Word: ramakrishna
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Dates: during 1942-1942
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When he had successively materialized the Hindu gods, Ramakrishna turned to other religions. In 1874 he tried Christianity. "Breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day ... he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Rama-krishna's soul: 'Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood...
From 1879 until his death from cancer of the throat in 1886 crowds of all classes and castes thronged to see Ramakrishna. He answered visitors' questions for 20 hours out of every 24, steadily undermined his health while doing so. Faced with the same problem, Gandhi solved it by one day of silence every week...
Woman & Gold. Gist of Ramakrishna's gospel: 1) Every religion is true, and a possible path to God. 2) For most men, who are slaves of their senses, a dualistic religion with ceremonies, music and symbols is necessary. Men of purer intellect can attain modified monism; they know there is a further range of experience but are not able fully to realize it. Monism, the realization of oneness of all things with differences merely in form, can be achieved only by those who reach ecstasy. 3) For each ladder of thought there is a corresponding series of duties...
Chief stumbling blocks in the path of spiritual progress, Ramakrishna told his followers in an oft-repeated phrase, is kaminikanchan (literally "Woman & Gold," meaning "lust & greed"). " 'Woman & Gold' alone is the obstacle to yoga," said he. "What is there in the body of a woman? Only such things as blood, flesh, fat, entrails, and the life. Why should one love such a body?" In some of his ecstasies, Ramakrishna regarded himself as a woman and worshipped Kali as her handmaid. Said his woman devotees: "We seldom looked on Sri Ramakrishna as a member of the male...
Says Gandhi: "Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness. His sayings are not those of a mere learned man but they are pages from the Book of Life...