Ramprasad was born in a village named Halisahar (previously called Kamarhati) on the bank of the Ganges, about 34 miles north from Kolkata in 1723 to a Tantric Vaidya family. Kali devotee Ramprasad.Ramprasad's father, Ramram Sen, was an eminent Ayurvedic physician and Sanskrit scholar. Ramprasad was an intelligent child. Young Ramprasad amazed everyone with his extraordinary capability for learning at the local village school.
Ramprasad learned Sanskrit grammar, literature, and Bengali poetry in school beside mastering in Persian and Urdu languages. He had a special talent for writing poetry.
However Ramprasad showed no interest in entering the family's traditional profession to become an Ayurvedic physician. Instead, during adolescence he exhibited spiritual inclinations which he expressed by writing poetry. As time passed, Ramprasad's otherworldliness caused great anxiety to his parents. In an attempt to instill a sense of worldly responsibility in the boy, Ramram Sen arranged his marriage.
Soon after his father's death, the family's burden fell upon Ramprasad's shoulders and, reluctantly, he left his seat of meditation to search for a job that would bring income. Finally, Ramprasad found work in Calcutta as an accounting clerk but he could not prevent his mind from trailing off and thinking of the Divine Mother Kali. He could not help but write down the passionate songs onto blank pages in the back of the account book. When some of his fellow employees saw that he was writing songs into the account book, they complained to the manager. But when the manager read Ramprasad's soul-stirring songs to Ma Kali, he recognized the spiritual greatness in him. The manager asked Ramprasad to go home and devote all his time to worshipping the Divine Mother and compose his songs. He would continue to pay his monthly salary.Thus Ramprasad immersed himself in meditation and spiritual practice, deeply absorbed in the thought of the Divine Mother and singing songs to Kali.One day, Maharaja Krishna Chandra of Nadia heard Ramprasad's enchanting song. The Maharaja immediately appointed Ramprasad to be his court poet in Krishnanagar. Eventually the Maharaja granted Ramprasad thirty-three acres of rent-free land for the maintenance of his family. Ramprasad thus further immersed himself in spiritual practice and worship of the Divine Mother Kali. In his songs, Ramprasad left us a record of his agony of longing for a vision of the Divine Mother Kali. His constant dialog with the Divine Mother sets an example of how one should approach her. Ramprasad died at about age 80 on the morning following a Kali Puja as an image of Kali was being immersed in the water of the Ganges. Ramprasad was a great Kali worshipper, as wherever Kali is being worshipped, Ramprasad is present through his melodious songs.
KUMAR RAJESH