stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

10 STRIPPING THE GURUS
this kind of devotion, it gradually went back to its normal
size” (Murphy, 1992).
During the days of my [“holy”] madness [as priest of the Kali
temple in Dakshineswar] I used to worship my own penis as
the Shiva linga.... Worship of a live linga. I even decorated it
with a pearl (in Nikhilananda, 1984).
Nor was the sage’s manner of worship confined to his own
genitalia:
[Ramakrishna] considered swear words [to be] as meaningful
as the Vedas and the Puranas and was particularly fond of
performing japa (ritual counting of rosary) by muttering the
word “cunt” (Sil, 1998).
Indeed, as the claimed avatar himself told his devotees:
The moment I utter the word “cunt” I behold the cosmic vagina
... and I sink into it (in Sil, 1998).
That is actually not quite as odd as it might initially seem, for
“cunt” itself derives from Kunda or Cunti—names for Kali, the
Hindu Divine Mother goddess, beloved of Ramakrishna.
It is still plenty odd, though.
In any case, in 1861 the recently wedded Ramakrishna began
tantric (sexual) yoga practice with a female teacher, Yogeshwari.
(His marriage was actually to a five-year-old child bride, chosen by
the twenty-three-year-old yogi himself, and then left with her parents
to mature.) Rituals performed by the eager student during
that sadhana (i.e., spiritual practice/discipline) included eating the
culinary leftovers from the meals of dogs and jackals. Also, consuming
a “fish and human meat preparation in a human skull”
(Sil, 1998). Attempts to have him participate in the ritual sex with
a consort which is an essential component of tantra, however, were
less successful. Indeed, they ended with the sage himself falling
safely into trance, and later simply witnessing other practitioners
having ritual intercourse.
Comparably, upon his wife’s coming of age, Ramakrishna tried
but failed to make love to her, instead involuntarily plunging into
a “premature superconsciousness.” (Their marriage was actually, it
appears, never consummated.) That, however, did not discourage
the young woman from staking her own spiritual claims: