ॐ नमो भगवते श्रीरामकृष्णाय·Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramakrishnaya
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There is a famous verse in Manu Smriti: यस्मात् त्रयोऽप्याश्रमिणो ज्ञानेनान्नेन चान्वहम्। गृहस्थेनैव धार्यन्ते तस्माज्ज्येष्ठाश्रमी गृही॥ ‘The grihastha is the greatest among the ashramas, because it is only the grihastha who provides food and education to the people of the other three ashramas. The society runs on the strength of a grihastha. The quality of…
ReadI am glad that The Vedanta Kesari is bringing out a special issue in December featuring ‘Ideals in Family Life’, as the core subject, in which my article is on ‘Sri Ramakrishna: A Unique Husband’. The very subject title seems intriguing because Sri Ramakrishna is considered the great spiritual teacher who advocated renunciation of ‘woman…
ReadOnce Swami Brahmananda, one of the foremost disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was visiting a remote place in Bengal. While he was waiting for a train at a station, among those who came to see him off was a young devotee and his sister. Suddenly the devotee said to Swami Brahmananda, ‘Maharaj, this is my sister,…
ReadTeachers from schools and colleges in and around Boston often bring their students to the Vedanta Society on field trips. What occurs during such visits has now become for me a familiar routine. Typically I welcome the group, give them an introductory talk on Vedanta, answer their questions, tell them about the programs offered at…
ReadInterface of Bengali and Sindhi Culture The message of universal harmony orchestrated by Sri Ramakrishna on his spiritual lyre in the second half of the nineteenth century Bengal, a time of religious dissension and reformist debate, had probably something in common with the mid-Victorian confusion and uncertainty in England. Industrial Revolution and discovery of the…
ReadThe spiritual atmosphere of Dakshineswar, Shyampukur and Cossipore, places sanctified by the austerities of KaliTapasvi, were vibrating in tune with the hymn – ‘Who has entered my temple / the whole sky has become a firmament of immortality / the evil nights have submerged in all quarters / all doors opened up automatically / all…
ReadThe Tirukkural (Tiru = Sri or sacred; Kural = a couplet containing roughly seven words in two lines), was composed by the saintpoet Tiruvalluvar about two thousand years ago. He is said to have lived in Mylapore in Chennai and there stands a temple for him in this locality. ‘Valluvar’ is said to be the…
Read(Continued from the previous issue. . .) 3 Let us now examine what each account expresses or actually reveals about Sri Ramakrishna. In the Great Master, Swami Saradananda mentions a number of traits that Sri Ramakrishna manifested in his childhood and youth that are significant indicators of his developing attitudes that influenced his entire life.…
ReadSwami Vivekananda composed the mantra, Sthapakaya cha dharmasya sarvadharmasvarupineAvataravarishthaya ramakrishnaya te namah in which he described Sri Ramakrishna as the foremost of divine incarnations. Swamiji was eminently qualified to make this assessment of Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual greatness. It is extremely difficult to make such an evaluation unless one also possesses, at least to some degree,…
ReadBefore dwelling upon what Sri Ramakrishna prescribed for developing Bhakti, let us look at an important aspect of all spiritual practices. Three Questions of Philosophy According to Indian tradition, any philosophy worth its name must deal with three questions: tattva, hita and purushartha— the Truth it seeks, the Path it delineates and the Goal or…
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