|
Sri
Ramakrishna and Christianity
May 09, 2010
- Swami
Yogatmananda
Please
click the 'Play' Button to start.
It may take a minute.
Launch
in external player
To download
the lecture, please right-click here
and then click "Save Target As..."
To
Order Audio/ Video CDs : bookstore@vedantaprov.org
List
of Audio/ Video CDs, DVDs
| 
|
Summary of this Lecture:
Although Sri Ramakrishna did not have any direct connection with Christianity,
he did have a very deep experience of union with Jesus Christ. He described
Jesus as the Master Yogi and the Love Incarnate. 'M', the chronicler of
the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna describes this incident as the 'Son of Man'
embraced the 'Son of Divine Mother'. There are many similarities between
the life of Sri Ramakrishna and that of Jesus, such as social circumstances
and family condition at the time of their birth; both were austere and sincere;
practiced and upheld renunciation of lust and greed in high esteem for divine
realization; both were seen to be transfigured at several occasions; both
had intense love and devotion for God; both were accepted as divine incarnations
during their lifetime; both showered their mercy on poor and fallen. Spiritual
instructions given by both of them are very similar. The Father in heaven
of Christians is very similar to the 'Brahman' or 'God without form' of
Hindus; and the concept of 'Christ' is similar to the concept of 'Isvara'
or 'God with form' of Hindus. Christians believe that the Creation took
place at one moment and was in a pristine form; due to sin, it has fallen
away and our work is to return to that pure state; whereas Hindus think
of Creation in a cyclic form and believe that liberation comes to a person
when all the Karmas acquired by the person are exhausted. So these are two
different concepts of going back to the original state. In Christian theology,
Christ is a spiritual entity active throughout the world. Both Hindus and
Christians accept the One spirit of God and believe that at the beginning
of the time the same Truth manifested differently. Christ and Sri Ramakrishna
both identified themselves with God, as Christ says - Father and 'I' are
one and Sri Ramakrishna says - Mother and 'I' are one. God's knowledge comes
only from God and both of them distributed this knowledge freely through
out their life. Christ taught that Kingdom of God is within you. St. Paul
says that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we are the part of the
physical and mystical body of the Christ. Christ taught that this world
is not true; the real treasure is within our spirit. The Ramakrishna movement
began on the Christmas Eve when Swami Vivekananda and his brother disciples
took the vow of renunciation and service of the humanity.
|
Building Extension: Our Earnest
Appeal