Sri Ramakrishna - Life
Sri Ramakrishna - Life
-Contributions of Sri Ramakrishna to World Culture-
Recommended for further reading
- Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master by Swami Saradananda
- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Mahendranath Gupta (M)
- Life of Sri Ramakrishna, published from Advaita Ashrama
- Ramakrishna and His disciples by Christopher Isherwood
- Life of Ramakrishna by Roman Rolland
Message of Sri Ramakrishna
The Ultimate Reality is one; but it is personal as well as impersonal, and is indicated by different names (such as God, Ishvar, etc) in different religions.
The goal of human life is the realization of the Ultimate Reality which alone can give man supreme fulfilment and everlasting peace. This is the essence of all religions.
The Ultimate Reality can be realized through various paths taught in world religions. All religions are true in so far as they lead to the same ultimate Goal.
Purity of mind is an essential condition for the attainment of the Ultimate Reality; real purity is freedom from lust and greed. External observances are only of secondary importance.
Through spiritual practices man can overcome his evil tendencies, and divine grace can redeem even the worst sinner. Therefore one should not brood over the past mistakes, but should develop a positive outlook on life by depending on God.
God realization is possible for all. The householders need not renounce the world; but they should pray sincerely, practise discrimination between the Eternal and the temporal and remain unattached. God listens to sincere prayer. Intense longing (vyakulata) is the secret of success in spiritual life.
God dwells in all people but the manifestation of this inner Divinity varies from person to person. In saintly people there is greater manifestation of God. Women are special manifestations of Divine Mother of the Universe, and so are to be treated with respect.
Since God dwells in all people, helping the needy should be done not out of compassion (which is an attitude of condescension) but as humble service to God.
Egoism, caused by ignorance, is the root-cause of all suffering.
Life is an expression of the spontaneous creativity (Lila) of God. Pleasure and pain, success and failure, etc are to be borne with patience, and one should resign oneself to God’s will under all circumstances.
Sri Sarada Devi Life
- Recommended for further reading -
– Sayings of Holy Mother –
-: Swami Vivekananda - Life :-
-: Swami Vivekananda’s Contributions to World Culture :-
Making an objective assessment of Swami Vivekananda’s contributions to world culture, the eminent British historian A L Basham stated that “in centuries to come, he will be remembered as one of the main moulders of the modern world…” Some of the main contributions that Swamiji made to the modern world are mentioned below:

-Recommended for further reading-
-Recommended for further reading-
1. Eastern and Western Disciples, Life of Swami Vivekananda, Two Volumes. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama
2. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Nine Volumes. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama.
3. Romain Rolland, The Life of Vivekananda, tr. E.K. Malcolm Smith. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama.
4. Teachings of Swami Vivekananda. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama.
5. Swami Vivekananda’s Speeches at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893
Selected Teachings of Swami Vivekananda
Selected Teachings of Swami Vivekananda
My ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life.
Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.
We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet.
So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.
If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, … and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.
Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.
The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new Gospel.
Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all, love.
Religion is realization; not talk, not doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes.
Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.
It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.