradition and made it stronger.
He broke the mental barriers that keep us apart-barriers between religions, between castes.
He was the saint of social harmony.
His message is that of tolerance, of devotion, of surrendering oneself to the divine will of One Lord with different names.
He lived the Muslim way of life, he lived the Christian way of life, he practised tantra. He found that there were many ways to the divine, but followed with devotion, they all lead to one goal.
"The Reality is one and the same;" he said, " the difference is in name and form."
"It is like water, called in different languages by different names, such as jal, neer, pani, and so forth.
Likewise, in German it is ‘Wasser’,  ‘Acqua in Italian, ‘Mizu’ in Japanese.
In Kerala you call it ‘Vellam.’
All of them denote one and the same thing, the difference being in the name only.
In the same way, some address the Reality as 'Allah', some as 'Brahma', and others by names as 'Ram', 'Jesus' and 'Durga'.
His teachings are particularly relevant to us today, when we are confronted with people who use religion, caste to divide and create animosity.
Mahatma Gandhi said: Ramakrishna’s life enables us to see God face to face. No one can read the story of his life without being convinced that God alone is real and that all else is an illusion.
Sri Ramakrishna is a link between the ancient and the modern.
He showed how the ancient ideals and experiences could be realized even while following the modern way of life.
Sri Ramakrishna did not write any book, nor did he deliver public lectures. Instead, he chose to speak in a simple language using parables and metaphors by way of illustration, drawn from the observation of nature and ordinary things of daily use.
Simple anecdotes, simple messages - told simply. Due to their very simplicity, these were embedded in the minds of the listeners.
One of the effects of Sri Ramakrishna’s life was the peculiar way in which he influenced other people who came in contact with him.
They gave up, many of them, their ordinary vocations in life and business and joined the band of devotees.
They were great men and one of them, better known than the others, not only in India but in other parts of the world, is Swami Vivekananda. I do not know how many of the younger generation read the speeches and the writings of Swami Vivekananda. But, I call tell you that many of my generation were very powerfully influenced by him and I think that it would do a great deal of good to the present generation if they also went through Swami Vivekananda writings and speeches; they would learn much from them.
If you read Swami Vivekananda’s writings and speeches, the curious thing you will find is that they are not old. They were told over a hundred years ago, and they are still fresh today because, what he wrote or spoke about dealt with certain fundamental matters and aspects of our problems or the world’s problems. Therefore they do not become old. They are fresh even though you read them now.
If we had not a teacher like Sri Ramakrishna, would there have been a disciple like Swami Vivekananda?
How beautifully did Swami Vivekananda expressed Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings when he said that “I learnt from my Master that the religions of the world are not contradictory or antagonistic. They are but various phases of one eternal religion”.
He further said that “the first part of my Master's life was spent in acquiring spirituality, and the remaining years in distributing it... His life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to their aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national religious existence in India."
This great disciple, a karmayogi took forward the thought of his guru –
Jatra Jeev, Tatra Shiv -  wherever there is a living being, there is Shiva;
and
Jeeve Daya Noy, Shiv Gyaane Jeev Seba - जीवे दया नोय, शिव ज्ञाने जीव सेबा" - not kindness to living beings, but serving the living being as Shiva Himself - his lifelong dedication to serving the Daridra Narayan.
Are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, God? Why not worship them first? Let these people be your God. This continues to inspire us to action, continues to give us courage till date.
Ramakrishna Mission is carrying forward the legacy. As we all know Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math are twin organisaitons which form core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as Ramakrishna Movement or Vedanta Movement which aims at the harmony of religions, harmony of the east and the west, harmony of the ancient and the modern, spiritual fulfillment, tolerance and all round development of human faculties, social equality and peace for all humanity without any distinction of caste, creed, race or Nationality.
As important aspect of the movement is its social work, inspired by the Indian ethos and culture. The Ramakrishna mission conducts extensive work in health care, disaster relief, rural management, tribal welfare, elementary and higher education and culture. It uses the combined efforts of hundreds of ordered monks and thousands of householder disciples. 
Do continue to tread this noble path!
Let Sri Ramakrishna's words inspire us to see the divine in all things, to harness self and the ego in the service of the poorest and weakest, so that we find the greater truth that is the essence of all religions.
In the words of his great disciple: “Let us work on, doing as we do whatever happens to be our duty, and being ever ready to put our shoulders to the wheel”.
Thank you,
Jai Hind.