Sri
Ramakrishna,
who was born in 1836 and passed away in 1886,
represents the very core of the spiritual realizations of the seers and sages
of India. His whole life was literally an uninterrupted contemplation of God.
He reached a depth of God-consciousness that transcends all time and place and
has a universal appeal. Seekers of God of all religions feel irresistibly
drawn to his life and teachings. Sri Ramakrishna, as a silent force,
influences the spiritual thought currents of our time. He is a figure of
recent history and his life and teachings have not yet been obscured by loving
legends and doubtful myths. Through his God-intoxicated life Sri Ramakrishna
proved that the revelation of God takes place at all times and that
God-realization is not the monopoly of any particular age, country, or people.
In him, deepest spirituality and broadest catholicity stood side by side. The
God-man of nineteenth-century India did not found any cult, nor did he show a
new path to salvation. His message was his God-consciousness. When
God-consciousness falls short, traditions become dogmatic and oppressive and
religious teachings lose their transforming power. At a time when the very
foundation of religion, faith in God, was crumbling under the relentless blows
of materialism and skepticism, Sri Ramakrishna, through his burning spiritual
realizations, demonstrated beyond doubt the reality of God and the validity of
the time-honored teachings of all the prophets and saviors of the past, and
thus restored the falling edifice of religion on a secure foundation. Drawn by
the magnetism of Sri Ramakrishna's divine personality, people flocked to him
from far and near -- men and women, young and old, philosophers and
theologians, philanthropists and humanists, atheists and agnostics, Hindus and
Brahmos, Christians and Muslims, seekers of truth of all races, creeds and
castes. His small room in the Dakshineswar temple garden on the outskirts of
the city of Calcutta became a veritable parliament of religions. Everyone who
came to him felt uplifted by his profound God-consciousness, boundless love,
and universal outlook. Each seeker saw in him the highest manifestation of his
own ideal. By coming near him the impure became pure, the pure became purer,
and the sinner was transformed into a saint. The greatest contribution of Sri
Ramakrishna to the modern world is his message of the harmony of religions. To
Sri Ramakrishna all religions are the revelation of God in His diverse aspects
to satisfy the manifold demands of human minds. Like different photographs of
a building taken from different angles, different religions give us the
pictures of one truth from different standpoints. They are not contradictory
but complementary. Sri Ramakrishna faithfully practiced the spiritual
disciplines of different religions and came to the realization that all of
them lead to the same goal. Thus he declared, "As many faiths, so many paths."
The paths vary, but the goal remains the same. Harmony of religions is not
uniformity; it is unity in diversity. It is not a fusion of religions, but a
fellowship of religions based on their common goal -- communion with God. This
harmony is to be realized by deepening our individual God-consciousness. In
the present-day world, threatened by nuclear war and torn by religious
intolerance, Sri Ramakrishna's message of harmony gives us hope and shows the
way. May his life and teachings ever inspire us.
