Kalipada Ghosh (1849-1905)—Scion of the Ghosh family of Shyampukur, son of Guruprasad, a worshipper of Kali and a jute merchant. Read up to Class VIII but joined an English firm, John Dickinson, paper merchants, and ultimately occupied the highest post there by dint of intelligence and efficiency. Skilled in singing and playing instruments, cooking, composing verses and so on. Ramakrishna-Sangit published (1893) from Yogodyan, Kankurgachhi, was a collection of his compositions. For sharing with Girish Chandra Ghosh, the playwright, his addiction to wine, the two were called “Jagai and Madhai” (the two devotees of Sri Chaitanya). Swamiji had nicknamed Kalipada “Danakali” for his intrepidity and munificence. Towards the end of 1884 he first met the Master at Dakshineswar in the company of Girish Chandra. At that time Kalipada was a man of loose morals and his wife having sought the Master’s help, he had assured her that Kalipada would one day become his follower and his ways would change then. Another version has it that twelve years prior to Kalipada’s visit to Dakshineswar, his wife, advised by the Master, had obtained from Holy Mother the means of having her husband mend his ways and in the intervening twelve years she had repeated the name of the Master (Sri Sri Latu Maharajer Smritikatha, pp. 151-52).
On Kalipada’s second visit to Dakshineswar (November 1884) the Master travelled to Calcutta in a boat with him, discoursing on spiritual issues all the while. He also wrote something on his tongue with his finger and visited Kalipada’s residence at 20 Shyampukur Lane, the first of several subsequent visits. For his efficiency in conducting festivities the Master called him “manager”. He organized the worship of Kali at Shyampukur on 6.11.85 at the behest of the Master and at Cossipore the latter had touched Kalipada’s chest on 23.12.85 saying, “May your inner spirit be awakened!” (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 932). Once the Master had entered a state of samadhi while listening to Kalipada playing the flute. The Master had remarked to M., “Kalipada told me that he had altogether given up drinking” (Ibid., p. 850). Towards the end of his service he was posted at Bombay where the monastic disciples of the Master used to be his guests while on pilgrimage. His efforts initiated the Ramakrishna movement in Rangoon. Died in the house he had built at 30 Shyampukur Street on 28.6.1905.
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