Ram Chandra Datta (30 October 1851 — 17 January 1899) was a householder disciple of Ramakrishna and a writer. Datta was a relative of Indian monk and social reformer Swami Vivekananda. After completing his graduation, he took job of a Government employee and a chemist. He invented an antidote for blood dysentery from an extract of an indigenous medicinal plant and started promoting "modern science".
Datta became a disciple of Ramakrishna and encouraged Narendranath Datta (pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda) to go to Dakshineswar and meet Ramakrishna. He died on 17 January 1899 after suffering from heart disease and chronic asthma.
Early life
Datta was born on 30 October 1851 in Calcutta (The city is currently known as Kolkata). His father Nrisimha Prasad Datta was a devotee of Hindu god Krishna and his mother Tulasimani was known for her generosity and kindness. Datta's mother died when he was two and a half years old. Bhubaneshwari, who was a relative, mother of Vivekananda, tended to him and brought him up. In childhood Datta showed inclination to worship Krishna. His religious fervour was accentuated by his visits to a hermitage near his home when he interacted with monks of different orders. He was a vegetarian and had a strict resolution of not to eat any non-vegetarian food; this resolve went to the extreme extent when he even walked out of a relative's house when he was 10 years old, where they had cooked a non-vegetarian meal and were forcing him to eat it.
Soon after, Nrisimha Prasad remarried, but, Datta could not adjust with his stepmother and went to live in a relative's house.
Ram continued his education, in spite of several adversities, at the General Assembly's Institution (now Scottish Church College). He then joined the Campbell Medical School in Calcutta and graduated.
He married Krishnapreyashi and during his marriage Vivekananda was the best man as they had the best of filial bonding.
Career
After his graduation, Ram joined as an assistant to the Government Quinine Examiner. Once his financial position improved he purchased a house in the central Calcutta.
Ram took deep interest in chemistry while working with an English supervisor. He invented an antidote for blood dysentery from an extract of an indigenous medicinal plant, which got the seal of approval from the government. Leading doctors started prescribing it, and he became famous, and as a result he was appointed a member of the Chemist Association of England. He was then elevated to the post of Government Chemical Examiner. He also started teaching to the military medical students at the Calcutta Medical College.
He also started teaching modern science which made him an atheist, and he used to say "In those days we did not believe in God. We considered that everything happens, changes, or dissolves by the force of nature. We were rank materialists, and we held the view that eating, sleeping, and creature comforts were the summum bommum of life." He was also a good debater on subjects of God and religion and proved his atheistic views, and this attitude continued for five years.
Then his young daughter died suddenly, which plunged him in immense grief and self-reflection and attitude towards God. He tried to look for solace in the Brahmo, Christian, and Hindu religious faiths, but his "The great inquiry" of God did not seem to end. He then, on 13 November 1879, visited Ramakrishna for the first time at Dakshineshwar along with his friend Gopal Chandra Mittra and Manomohan Mittra, a cousin. This was the turning point in his life and he thereafter became a staunch devotee of Ramakrishna to the extent that he considered him as an Avatar of God and started propagating his message through lectures in later years. Ramakrishna visited Ram's house on 2 June 1886 which was a full moon day of the month of Vaisakh according to Bengali calendar, which became a festival day for Ram as he felt blessed on this occasion.
Spiritual life
Ram Chandra Datta was a householder disciple of Ramakrishna, the Master. His dedication and love for the Master was obsessively evident, that he vehemently asserted that any place visited by the master was holy, including the coach and the coachman which carried him around.