Ram Prasad



Ramprasad was a Bengali mystic and poet who lived in the 19th
century. His father was an Ayurvedic physician. Ramprasad's guru
taught him all the spiritual disciplines. By the time he was
twenty-eight, Ramprasad was regularly experiencing deep, mystical,
and meditative states.



When his father died, Ramprasad became overwhelmed with his duties
taking care of his wife and his other householder
responsibilities. He prayed to the Divine Mother for help. His
prayers were answered and he was offered an excellent accounting
job in Calcutta. On his first day on the job, his supervisor
handed him accounting ledgers and left him to work on them for
several hours. When Ramprasad started his work, he began to fill
his account books with songs in praise of the Divine Mother. He
became so lost in bliss while composing his hymns that he
completely forgot about the clerical work for which he was hired!
When his supervisor returned to view Ramprasad's ledgers, he cried
out in horror! He took Ramprasad to the owner to request his
immediate dismissal.



The owner Durgacharan Mira opened the ledgers. Instead of neat
rows and columns of numbers he found written across the pages
poetic expressions of the soul's longing for union with the
Divine. Upon reading the first song - "What records can I keep,
when You are the Divine Accountant of all?" Durgacharan was so
moved he began to weep. "Just go home and write poetry", he told
Ramprasad. "You will continue to receive your salary." The
owner became a devotee of Ram Prasad.



In time, Ramprasad became famous, and royal invitations to hear
him sing became common. But he preferred to stay in his
"panchavati bedi", a grove of five different types of trees, and
spend his days performing fire ceremonies, chanting, worshipping,
and meditating on the Divine Mother. He constantly prayed for the
vision of the Divine Mother. One day, Devi granted him his
request and appeared before him in a mystical vision. After that
experience, Ramprasad emanated such a great light and exuded such
purity and divinity that it is said he was virtually
unrecognizable, even to his friends and family.