12 RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS

12 RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ SYMBOLS OF TWELVE MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

6.3.11

WHO IS SRI RAMAKRISHNA?

 Today  Sri Ramakrishna's 175th Birthday is celebrated in all centres of Ramakrishna Order all over the world.  This article is posted on this auspicious occasion.

Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s chief disciple narrates his own experience:

One day while Sri Ramakrishna was staying at the Cossipore garden, his body in imminent danger of falling off forever. I was sitting the side of his bed and saying in my mind, “Well, now if you can declare that you are God, then will I believe you are really God himself.” It was only two days before he passed away. Immediately he looked up towards me and said, “He who was Rama, he who was Krishna, verily is he now ramakrishna in this body, and not in your Vedandic sense.” At this I was dumb.

What is the Vedantic sense?

According to the doctrine of the Vedanta each soul, in reality is Brahman. Thus it may be presumed that there is no difference between an Incarnation of God and an ordinary human being. To be sure, from the standpoint of the Absolute no such difference exists. But from the relative standpoint a difference must be admitted. Embodied human beings reflect godliness in varying degrees but in incarnation it is fully manifest. Further an incarnation is not under control of the Maya where as a jiva is always under its control of Maya.  Thus an incarnation is different from an ordinary human being. 


More will be added later...


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