Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna 1 Great Thinkers on Sri Ramakrishna e-book from www.belurmath.org 2 Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda SRI RAMAKRISHNA e-book from www.belurmath.org Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna 3 I SRI RAMAKRISHNA ALDOUS HUXLEY ‘The further you go towards the East,’ Sri Ramakrishna was fond of saying, ‘the further you go away from the West.’ This is one of those apparently childish remarks, which we meet with so often among the writings and recorded sayings of religious teachers. But it is an apparent childishness that masks a real profundity. Within this absurd little tautology there lies, in a state of living, seminal latency, a whole metaphysic, a complete programme of action. It is, of course, the same philosophy and the same way of life as were referred to by Jesus in those sayings about the impossibility of serving two masters, and the necessity of seeking first the kingdom of God and waiting for all the rest to be added. Egoism and alter-egoism (or the idolatrous service of individuals, groups, and causes with which we identify ourselves so that their success flatters our own ego) cut us off from the knowledge and experience of reality. ... Egoism and alter-egoism advise us to remain firmly ensconced in the West, looking after our own human affairs. But if we do this, our affairs will end by going to pot. ... Whereas if we ignore the counsels of egoism and alter-egoism, and resolutely march toward the divine East, we shall create for ourselves the possibility of receiving the grace of enlightenment and, at the same time, we shall find that existence in our physical, Western home is a great deal more satisfactory than it was when we devoted our attention primarily to the improvement of our human lot.1 e-book from www.belurmath.org 4 Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda AMAURY DE REINCOURT Can a connection between the scientific and mystical frames of reference be established over and beyond a certain metaphysical parallelism? The answer lies perhaps in the fact that Indian mysticism, at least as far as its leading representatives are concerned, has evolved as much in the past hundred years as the science of physics itself, in a direction that points toward an inevitable convergence of the two. From its modern awakening with Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, Eastern mysticism has begun to adapt its revelations to the entirely different cultural framework provided by science and technology, without in any way sacrificing what is valid in its traditional understanding of the phenomenon itself. The true departure occurred with the life and writings of Sri Aurobindo who began to wield India’s traditional metaphysics to the concept of a modified and purposeful Evolution—quite a departure for the offspring of a culture that had consistently ignored the spiritual significance of time and history.2 AMIYA CHAKRAVARTY The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition... was rooted in India’s perennial philosophy. Truth is One; men call it by different names : this was the Vedic view and it was carried on through the Upanishads, the Gãtà, and the medieval Indian sages to the nineteenth century saint Ramakrishna. Nearly illiterate but supremely knowledgeable, he not only absorbed the great Indian inheritance but accepted the revelations of other religions, mainly Christianity and Islam. ... [He] discarded sectarianism, used imagism in a highly symbolical and personal way, who dramatically moved from dualistic worship to monism and then to a balance of both, and finally and effortlessly e-book from www.belurmath.org Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna 5 emerged as a world teacher. ... To many of us, more important than any incident is the miracle of Ramakrishna himself, the miracle that he could be what he was and give us—for all time— his life’s truth. ... The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement has proved... that the finest social service, concerned action and commitment spring from pure goodness, from the realization of beatitude and the divinity of life. ... It must be recognized that a saintly person while not seeming to do anything utilitarian for society is actually fulfilling the highest social responsibility by igniting a moral conscience. Through precept and example he is changing individuals and therefore society. Every act of truth is also an act of service. Sri Ramakrishna transformed the hearts of men ; he gave them an exalted view of life, the fruits of which can be seen in the work done by the Ramakrishna Mission. ... Thus we trace a continuous history from the Upanishads to Sri Ramakrishna, from Buddha to Gandhi and Tagore. ...3 ARNOLD JOSEPH TOYNBEE Sri Ramakrishna’s message was unique in being expressed in action. The message itself was the perennial message of Hinduism. ... In the Hindu view, each of the higher religions is a true vision and a right way, and all of them alike are indispensable to mankind, because each gives a different glimpse of the same truth, and each leads by a different route to the same goal of human endeavours. Each, therefore, has a special spiritual value of its own which is not to be found in any of the others. To know this is good, but it is not enough. Religion is not just a matter for study ; it is something that has to be experienced and to be lived, and this is the field in which Sri Ramakrishna manifested his uniqueness. He practised successively almost e-book from www.belurmath.org 6 Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda every form of Indian religion and philosophy, and he went on to practise Islam and Christianity as well. His religious activity and experience were, in fact, comprehensive to a degree that had perhaps never before been attained by any other religious genius, in India or elsewhere. His devotion to God in the personal form of the Great Mother did not prevent him from attaining the state of ‘contentless consciousness’— an absolute union with absolute spiritual Reality. Sri Ramakrishna made his appearance and delivered his message at the time and the place at which he and his message were needed. This message could hardly have been delivered by anyone who had not been brought up in the Hindu religious tradition. Sri Ramakrishna was born in Bengal in 1836. He was born into a world that, in his lifetime, was, for the first time, being united on a literally world-wide scale. Today we are still living in this transitional chapter of the world’s history, but it is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self- destruction of the human race. In the present age, the world has been united on the material plane by Western technology. But this Western skill has not only ‘annihilated distance’ ; it has armed the peoples of the world with weapons of devastating power at a time when they have been brought to point-blank range of each other without yet having learnt to know and love each other. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is an Indian way. The Emperor Ashoka’s and the Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna’s testimony to the harmony of religions ; here we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family—and, in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves. e-book from www.belurmath.org Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna 7 In the Atomic Age the whole human race has a utilitarian motive for following this Indian way. No utilitarian motive could be stronger or more respectable in itself. The survival of the human race is at stake. Yet even the strongest and most respectable utilitarian motive is only a secondary reason for taking Ramakrishna’s and Gandhi’s and Ashoka’s teaching to heart and acting on it. The primary reason is that this teaching is right—and is right because it flows from a true vision of spiritual reality.4 ASHAPURNA DEVI My myopic vision cannot fathom the unfathomable Sri Ramakrishna. He seems to me like an ever enigmatic boundless sky. Sri Ramakrishna is meant for both the learned and unlettered persons. The quintessence of all knowledge is treasured in his gospel which he has catered to all in his own rural language. The academic body of the whole world has realized that the life of Sri Ramakrishna manifests the essential creeds of all religions. I see Sri Ramakrishna like an ocean so vast, so profound! I ask and ask, who is He? SRI AUROBINDO When scepticism had reached its height, the time had come for spirituality to assert itself and establish the reality of the world as a manifestation of the spirit, the secret of the confusion created by the senses, the magnificent possibilities of man and the ineffable beatitude of God. This is the work whose consummation Sri Ramakrishna came to begin and all the development of the previous two thousand years and more since e-book from www.belurmath.org 8 Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Buddha appeared, has been a preparation for the harmonization of spiritual teaching and experience by the avatàra of Dakshineshwar. The long ages of discipline which India underwent, are now drawing to an end. A great light is dawning on the East, a light whose first heralding glimpses are already seen on the horizon; a new day is about to break, so glorious that even the last of the avatàras cannot be sufficient to explain it, although without him it would not have come.