By the time he arrived at Dakshineswar Temple in 1864, he was a wandering monk of the Dasnami order of Adi Shankara, and head of a monastery in the Punjab claiming the leadership of seven hundred sannyasins. He is said to have initiated Ramakrishna into Advaita Vedanta , as well as Anandpuri Ji from the Advait Mat tradition.
Totapuri taught Ramakrishna that the sole reality of the impersonal Absolute could only be realized in a state of consciousness devoid of all conceptual forms.Totapuri was "a teacher of masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice". Ramakrishna affectionately addressed him as Nangta, the "Naked One", because as a renunciate he did not wear any clothing.
References
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday April 27, 2008 at 20:48:04 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.