As his surname suggests, he was initiated into the Puri
order of the Dashanami Sanyasis.
Tota Puri was one of the Bengali saint Ramakrishna's
instructors, and he purported to teach him Advaita Vedanta as part of Ramakrishna's
ongoing exposure to a variety of religious practices.
Ramakrishna was a devout devotee (bhakta) of the goddess
Kali in his prior religious practice, but the Advaita Vedanta theory maintains
that beneath everything there is a single impersonal reality with no
distinguishing characteristics other than existence, consciousness, and
happiness (sacchidananda).
Because all conceptions of individual deities have specific
properties, they are conditioned forms of the ultimate Brahman, according to
Advaita (Supreme Reality).
Despite the fact that this thought contradicted his past
experience, Ramakrishna exercised tirelessly under Tota Puri's guidance.
When Ramakrishna acquired enlightenment via Advaita practices,
he realized that the core of the experience was the same as that which he had
received through his previous devotional efforts.
For Ramakrishna, this inner feeling of identification was
crucial, since it confirmed his belief that all types of religious practice
brought the seeker to the same destination.
Tota Puri vanished after Ramakrishna's enlightenment
experience.
