Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Quotes

That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge.

The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails.

Ταξίδεψε στις τέσσερις γωνιές της γης, αλλά δεν θα βρεις τίποτα πουθενά. Ό,τι υπάρχει είναι μόνο εδώ.

The name of God is identical with the Lord.

The feeling of ‘I and mine’ has covered the Reality. Because of this we do not see Truth. Attainment of Chaitanya, Divine Consciousness, is not possible without the knowledge of Advaita, Non-duality. After realizing Chaitanya one enjoys Nityānanda, Eternal Bliss. One enjoys this Bliss after attaining the state of a paramahamsa.

…it is not necessary to preach that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an Incarnation, and things of that sort. He came to do good to the world, not to trumpet his own name—you must always remember this. Disciples pay their whole attention to the preservation of their master’s name, and throw overboard his teachings; and sectarianism etc., are the result…I have nothing to do with sectarianism, or party-forming and playing the frog-in-the-well, whatever else I may do…It is impossible to preach the catholic ideas of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and form sects at the same time.

Swami Vivekananda knew the Hindu psyche embedded in the ‘Incarnation’ idea. He knew, too, that if that web were not cleared, what would remain would be the ‘Ramakrishna-Paramahamsa-is-God’ litany, and his essential message to our troubled times drowned in the ringing of bells and the waving of lamps, morning and noon and evening, in front of his photograph. Immediately after saying to his brother-monks that he was ready to lay down his life to help Sri Ramakrishna’s message spread all over the world, he said: What I am most afraid of is the worship-room. It is not bad in itself, but there is a tendency in some to make this all in all and set up that old-fashioned nonsense over again—this is what makes me nervous. I know why they busy themselves with those old, effete ceremonials. Their spirit craves for work, but having no outlet they waste their energy in ringing bells and all that.

The nature of God is like that of a child. As a child builds up his toy house and then breaks it down, so God acts while creating, preserving, and destroying the universe. Further, as the child is not under the control of any guna, so God is beyond the three gunas—sattva, rajas, and tamas. That is why paramahamsas keep five or ten children with them, that they may assume their nature.

Swept up by tides of new revolutionary ideas blowing across the country, soon the rebel in Tata rejected most Brahminical orthodoxies, shedding his ‘janiwara’ (sacred thread) in his late teens. After years of a soul-searing search for God, wandering across the physical and intellectual terrains earlier traversed by Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the Hindu reformists from Bengal, Tata discarded all these paths. He became a rationalist, and even a vocal atheist, who acerbically lampooned Brahminical orthodoxy in his early literary works like Gnana (Deep Knowledge) and Devadootharu (God’s Messengers).