Akshay Kumar Sen

This is the eleventh story in the series on devotees who had a role in the divine play of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna.

- DR. RUCHIRA MITRA

यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभयरः

It is attained by him alone whom It chooses (Kathopanishad. 1.2:23)

A poor devotee of Krishna came to Calcutta in search of a job and was employed as a home tutor in the affluent Tagore family. He used to do spiritual practices on the bank of the Ganga at night; but not being able to make any spiritual progress, he became restless in his search for a Guru. Once, he overheard some devotees conversing about a Paramahamsa. When he wanted to know more about him, they rudely brushed him aside. But the devotee determined to know more about the Paramahamsa. One day, he came to know that those devotees were going to a festival at a house where the Paramahamsa would also be coming. His heart pounding in expectation, he ran to them, held their feet with both his hands and pleaded, “Please allow me to accompany you!” Seeing his sincerity and humility, they relented; and this man, Akshay Kumar Sen, got the opportunity to meet the Paramahamsa — Sri Ramakrishna. It was 1885.

Akshay was born in 1854 in Maynapur, a village in the Bankura district of Bengal to Haladhar Sen and Bidhumukhi Devi. Because of their extreme poverty Akshay was brought up in the backward village and educated in a rural school.