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Hinduism For Schools-C

Swami Vivekananda was a chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. As a young skeptical student, he asked Sri Ramakrishna if he had seen God directly. Sri Ramakrishna replied that he had seen God more tangibly than he saw the student. Through Sri Ramakrishna's touch, the student was transformed and introduced Hindu spirituality to the West as Swami Vivekananda. He established the Ramakrishna Mission to spread the teachings of his master Sri Ramakrishna, who was considered one of the most potent spiritual masters in India for experiencing God through various religions.

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122 views130 pages

Hinduism For Schools-C

Swami Vivekananda was a chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. As a young skeptical student, he asked Sri Ramakrishna if he had seen God directly. Sri Ramakrishna replied that he had seen God more tangibly than he saw the student. Through Sri Ramakrishna's touch, the student was transformed and introduced Hindu spirituality to the West as Swami Vivekananda. He established the Ramakrishna Mission to spread the teachings of his master Sri Ramakrishna, who was considered one of the most potent spiritual masters in India for experiencing God through various religions.

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Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902)

Swami Vivekananda is the chief among the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He is one of the
most dynamic spiritual personalities of the modern age, bringing ancient spirituality into the modern
secular world and inspiring Easterner and Westerner with the powerful, timeless philosophy of
ancient India.

When Swami Vivekananda, whose name was formerly Naren, was a young skeptical college student
studying Western philosophy, he began asking Hindu spiritual teachers if they had seen God directly,
because he wanted proof. They all dodged the question until he met Sri Ramakrishna and asked him,
"Sir, have you seen God?" Sri Ramakrishna replied, "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more
tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you. But, my child,
who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep
for God for only one day they would surely see Him."

Sri Ramakrishna was the only one who claimed first hand God experience, and was able to grant this
vision to others. Through the miraculous touch of Sri Ramakrishna, the skeptical young man was
transformed into one of the most powerful proponents of spirituality in the modern age. Sri
Ramakrishna imparted his dynamic spiritual experiences to Swami Vivekananda, who then
introduced Hindu spirituality to the West. He participated in the Parliament of World Religions in
Chicago in 1893, and established the Ramakrishna Mission to spread the message of his Master. After
Buddha and Shankara, Swami Vivekananda is considered to be the greatest spiritual leader of India,
reinvoking the ancient spirituality of India to revive and invigorate his nation. By introducing Vedanta
to the West, Swami Vivekananda enabled his own nation to realise the depth of the teachings of its
ancient prophets which lay dormant and forgotten. He elevated every individual to the status of
divinity and pronounced heartfelt ‘service to mankind’ as the most effective form of worship.“

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature,
external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship or psychic control, or philosophy by one or
more, or all of these, and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas, rituals, books,
temples or forms, are but secondary details.”
Sri Ramakrishna
(1836 - 1886)

Sri Ramakrishna was one of the most potent spiritual masters in the history of India. He achieved a state of consciousness through
which he could experience God in everything. He achieved God realisation through a variety of pathways, not only within
Hinduism but even through Christianity and Islam. He is therefore the single most dynamic God man of the world, proving the
validity of a whole range of approaches to God. He is thus the prophet of pluralism, providing the only proof that God can be
reached in a variety of different ways.

Sri Ramakrishna was immersed in spiritual experience since childhood. Just the mention or sight of something that reminded him
of God could cause him to start experiencing ‘Sat, Chit, Ananda’ or existence, consciousness and bliss of God. One day while walking
through some paddy fields, he looked up at a flock of white cranes flying by against the dark rain clouds. The sheer beauty of this
vision caused the young Ramakrishna to become immediately submerged in God experience.

As he grew older, Sri Ramakrishna devoted himself to the worship of the Mother Goddess, Kali, with all his heart. He could see her
day and night, so powerful was his spiritual experience. He was also able to see God as other Hindu deities such as Rama and
Krishna and could even become submerged in the deepest form of meditation to experience God as everything: Brahman. Later on
he also practiced Islam and Christianity and achieved the same spiritual enlightenment through these two major world religions.
Swami Vivekananda, one of Sri Ramakrishna’s principle disciples brought the philosophical ideas of Hinduism to America and the
Western world. The life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna are profoundly relevant to the world of today, rife with religious
extremism and hedonistic secularism.

“Sri Ramakrishna’s message was unique in being expressed in action…Religion is not just a matter for study, it is something that
has to be experienced and to be lived, and this is the field in which Sri Ramakrishna manifested his uniqueness…His religions
activity and experience were, in fact, comprehensive to a degree that had perhaps never before been attained by any other religious
genious, in India or elsewhere”

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi


(1853 - 1920)

Sri Sarada Devi, lovingly called Holy Mother, is the wife of Sri Ramakrishna. She is worshipped by many as an incarnation of
Mother Goddess. Her life was full of austerities and spiritual practices In her later life she guided thousands of spiritual aspirants
and became the spiritual head of the Ramakrishna Order.

In a small village in Bengal called Jayaramvati the Holy Mother was born on December 22nd 1853. She was named Sarada. She was
very active, helping her mother cook and looking after her little sister and brother. She was a busy little girl full of compassion for
the poor and ever ready to serve them. At a very young age she was married to Sri Ramakrishna. Their relationship was never
physical. “Marriage can be for spiritual companionship” is exemplified in the life of Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother. In 1886 Sri
Ramakrishna passed away, gradually the Holy Mother has to take on the role of being the spiritual leader of the Ramakrishna
Order that was established by Swami Vivekananda. Sarada Devi was like a mother to all the devotees. Just as a mother in the
family cares for all her children, worries about their welfare, loves them intensely, even so was the Holy Mother to the devotees.
In the final days of her life she said to a woman devotee: “Let me tell you something. My child, if you want peace, then do not look
into anybody’s faults. Look into your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole
world is your own.” This was Holy Mother’s last message to humanity. She passed away on 21st July 1920.

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