A lot has been written about saint-philosopher Sri Ramakrishna and his guileless love for God. The best known is Mahendranath Gupta’s diary records that, later, was compiled into The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna . The book is a near-verbatim recordings of conversations that Sri Ramakrishna had with those who came to visit him. Reading the book is like travelling through rural Bengal of the pre-British times.
In contrast, Matampu Kunjukuttan uses a puritanical Kerala setting to tell the life story of the saint in Amrithasyaputra . The author is known for his high-strung narration in books such as Bhrashtu . Dipped in intense emotions, his pen scans most of the corners that the mind can perceive and takes a journey into the deep inner woods of the mind.
It may seem at first incompatible that deep passions are used to narrate the life story of a man who transcended emotions to find a world of stillness within and outside beings. But the writer does it with élan, using his style to pamper the theme well enough to make a chapter in the spiritual history of India seem a very personal, dramatic unfolding of life. And the narration retains its texture right from Gadadhar Chattopadhyay’s birth to the time he becomes Sri Ramakrishna and finds the journey to the self as a voyage beyond all rituals.
Especially noteworthy is the part where Matampu narrates how Sri Ramakrishna reaches the dizzying heights of the mind where thoughts cease to exist and merges in the pure essence of ‘I’. This feat, the writer says, the man achieves as naturally as day turns to night in three square days. Ramakrishna’s guru Totapuri took 40 years to reach the same state.
What may seem strange in the book is the use of north Kerala slang to converse by the characters. And also the mention of certain rituals and traditions, some of which may be common to Brahmins across India, but retains a unique Kerala flavour. Using those in the book, Matampu transforms Sri Ramakrishna more into a Malayali than a Bengali mystic.