From cat@luckymojo.com Tue Oct 13 13:56:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: from mindy.accesscom.com (root@ns2.accesscom.com [205.226.156.3]) by shell.accesscom.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/Debian/GNU) with ESMTP id NAA00286 for ; Tue, 13 Oct 1998 13:56:13 -0700 Received: from marine.sonic.net (marine.sonic.net [208.201.224.37]) by mindy.accesscom.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/Debian/GNU) with SMTP id NAA24113 for ; Tue, 13 Oct 1998 13:56:11 -0700 Received: (qmail 1063 invoked from network); 13 Oct 1998 20:56:11 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO sub.sonic.net) (208.201.224.8) by marine.sonic.net with SMTP; 13 Oct 1998 20:56:11 -0000 Received: from 208.201.230.62 (d62.pm8.sonic.net [208.201.230.62]) by sub.sonic.net (8.8.8/8.8.5) with SMTP id NAA01086 for ; Tue, 13 Oct 1998 13:56:08 -0700 X-envelope-info: Message-ID: <3623CDF9.4704@luckymojo.com> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 14:02:32 -0800 From: catherine yronwode Organization: Lucky Mojo Curio Co. X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Macintosh; I; 68K) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com Subject: more ramakrishna (eating faeces!) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Status: RO Path: ultra.sonic.net!jupiter.dnai.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!198.138.0.5!newshub.northeast.verio.net!woodstock.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!sandymac.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: sandymac@sandymac.demon.co.uk (Alexander Maclennan) Newsgroups: alt.yoga, alt.magick.tantra Subject: Re: Ramakrishna's Tantrika Guru (was: Re: Indian Men, American Women) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 02:15:21 GMT Organization: disorganised Message-ID: References: <19981009201006.09200.00008868@ng18.aol.com> <6vtq15$55d$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sandymac.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: sandymac.demon.co.uk:158.152.14.157 X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 908244977 nnrp-05:24681 NO-IDENT sandymac.demon.co.uk:158.152.14.157 X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Newsreader: Offlite 0.09 / Termite Internet for Acorn RISC OS Lines: 36 Xref: ultra.sonic.net alt.yoga:17983 alt.magick.tantra:6854 yohanan@my-dejanews.com wrote: >> In the life of Ramakrishna paramahamsa, it is mentioned that he learnt >> the tantra art from a yogini. i remember reading it in swami >> nikhilananda's book 'life of swami vivekananda' but never thought it >> could provoke discussion. i would like to know who this yogini might >> be. thanks Vasudevan S Atreya > A few months after the Rani (Ramakrishna's original patroness) died in > 1861, a strange woman appeared at the temple river landing. An > attractive--one text describes her as "extraordinarily > sexy"--middle-aged brahmin woman (or "brahmani"), she was dressed in the > red robes of a Bhairavi and carried a bundle of books in her hand. Her > hair was dishevelled, like that of Kali. She claimed that she had found > two out of the three great souls that had been revealed to her by the > goddess. She was now seeking the third. Much snipped In this context it an enlightening study is Kali`s Child, Jeffrey J. Kripal,Univ of Chicago Press 1995. In this he examines Ramakrishna`s somewhat tormented sexuality and by going back to the Bengali originals, circumvents the falsifications of the Ramakrishna Mission in the English texts and shows that the `secret teachings` were tantric. Before the arrival of Bhairavi, he had been influenced by a wandering sadhu called Kena Ram and it was after this he started to eat garbage food and faeces. This is an Aghori praxis and Kena Ram is the name of an Aghori guru who set up a math at Benares in the eighteenth century which is still active and this name is adopted by the subsequent mahants there. The book is a great read. -- Alexander MacLennan sandymac@sandymac.demon.co.uk