God, The Pure Spirit

Sri Ramakrishna

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 16:11

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great master was the one who revived the belief in idol worship when it was dwindling with people embracing Christianity and atheism. His life itself affirms the belief in idol worship that was beginning to be abandoned at that particular point of time. His unparalleled devotion to Goddess Kali was reciprocated by the Divine Mother. However needless to say that the Master also realised God as the formless and attribute-less Brahman, the pure spirit at the culmination of formal worship. He abided in that state until He shed His mortal coil.

It is said that when Sri Ramakrishna was seized with the desire to see Mother Kali, whom He worshipped her devoutly by the way of an idol, the mother did manifest herself as a bright sea of light engulfing Him. He describes the incredible experience thus : "houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether; as if there was nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless sea of light; a sea that was consciousness. However, far and in whatever direction I looked, I saw shining waves, one after another, coming towards me." He was then later initiated into Sannyasa by Totapuri who instructed Him in Advaita Vedanta or the non-dual reality.

Sri Ramakrishna claims that all doubts regarding the divine are dispelled when one comes face to face with God, the bare reality. It is also only then, formal worship ceases with the recognition of everything as God. All of a sudden it was revealed to Him that everything was divine, the pure spirit, the utensils of worship, the altar, the door frame, everything was pure spirit. The master says like a mad man he started strewing flowers on everything that he saw. Whatever He saw He worshipped.

The pure spirit, the underlying essence of all that is manifested, the one and only reality.

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