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Aspects of the Divine

CHENNAI: Spiritual progress is an inner effort and everything hinges on one’s mental attitude and sincerity. The will to renounce attachment to worldly ties is the key to spiritual progress and this is the fundamental teaching of Sri Ramakrishna, pointed out Swami Gautamananda in a lecture. This preceptor remains a great force and influence in the spiritual atmosphere of the modern era because he explored the basics of the Vedas the Upanishads and the scriptures as well as of other religions. He proclaimed that the paths to liberation may be many, but the goal is only one. Through divine grace, he was able to master the sixty four kinds of spiritual disciplines in the principal Tantras.

Later he learnt the principle of the identity of the Atma with the Brahman from Totapuri, a scholar of the Advaita school of Adi Sankara. When the instruction began, he imbibed the essence of the teaching effortlessly and attained the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi and remained so for three days. Incidentally, it had taken nearly forty years of strenuous practice for the master to attain such spiritual advancement. It is said that at the beginning the master’s Advaita Jnana had made him sceptical of the young spiritual enthusiast’s devotion to Goddess Kali, since he believed in the Divine as one with no attributes (Nirguna Brahman).

He now accepted the Divine as the essence of auspicious attributes (Saguna Brahman) as well, for he understood that both states were true enough. It became clear that the entire universe is the Lord’s Vibhuti, and the manifested world confirms the Lord’s Shakti. He realised that the truth he perceived in the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi as Nirguna Brahman is also manifest in the universe as Saguna Brahman.

Sri Ramakrishna thus established that philosophical attainments alone were insufficient to grasp the entire essence of the Supreme Being; but a personal rapport with the Divine leads to the same end through the knowledge of the Divine with attributes (Saguna Brahman).

He was able to teach an integrated system of spiritual effort that was applicable to one who took up Sanyasa as well as to the householder.

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