For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Sri Ramakrishna, Modern Day Avatar

March 07, 2022 Nishanth Selvalingam Season 4 Episode 6
For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish
Sri Ramakrishna, Modern Day Avatar
Show Notes

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

What is for a human to literally be God? It seems counter-intuitive! 
One can of course study the life of the great Avataras like Buddha, Jesus and Ramakrishna and see a remarkable similarity. All the stories are almost replayed, almost word for word. But even then the mind has room to say "well, they are just stories, maybe they were intentionally crafted to mirror Avatars of the past to gain credibility. I mean after all, wouldn't everyone like to claim their Guru as the Avatara of the Age?"
The mind is powerless to comprehend. But for some reason, this heart feels what it feels!

Now the interesting thing is that when young Narendranath (later Swami Vivekananda) met Ramakrishna, he didn't care at all whether he was an Avatara or not. He had heard such implications but it was enough for young Naren that before him was a genuinely spiritual man with a deep love for God and a powerful penchant for teaching spirituality. He was ready to learn from such a man once he felt the depth of feeling and wisdom housed in that slender frame. Ramakrishna was a Guru for Vivekananda at first. But then, as time went on and Naren saw more and more of Ramakrishna, he begin to feel intuitions that of course waged war with his keen, rational, Western-trained intellect. He doubted Ramakrishna up to the very last moment, when Ramakrishna was about to die from throat cancer. Vivekananda thought "is this really the Avatara of the modern age? If he can affirm it now, even amidst all this pain, I might accept it". It was jut a thought but on cue Ramakrishna said "do you doubt it even now, my boy? The one who was here as Rama and the one who was here as Krishna is now here as Ramakrishna. But not according to your Vedanta!"
That last response is very important to me because it expresses that there are many ways of looking at a phenomenon like Ramakrishna and that all these ways are legit. Each must come to an understanding according to their own predispositions. 

Support the show