Sri Ramakrishna   (1836 - 1886)

Thoughts of eminent Western scholars and authors on  Sri Ramakrishna   Friedrich Max Müller   Romain Rolland   Will Durant   Arnold Toynbee   Aldous Huxley   Christopher Isherwood   Nicholai Roerich   William Digby   Albin R. Gilbert   Sylvain Lévi   P.J. Saher   Eugene Wigner

Friedrich Max Müller

The eminent German-born British philologist, Orientalist, and Sanskrit scholar, Friedrich Max Müller (1823 - 1900), was a contemporary of Sri Ramakrishna and was thirteen years old when the Master was born. Though he never saw Sri Ramakrishna, he was inspired to describe him:

He was a wonderful mixture of God and man. In his ordinary state he would talk of himself as the servant of all men and women. He looked upon them all as God. He himself would never be addressed as Guru (master) or teacher. Never would he claim for himself any high position. He would touch the ground reverently where his disciples had trodden. But every now and then strange fits of God-consciousness came upon him. He then became changed into a different being altogether. He then spoke of himself as being able to do and know everything. He spoke as if he had the power of giving anything to anybody. He would speak of himself as the same soul that had been born before as Rama, as Krishna, as Jesus, or as Buddha, born again as Ramakrishna. He told Mathuranatha, long before anybody knew him, that he had many disciples who would come to him shortly, and he knew all of them. He said that he was free from all eternity, and the practices and struggles after religion which he went through were only meant to show the people the way to salvation. He had done all for them alone. He would say he was a Nitya-Mukta, or eternally free, and an incarnation of God Himself. (F. Max Müller, Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings (Mayavati: Advaita Ashrama, 1951), p. 58)

[Sri Ramakrishna] was certainly imbued with the spirit of the Vedanta philosophy. His utterances which have been published breathe the spirit of that philosophy, and, in fact, are only intelligible as products of a Vedantic soil. . . . [Sri Ramakrishna] was a living illustration of the truth that Vedanta, when properly realized, can become a practical rule of life . . . the Vedanta philosophy [is] the very marrow running through all the bones of Ramakrishna’s doctrine. (F. Max Müller, A Real Mahatman cit. from R. K. Das Gupta, Sri Ramakrishna’s Religion (Calcutta, 2001), pp. 109-110)

As for your beloved master of blessed memory, Bhagaban Sri Ram Krishan, how can I ever tell you what he is to me, I love and worship him with my whole heart. To think of him makes my eyes fill with tears of gladness that I was permitted to hear of him. His sayings, published in the Brahmavadin, are my greatest delight. How wonderful that his teachings should have been borne to this far-off land where we have never known of his existence! If I might only have known him, while he was yet with us! My greatest desire is to one day visit the spot which [was] sanctified by his presence, while he lived, and I may be so fortunate as to fulfil the wish. (F. Max Müller, in a letter to Swami Vivekananda in April 1896 (cit. from Marie Louise Burke, Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, Volume 4, p. 170)

Romain Rolland

The great French savant, novelist, dramatist, essayist, and mystic---Romain Rolland (1866 - 1944) was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. The following excerpts are from his biographical work on Sri Ramakrishna---Life of Sri Ramakrishna and from one of his letters.

It is now one year since some pages of Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s ---The Face of Silence. . . effectually revealed to me the great soul of Sri Ramakrishna, and this beam of light has impelled me to know more of his life and thought. . .during the days passed together [with Miss MacLeod] we talked at length of Swami Vivekananda . . . whom I look upon as a fire of spiritual energy, and on Sri Ramakrishna as a flower of love. Both radiate God and Life Eternal. The greater genius is Vivekananda, but Sri Ramakrishna is above genius. (- Romain Rolland in a letter to Swami Ashokananda, June 28, 1927)

And it is because Ramakrishna more fully than any other man not only conceived, but realized in himself the total unity of this river of God, open to all rivers and all streams, that I have given him my love; and I shall have drawn a little of his sacred water to slake the great thirst of the world.
(- Romain Rolland, Life of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 3)

From this magnificent procession of spiritual heroes . . . I have chosen two men, who have won my regard because with incomparable charm and power they have realised this splendid symphony of the Universal Soul. They are, if one may say so, its Mozart and its Beethoven---Pater Serphicus and Jove the Thunderer---Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.

It is always the same Man---the Son of Man, the Eternal, Our Son, Our God reborn. With each return he reveals himself a little more fully, and more enriched by the universe . . . It is a monumental and necessary creation of the Soul of humanity. It is its most beautiful fruit belonging to one of its autumns. The same tree has produced, according to the same law of nature, the life and the legend. They are both made of the same living body and are the emanation of its look, its breath and its moisture.

I am bringing to Europe, as yet unaware of it, the fruit of a new autumn, a new message of the Soul, the symphony of India, bearing the name of Ramakrishna. It can be shown that this symphony, like those of our classical masters, is built up off a hundred different musical elements emanating from the past. But the sovereign personality concentrating in himself the diversity of these elements and fashioning them into a royal harmony, is always the one who gives his name to the work, though it contains within itself the labour of generations. And with his victorious sign he marks a new era . . .

The man whose image I here evoke was the consummation of two thousand years of the spiritual life of three hundred million people . . . It is my desire to bring the sound of the beating of that artery to the ears of fever-stricken Europe, which has murdered sleep. I wish to wet its lips with the blood of immortality. (- Romain Rolland, Life of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 8-15, passim)

Ramakrishna expressly maintains that it is absurd to pretend that the world is unreal so long as we form part of it, and receive from it for the maintenance of our own identity the unquenchable conviction (although hidden in our own lantern) of its reality. Even the saint who comes down from Samadhi (ecstasy) to the plane of ordinary life is forced to return to the envelope of his "differentiated" ego, however attenuated and purified. He is flung back into the world of relativity. So far as his ego is relatively real to him, so far will this world also be real; but when his ego has been purified, he sees the whole world of phenomena as the manifold manifestation of the Absolute to the senses. (- Romain Rolland, Life of Sri Ramakrishna, pp. 73-4 )

The English translation of the biography of Sri Ramakrishna by Romain Rolland was first serialized in Asia, a monthly journal published from New York. While introducing the book in its October 1929 issue, Asia, commented:

In it the distinguished French man of letters offers a message to the peoples of the West. It is one of human realization---not new nor limited by race and national boundaries---not unshared by us all, but so clear and full in this Hindu saint that it can be passed on for the universal enrichment of man’s spirit. (- Asia Magazine, New York, October 1929, Vol. XXIX, No. 10:761 (cit. from Sri Ramakrishna - Bridge Between Divinity and Humanity, Editorial, Vedanta Kesari, February 1990, 82-83)

Will Durant

Pulitzer Prize and Medal of Freedom winner American author Will Durant (1885 - 1981) wrote the following about Sri Ramakrishna in Our Oriental Heritage, Vol. 1 of his monumental eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization.

The Hindu has found little comfort in any alien faith; and the figures that have most inspired his religious consciousness in the nineteenth century were those that rooted their doctrine and practice in the ancient creeds of people. Ramakrishna, a poor Brahmin of Bengal, became for a time a Christian, and felt the lure of Christ; he became at another time a Moslem, and joined in the austere ritual of Mohammedan prayer; but soon his pious heart brought him back to Hinduism . . . All religions are good, he taught his followers; each is a way to God, or a stage on the way, adapted to the mind and heart of the seeker. To be converted from one religion to another is foolishness; one need only continue his own way, and reach the essence of his own faith. "All rivers flow to the ocean. Flow and let others flow too!" He tolerated sympathetically the polytheism of the people, and accepted humbly the monism of the philosophers; but in his own living faith God was a spirit incarnated in all men, and the only true worship of God was the loving service of mankind. (- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. I, p. 616-17)

Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee (1889 - 1975), the noted British historian was Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History at the University of London (1919-24), Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1925-1955), in addition to serving as Research Professor of International History at the University of London. Author of many works, Toynbee is best known for his influential twelve-volume seriesA Study of Historypublished between 1934 - 61---a study of 26 civilizations in world history analyzing their genesis, growth and decay.

Sri Ramakrishna’s message was unique in being expressed in action. The message itself was the perennial message of Hinduism. As Swami Ghanananda points out, Hinduism is unique among the historic higher religions in holding that neither Hinduism nor any other religion is a unique representation of the truth or a unique way of salvation. In the Hindu view, each of the higher religions is a true vision and a right way, and all of them alike are indispensable to mankind, because each gives a different glimpse of the same truth, and each leads by a different route to the same goal of human endeavors. Each, therefore, has a special spiritual value of its own which is not to be found in any of the others.

To know this is good, but it is not enough. Religion is not just a matter for study; it is something that has to be experienced and to be lived, and this is the field in which Sri Ramakrishna manifested his uniqueness. He practiced successively almost every form of Indian religion and philosophy, and he went on to practice Islam and Christianity as well. His religious activity and experience were, in fact, comprehensive to a degree that had perhaps never before been attained by any other religious genius, in India or elsewhere. His devotion to God in the personal form of the Great Mother did not prevent him from attaining the state of "contentless consciousness"---an absolute union with absolute spiritual Reality.

Sri Ramakrishna made his appearance and delivered his message at the time and the place at which he and his message were needed. This message could hardly have been delivered by anyone who had not been brought up in the Hindu religious tradition. Sri Ramakrishna was born in Bengal in 1836. He was born into a world that, in his lifetime, was, for the first time, being united on a literally world-wide scale. Today we are still living in this transitional chapter of the world’s history, but it is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. In the present age, the world has been united on the material plane by Western technology. But this Western skill has not only "annihilated distance"; it has armed the peoples of the world with weapons of devastating power at a time when they have been brought to point-blank range of each other without yet having learnt to know and love each other. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is an Indian way. The Emperor Ashoka’s and the 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.

In the Atomic Age the whole human race has a utilitarian motive for following this Indian way. No utilitarian motive could be stronger or more respectable in itself. The survival of the human race is at stake. Yet even the strongest and most respectable utilitarian motive is only a secondary reason for taking Ramakrishna’s and Gandhi’s and Ashoka’s teaching to heart and acting on it. The primary reason is that this teaching is right---and is right because it flows from a true vision of spiritual reality. (- Arnold Toynbee in his Foreword to Swami Ghanananda, Sri Ramakrishna and His Unique Message, 3rd ed., (London, 1970), vii-ix)

Truth is one, but there are many approaches to it. These different views do not conflict; they supplement each other. This recognition of the many-sidedness of religious insight and experience was part of Sri Ramakrishna’s message. It was also part of his life, because---if I am right---his life and his message cannot be distinguished from each other. He gave his message by living as he did . . . Sri Ramakrishna’s action was communion with God. It drew to him people of all ages, and a group of his younger disciples, headed by Swami Vivekananda . . . If I am right, Sri Ramakrishna himself did not found his order in any formal way. You might say that it founded itself after his death through the continuing effect of his life in disciples who had lived with him during his later years. (- Arnold Toynbee in a talk, Sri Ramakrishna and World Harmony (reprinted from The Vedanta for the East, May-June 1959 )

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) English novelist, essayist, and critic, is best known for his novel Brave New World, which is one of the classical works of science fiction. Officially declared himself as an agnostic, Huxley showed interest in Indian philosophy. His work, The Perennial Philosophy, which was acclaimed as "the masterpiece of all anthologies" by New York Times, contains many quotations from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-gita and from the works of Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, and Islamic philosophers and mystics. The following excerpt is from his Foreword to Swami Nikhilananda's translation of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

. . ."M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate details . . . To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian . . .What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. (- Aldous Huxley, in his Foreword to Swami Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, pp. v-vi)

Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood (1904 - 1986) British-American novelist and playwright is best known for his stories about Berlin in the early 1930s. His novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939), considered among the most significant political novel of the 20th century, later inspired the world famous musical, Cabaret. A Vedantist, a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda, and a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, Isherwood translated with his guru from Sanskrit The Song of God: Bhagavad-Gita, How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, and Crest-Jewel of Discrimination: Viveka-Chudamani. His own works on Vedanta and Ramakrishna include Vedanta for the Western World, ed. (1944), Vedanta for Modern World, ed. (1951), a biography Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965), and My Guru and His Disciples (1980)

This is the story of a phenomenon.

I will begin by calling him simply that, rather than 'holy man', 'mystic', 'saint', or avatara; all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others.

A phenomenon is often something extraordinary and mysterious. Ramakrishna was extraordinary and mysterious; most of all to those who were best fitted to understand him. A phenomenon is always a fact, an object of experience. That is how I shall try to approach Ramakrishna . . .

As for myself, it would be dishonest to pretend I am addressing you [readers] as an impartial biographer. I myself am a devotee of Ramakrishna; I belive, or am at least strongly inclined to believe, that he was what his disciples declared that he was; an incarnation of God upon earth.
(- Christopher Isherwood, Ramakrishna and his Disciples, pp. 1-2)

[Sri Ramakrishna is] Vedanta’s greatest human exemplar. (- Christopher Isherwood, in his Introduction to Vedanta for the Western World, p. 15)

Ramakrishna certainly never intended that all his Western followers should be turned into synthetic Hindus. Just as Jesus, through the ages, has lost much of his Jewish character, so the figure of Ramakrishna will gradually become less and less specifically Indian. . . Ramakrishna's gift to the West is the Vedanta philosophy which he restated and practically demonstrated in his own life. (- Christopher Isherwood, in his Introduction to Vedanta for the Modern Man, pp. 11-12)

Nicholai Roerich

In the diary of one of Russia’s foremost artists, Nicholai Roerich (1874 - 1947), there is a spontaneous, moving recollection of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda that he experienced while traveling in the Mongolian desert. Returning to base camp from the stony hills of Shiret Obo one day, he was struck by a compelling sight: in the vast desert expanse he found a towering elm tree and its broad shadow spread out on the sand. Approaching it, he looked up and saw traces of myriad birds and creatures that harbored high in its leaves and branches; in the sand beneath, patterns of larger mammals passing by its redeeming shade could be seen. Marveling at the sight, Roerich’s memory was stirred, and his mind . . .

. . . vividly turned to the shadow of the banyan [the Panchavati under which Sri Ramakrishna meditated and achieved samadhi]. The mighty branches reminded us of other great achievements of India. What a joy to think of India! Thoughts turned to the radiant giant of India---Sri Ramakrishna. . .there remains over the whole world the one great name---Ramakrishna. The personal name has already changed into a great all-national, universal concept . . . in various countries has grown the understanding of the radiant Teaching of Ramakrishna. Beyond shameful words of hatred, beyond evil mutual destruction---the word of Bliss, which is close to every human heart, spreads widely like the mighty branches of the sacred banyan tree. On the paths of human searching, these calls of goodwill were shining like beacons. We ourselves witnessed and have often heard how books of Ramakrishna’s teaching were as if unexpectedly found by sincere seekers. We ourselves came across the book in a most unusual way.

Great power is contained in a united benevolent thought. Humanity should value such sublime manifestations, which are the cause of all these unifying and constructive thoughts . . . The names of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and the glorious host of their followers remain on the most remarkable pages of the history of the spiritual culture of India . . . Many millenniums ago the words of Wisdom were already recorded in India. And how many more millenniums were they preserved even before, in verbal transmission. And in this sacred mouth-to-ear transmission they were kept perhaps even safer than on written records.

Service to humanity---great is this ordainment of Ramakrishna! (- Nicholai Roerich)

William Digby

William Digby (1849-1904), the well-known economist, author of Prosperous British India, a member of Parliament and editor of the Madras Times, subsequently printed a memorable statement about Ramakrishna that he got from Max Müler’s book, Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings. Comparing Robert Browning and John Ruskin to Ramakrishna, Digby wrote that:

they are gropers in the dark compared with the uncultured and illiterate Ramakrishna of Bengal who, knowing naught of what we term "learning," spoke as no other men of his age spoke and revealed God to weary mortals. (- William Digby, cit. from R. K. Das Gupta, Sri Ramakrishna’s Religion, p. 116)

Albin R. Gilbert

It seems to me that very few spiritual leaders have soared so far beyond the culture into which they had been born as Sri Ramakrishna did. He is like a singular mountain peak towering over smaller summits, and overlooking reaches which are beyond the horizon from lesser heights.
(- Albin R. Gilbert, cit. from Interreligious Dialogue, Prabuddha Bharata, Feb. 2001, p. 126)

Sylvain Lévi

As Ramakrishna’s heart and mind were for all countries, his name too is a common property of mankind. (- Sylvain Lévi, cit. from The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. II, p. 539 )

P.J. Saher

Then Sri Ramakrishna, the greatest spiritual genius born in India since Gautama Buddha, mastered the method of bhakti and at once succeeded with that of jnana. Moreover, he was able to explain philosophically the inner workings of this oft-predicted, but seldom observed, success. (- P. J. Saher, Eastern Wisdom and Western Thought, p. 231)

Eugene Wigner

The waves of religious thought rise and fall, and on the topmost one stands the prophet of the period. Ramakrishna came to teach the religion of today, constructive, not destructive. He had to go afresh to nature to ask for facts, and he got scientific religion which never says "believe," but "see."  "I see and you too, can see"---said Vivekananda.

Until not many years ago, the existence of a mind or soul would have been passionately denied by most physical scientists. The brilliant success of mechanistic and, more generally, macroscopic physics, and of chemistry, overshadowed the obvious fact that thoughts, desires, and emotions are not made of matter and it was nearly universally accepted among physical scientists that there is nothing besides matter. (- Eugene Wigner, Physicist )

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