LAWET

Kaustav Ghosh

Sri Ramakrishna, who was an Indian hindu mystic and spiritual leader born on 18th February 1836. He adhered to various religious practices from hinduism (Tantric, Vaishanavism, Yoga, Advaita Vedanta) as well as Islam and Christianity to teach the people-

“So many paths to reach one and the same goal.”

He was the embodiment of ‘सर्व धर्म सम भाव‘.

I started reading those books consist of his teaching from my childhood. Then I went to Howrah Vivekananda Institution for my high schooling and learned a lot about Sri Ramakrishna, his wife Ma Sarada, his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda.

Let me share his teachings to enlighten our life-

1)“Know the one, you will know the all..“

2) “I have now come to a stage of realization in which I see that God is walking in every human form and manifesting Himself alike through the sage and the sinner, the virtuous and the vicious. Therefore when I meet different people I say to myself, “God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous.”

3) “Do you know what I see? I see Him as all. Men and other creatures appear to me only as hollow forms, moving their heads and hands and feet, but within is the Lord Himself.“

4) “Never get into your head that your faith alone is true and every other is false. Know for certain that God without form is real and that God with form also real. Then hold fasts to whichever faith appeals to you.”

5)“Many are the names of God and infinite the forms that lead us to know him. In whatsoever name or form you desire to call him, in that very form or name you will see him.”

6) “Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.”

7)“What Bramhan is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Bramhan is.”

8) “God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion…One may eat a cake with icing either straight or sidewise. It will taste sweet either way.”

9) “God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached, and beyond pain and pleasure. There is much confusion in this world of His maya. One can by no means say that ‘this’ will come after ‘that’ or ‘this’ will produce ‘that’.”

10) “God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”

[I have been deeply grateful for two books “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna” and “The sayings of Sri Ramakrishna”. This two book helped me to write this article]