Talk Excerpt 230. Swamiji says Sri Ramakrishna validated all paths for reaching God and moksha.
From Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
Sri Ramakrishna’s religion is the essence of all the religions under the sun – and even in the heavens. As Vedantists, people think we are the followers of Sri Shankaracharya. Yes, we are – and infinitely more, Why? Because where Sri Shankaracharya left off, Sri Ramakrishna discovered further things. Sri Shankaracharya is limited because of people’s understanding at that time and by the environment and traditions.
In Sri Shankaracharya’s teaching you find that he has given women the position of second fiddle (a subordinate or less important role) and he has given males more importance. Then Sri Ramakrishna came and said, ‘No. Correctly a woman is the embodiment of the Divine Mother.’
Sri Shankaracharya believed in caste but Sri Ramakrishna was beyond caste. Anyone that yearns for God is beyond caste, they believe that God dwells in everyone’s heart.
Sri Shankaracharya’s idea of realising God was that you must sit in one place till you get moksha – that means moksha is for one individual. But Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘No. Sannyasis [Hindu monks, nuns, renunciates] must serve the world, and use that as a means to realise God.’
Sri Shankaracharya says that only Brahmins [the priestly/scholarly caste] can realise God. Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘No. All who have the devotion, can realise God.’
Sri Ramakrishna founded a religion which is the essence of all religions, and which condemns no religion. After his coming, all the others preached the universality of religions.
Sri Ramakrishna said that all religions are disciplines to discipline our minds, and you can realise God.
Before this, all believed that if you followed Karma Yoga, you would get God – or if you followed Jnana Yoga you would get God – or if you followed Bhakti Yoga you would get God. They thought you couldn’t mix them.
Swami Vivekananda said, ‘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, or rituals, or books or temples, or forms, are but secondary details. Religion is in being and becoming.’
You can practise all of these in one birth because the mind differs from second to second. After 1886 many others followed religion as preached by Sri Ramakrishna. He did not create it. He uncovered it. It was like removing a cloth from a table. This is Sanatana Dharma – eternal religion.
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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.