Kalpataru celebrations

Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna is being worshipped as Avatar descended on earth by millions of people all over the world. However, he was extremely unostentatious and would never make a show of his spiritual prowess. However, a few months before his Mahasamadhi, he publically exhibited his spiritual luminosity. He had shifted to Cossipore Garden House in Kolkata for better care and treatment since he was suffering from throat cancer. He was practically bedridden. But, on that 1st of January, in the afternoon around 3:00 pm, as he felt slightly better he came down from his room walking towards the gate. Seeing the assembled devotees among whom was Shri Girish Ghosh, the famous Bengali dramatist, he stopped and asked him, “Well Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim before everybody that I am an Incarnation of God?” Girish Ghosh came near him and kneeling down said with a voice choked with emotion, “What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?” Sri Ramakrishna went into Samadhi and when he came down he said, “What more shall I say, may your spiritual consciousness be awakened”. Seeing his extraordinary state of spiritual illumination devotees offered salutations at his feet exclaiming “Jay Ramakrishna”. He touched each one of them in the chest saying, “May your consciousness be awakened”. Each one of them felt an extraordinary spiritual transformation. Some danced in joy, some shed tears, some had a wonderful vision of their Ishta devata and so on. Sri Ramachandra Datta, a householder devotee who was present on that day, described this event as Sri Ramakrishna’s revelation as Kalpataru or the wish fulfilling tree. But, Swami Saradananda, the biographer of Sri Ramakrishna, describes this incident as Sri Ramakrishna’s self-revelation while giving assurance of protection to the devotees.