User:Goethean/SRK/Teachings/Goethean

Teachings

God-realisation

The key concepts in Ramakrishna’s teachings were the oneness of existence; the divinity of all living beings; and the unity of God and the harmony of religions.

Ramakrishna emphasised that God-realisation is the supreme goal of all living beings.

A man can change his nature by imitating another's character. By transposing onto yourself the attributes of a woman, you gradually destroy lust and the other sensual drives. You begin to behave like a women. I have noticed that men who play female parts in the theater speak like women or brush their teeth like women while bathing.[2]

Various scholars have come to opposing conclusions about Ramakrishna's attitude toward women. Some say that he was simply an ascetic and avoided lust in order to retain mystical clarity.^{[citation needed]} Others say that he feared women deeply or pathologically, especially women as sexual beings.^{[citation needed]} Narasingha Sil links this to traditional rural Bengali misogyny.^[3] Sil also says that Ramakrishna made his wife into a deity in order to avoid thinking of her as sexual.^[4]

Avidyamaya and vidyamaya

Devotees believe that Ramakrishna’s realisation of nirvikalpa samadhi also led him to an understanding of the two sides of

Ramakrishna recognised differences among religions but realised that in spite of these differences, all religions lead to the same ultimate goal, and hence they are all valid and true. Regarding this, the distinguished British historian Arnold J. Toynbee has written: “… Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna’s testimony to the harmony of religions: here we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family – and in the Atomic Age, this is the only alternative to destroying ourselves.” ^[5]

Other teachings

Ramakrishna’s proclamation of jatra jiv tatra Shiv (wherever there is a living being, there is Shiva) stemmed from his Advaitic perception of Reality. This would lead him teach his disciples, "Jive daya noy, Shiv gyane jiv seba" (not kindness to living beings, but serving the living being as Shiva Himself). This view differs considerably from what Ramakrishna’s followers call the "sentimental pantheism" of, for example, Francis of Assisi.

Ramakrishna, though not formally trained as a