# Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality  ## Metadata - Author: [[Ayon Maharaj]] - Full Title: Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality - Category: #books ## Highlights - While perennialists such as Walter Stace and Evelyn Underhill maintain that mystical experiences are the same across cultures, constructivists such as Steven Katz and Hick claim that a mystic’s cultural conditioning plays a major role in shaping his or her mystical experiences. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=300)) - According to Sri Ramakrishna, God permits evil “in order to create saints” (K 37 / G 98). On the basis of such teachings, I reconstruct what I call Sri Ramakrishna’s “saint-making” theodicy: since God has created this world as an environment for saint-making, evil is as necessary as good. Through the experience of good and evil in the course of many lives, we gradually learn to combat our own evil tendencies and cultivate ethical and spiritual virtues that bring us closer to the goal of eternal salvation that awaits us all. ([Location 331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=331)) ## New highlights added July 4, 2023 at 7:21 AM - Interpretive Principle 4 (IP4): Sri Ramakrishna’s nonsectarian attitude allows him to accept the spiritual core of various philosophical sects without subscribing to all the doctrines of any sect in particular. ([Location 641](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=641)) - is called by various names such as “Śiva,” “Kālī,” and “Kṛṣṇa” (K 422 / G 423).33 Following Advaita Vedānta, Sri Ramakrishna conceives the “eternal” (nitya) aspect of the Infinite Reality as the Advaitic nirguṇa Brahman, which is realized in the state of nirvikalpa samādhi.34 However, he rejects the Advaitic doctrine that the universe, living beings, and the personal God are not ultimately real.35 Following Viśiṣṭādvaita, he accepts the reality of God’s “līlā,” God’s sportive manifestation as the individual soul and the universe. However, while Rāmānuja conceives the Supreme Reality as only personal (saguṇa), Sri Ramakrishna teaches that the Supreme Reality is both personal (saguṇa) and impersonal (nirguṇa). ([Location 677](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=677)) - Although he almost never refers to “bhāvamukha” in the Kathāmṛta, he refers repeatedly to the spiritual state of “vijñāna,” which—as we will see shortly—is a synonym for bhāvamukha. ([Location 709](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=709)) - Sri Ramakrishna distinguishes two categories of people: while “jīvakoṭis” are “ordinary people” (sādhāran lok), “īśvarakoṭis” belong to a spiritual elite consisting only in “Incarnations of God and those born as a part of one of these Incarnations” (avatār vā avatārer aṃśa) (K ([Location 721](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=721)) - God retains in them the “ego of Knowledge” [vidyār āmi] or the “ego of Devotion” [bhakter āmi] so that they may teach people. ([Location 730](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=730)) - The vijñānī, however, goes beyond even brahmajñāna by attaining the more expansive realization that Brahman “has become the universe and its living beings.”40 As Sri Ramakrishna puts it elsewhere, while the jñānī dismisses the universe as a “framework of illusion” (dhokār ṭāṭī), the vijñānī embraces the universe as a “mansion of mirth” (majār kuṭi) (K 479 / G 478). The Advaitic jñānī realizes that nirguṇa Brahman alone is real, while the vijñānī attains the greater realization that the “Reality which is nirguṇa is also saguṇa.” ([Location 753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=753)) - “A learned ignorance is the end of philosophy and the beginning of religion.” ([Location 803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=803)) - According to Sri Ramakrishna, since we cannot rationally comprehend how God can be both nirguṇa and saguṇa or how the nitya and the līlā can be complementary aspects of the same Reality, we should have faith in the testimony of “great souls” who have directly confirmed these spiritual truths through suprarational realization. ([Location 829](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=829)) - Vijñāna Vedānta 3 (VV3): The Infinite Divine Reality is both personal and impersonal, both with and without form, both immanent in the universe and beyond it, and much more besides. ([Location 851](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=851)) - Brahman dwells in all beings as the Vibhū, the all-pervasive Consciousness. ([Location 928](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=928)) - Vijñāna Vedānta 4 (VV4): There are two levels of Advaitic realization: while the jñānī realizes the acosmic nondual reality of nirguṇa Brahman in nirvikalpa samādhi, the vijñānī returns from the state of nirvikalpa samādhi and attains the richer, world-affirming nondual realization that God has become everything. ([Location 967](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=967)) - Caitanya [Consciousness] is awakened after advaitajñāna [knowledge of Advaita]. Then one perceives that God alone exists in all beings as Consciousness. After this realization comes Ānanda [Bliss]. Advaita, Caitanya, Nityānanda. ([Location 984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=984)) - Vijñāna Vedānta 5 (VV5): The vijñānī, who accepts the reality of both the nitya and the līlā, is able to adopt various attitudes toward—and attain various forms of union with—God on different planes of consciousness, all of which are true. ([Location 1026](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1026)) - Note: Lila sporting - He then explains that the vijñānī is able to enjoy various relationships with God: “Why should I produce only a monotone when I have an instrument with seven holes? Why should I say nothing but, ‘I am He, I am He’? I want to play various melodies on my instrument with seven holes. Why should I say only, ‘Brahman! Brahman!’? I want to call on God through all the moods—through śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, and madhura. I want to make merry with God. I want to sport with God” ([Location 1053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1053)) - There are numerous scriptural sources for Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings on religious pluralism. Sri Ramakrishna’s idea that all religions and spiritual philosophies concern one and the same God, but in different forms and called by different names, can be traced as far back to the well-known statement from Ṛg Veda 1.64.46, “ekaṃ sad viprā bahudhā vadanti” (“The Reality is one; sages speak of It variously”). ([Location 1132](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1132)) - In Hacker’s view, Neo-Hindus mistakenly clothe what are essentially Western values and ideals in superficially Indian garb in order to promote Indian nationalism. ([Location 1167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1167)) - From the standpoint of vijñāna, God actually manifests in the form of human beings, so one serves God by serving others. ([Location 1208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1208)) - People must first fully believe and be convinced that God has manifested Himself before them as the world and its creatures [īśvarī jīva o jagat rūpe tāhār sammukhe prakāśita rohiyāchen]. . . . If people consider everyone to be God, how can they consider themselves to be superior to others and harbor attachment, hatred, arrogance—or even compassion [dayā]—toward them? Their minds will become pure as they serve all beings as God, and soon they will experience themselves as parts of the blissful God. They will realize that their true nature is pure, illumined, and free. (LP ([Location 1213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1213)) - According to Göcke, God is infinite in the sense that He is paraconsistent and, therefore, not subject to the law of contradiction. ([Location 1570](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1570)) ## New highlights added July 6, 2023 at 11:24 AM - If it be the knower, It becomes delimited by the knowable and the knowledge, and hence there cannot be infinitude . . . .”13 Taking the word “anantam” to signify nonduality, Śaṅkara argues that Brahman therefore cannot be the knower, since the very distinction between knower and known implies subject-object duality. For Śaṅkara, then, Brahman is infinite in the sense of being impersonal nondual Consciousness.14 In his final interpretive move, Śaṅkara reiterates that Brahman is the nondual Reality “devoid of all distinctions,” ([Location 1604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1604)) - God’s nature to what we can grasp of Him. As a mystic, Sri Ramakrishna breaks outside the confines of the finite intellect by ascending to the level of suprarational spiritual experience. From the standpoint of vijñāna, he maintains that God’s infinite nature is best understood in terms of a both-and paradigm rather than an either-or paradigm. As he puts it, “That Reality which is the nitya is also the līlā. . . . [E]verything is possible for God. He is formless, and again He assumes forms. He is the individual and He is the universe. He is Brahman, and He is Śakti. There is no limit—no end—to God [tāhār iti nāi,—śeṣ nāi]. Nothing is impossible for Him” (K 997 / G 920). Sri Ramakrishna’s gloss of the word iti as śeṣ (“end”) reflects the ontological dimension of God’s infinitude: God has no iti in the sense that God’s nature has no limit or end. ([Location 1727](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1727)) - Cusa claimed that during a sea voyage in late 1437, he had mystical experiences which led him to adopt an attitude of “learned ignorance” (docta ignorantia), the humble recognition that finite human reason can never understand the Infinite God.51 ([Location 1814](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1814)) - From this epistemic standpoint of learned ignorance, Cusa boldly declares that the Infinite God is “that Simplicity wherein contradictories coincide [ubi contradictoria coincidunt].” ([Location 1816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1816)) - Just as Cusa champions a “learned ignorance,” Sri Ramakrishna—as we saw in the previous chapter—enthusiastically endorses William Hamilton’s statement that “a learned ignorance is the end of philosophy and the beginning of religion” ([Location 1830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1830)) - if God is truly paraconsistent, then He must be both the ultimate ground of the universe and the transcendent nondual Brahman beyond the universe. ([Location 1946](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1946)) - For us moderns, the most common—and dangerous—form of idolatry is not the material depiction of God in wood or stone but the conceptual representation of God, the tendency to “fix the divine in a specific concept.”88 As Marion puts it, “When a philosophical thought expresses a concept of what it then names ‘God,’ this concept functions exactly as an idol.”89 Marion draws on Heidegger in order to clarify the dynamics of conceptual idolatry. According to Heidegger, philosophers since Descartes have defined God reductively as the causa sui (“self-cause”), the foundation of all that exists: “Man can neither pray nor sacrifice to this God. ([Location 1978](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=1978)) - or manifestation of God would be finite and thereby contradict God’s infinitude. Sri Ramakrishna counters Narendra’s assumption with a more expansive conception of God’s infinitude: if God is truly infinite, then we must accept the possibility that God is capable of manifesting in various forms, even if we are unable to understand how the Infinite can reveal Himself in the finite. In Marion’s terms, we can say that Sri Ramakrishna wields the conceptual icon of divine infinitude in order to combat the conceptual idolatry of those who insist that God can only be formless. ([Location 2049](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2049)) - Sri Ramakrishna’s sophisticated strategy for countering conceptual idolatry is brought out in the following dialogue: A BRĀHMO DEVOTEE: “Is God with or without form?” MASTER: “No one can put an iti to God; He is formless, yet He also has forms. For the bhakta, God assumes forms. But God is formless for the jñānī, who looks on the world as a mere dream. . . . Do you know what I mean? Think of the Divine Saccidānanda as an infinite ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta’s love, the water freezes at places into ice formations. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His bhaktas and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of Knowledge, the formations of ice melt. Then one doesn’t feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God’s forms.” (K 99 / G 148) ([Location 2080](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2080)) - On the basis of his own spiritual experiences, Sri Ramakrishna declared that the highest form of bhakti is “prema,” the ecstatic love of God: “But prema is an extremely rare thing. Caitanya had that love. When one has prema one forgets all outer things. One forgets the world. One even forgets one’s own body, which is so dear to man” (K 301 / G 315). In fact, he would frequently affirm that the goal of human life is to experience the bliss of God’s Love: The whole thing is to love God and taste His sweetness [mādhurya]. God is sweetness [rasa] and the bhakta is its enjoyer [rasik]. The bhakta drinks the sweet Bliss of God. Further, God is the lotus and the bhakta the bee. The bhakta sips the honey of the lotus. As a bhakta cannot live without God, so also God cannot live without His bhakta. Then the bhakta becomes the sweetness, and God its enjoyer. The bhakta becomes the lotus, and God the bee. It is the Godhead that has become these two in order to enjoy Its own Bliss [tini nijer mādhurya āsvādan karbār jonno duṭi hoyechen]. That is the significance of the episode of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. (K 288 / G 305) ([Location 2141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2141)) ## New highlights added July 11, 2023 at 7:41 AM - There are two kinds of Yoga: haṭhayoga and rājayoga. The haṭhayogī practises physical exercises. His goal is to acquire supernatural powers: longevity and the eight psychic powers. These are his aims. But the aim of rājayoga is the attainment of devotion, ecstatic love, knowledge, and dispassion. Of these two, rājayoga is the better. (K 214 / G 244–45) ([Location 2674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2674)) - ideally broad-minded spiritual aspirant who deepens and enriches her own conception of God by actively learning from a variety of religious standpoints. Instead of limiting God only to one particular aspect or form, this rare spiritual aspirant thinks of God as the Infinite Divine Reality that has innumerable forms and aspects. ([Location 2733](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2733)) ## New highlights added July 13, 2023 at 7:24 AM - I will employ Hick’s helpful classification of three fundamental types of conflicting religious truth-claims.31 First, there are disagreements about past historical events “that are in principle accessible to human observation.”32 Second, there are disagreements about “transhistorical” matters—such as reincarnation and the possibility of God incarnating as a human being—which cannot be verified “by historical or other empirical evidence.”33 Third, there are disagreements about “ultimate questions,” such as the nature of the ultimate reality.34 ([Location 2756](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2756)) - one finds the truth-claims of a particular religion especially convincing or appealing, then one can realize God by practicing that religion, but one should never assume that other religions are not salvifically effective paths because their truth-claims differ from the truth-claims of one’s own religion. ([Location 2919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2919)) - Regarding the Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna observes: He was not an atheist. He simply could not express the Reality in words. Do you know what “Buddha” means? By meditating on one’s own bodha svarūpa [one’s true nature as Pure Consciousness], one becomes that bodha svarūpa. . . . Why should Buddha be called an atheist? When one realizes one’s svarūpa [the true nature of one’s Self], one attains a state that is something between asti [is] and nāsti [is-not]. (K 1028 / G 947– ([Location 2974](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=2974)) - According to Neufeldt, Sri Ramakrishna insists that all religions must accept the standpoint of vijñāna, the “belief-cum-experience that all is God.”58 All religions, as Neufeldt puts it, “must be informed by the belief that God is all, or all is God and must end in the direct vision or experience of this belief.”59 ([Location 3030](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3030)) - Sri Ramakrishna felt justified in going beyond a position of mere agnosticism about other religions to the full-blown pluralist view that all genuine religions are different salvifically efficacious paths to God. ([Location 3071](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3071)) - Almost daily, we hear of atrocities committed in the name of religion in various parts of the world. In such a contemporary climate, it is imperative that we work collectively toward developing a strong philosophical foundation for interreligious dialogue and understanding. ([Location 3075](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3075)) - all the major world religions are salvifically efficacious, since they are all equally capable of effecting the “transformation of human existence from self-centeredness to Reality-centredness.” ([Location 3256](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3256)) ## New highlights added July 20, 2023 at 6:52 AM - Hick claims that all the world religions are inclusivist at best and exclusivist at worst. ([Location 3656](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3656)) - From Hick’s perspective, even if Hinduism is wrong, say, in claiming that souls reincarnate or Christianity is wrong in claiming that Christ died on the Cross, the falsity of these truth-claims would not diminish the salvific efficacy of these religions. As Hick puts it, “Whilst holding any or none of these theories we may still participate in the transformation of human existence from self-centredness to Reality-centredness.” ([Location 3673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3673)) - According to Sri Ramakrishna, “reasoning stops altogether” in the Advaitic state of nirvikalpa samādhi (K 49–50 / G 103). Sri Ramakrishna is equally emphatic that the highest theistic mystical experiences are also direct and unmediated: “God reveals Himself to the bhakta as a Person” (K 99 ([Location 3744](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=3744)) - Jewish mystics, for instance, tend to describe the ultimate mystical experience as devekuth, an experience of “clinging” to God in which there remains a fundamental difference between the individual and God. ([Location 4146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4146)) - In particular, I argue that his mystical testimony provides strong evidence that (1) divine visions count as genuine mystical experiences, (2) theistic experiences are phenomenologically distinct from Advaitic experiences, (3) some mystical experiences have both theistic and Advaitic elements, and (4) theistic and Advaitic mystical experiences have equal salvific value. ([Location 4491](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4491)) - Later in his life, on the basis of his Advaitic experiences, Sri Ramakrishna frequently emphasized that the mind entirely ceases to operate in the Advaitic state of nirvikalpa samādhi: “the mind first becomes steady, then it disappears altogether [mon sthīr hoy, moner loy hoy] and the aspirant goes into [nirvikalpa] samādhi and attains brahmajñāna” (K 83 / ([Location 4655](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4655)) - Constructivists such as Katz and Hick have to deny the self-understanding of numerous mystics, such as Sri Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), who claim to have attained a nondual state beyond the reach of concepts. ([Location 4665](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4665)) - clarified his own state of vijñāna by appealing to the Vedic saptabhūmi (“seven-plane”) paradigm: “On reaching the seventh plane of consciousness, the mind goes into [nirvikalpa] samādhi. ([Location 4711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4711)) - Kabīr used to say, “The formless Absolute [nirākār] is my Father, and God with form [sākār] is my Mother.” ([Location 4769](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4769)) - When one realizes one’s svarūpa [the true nature of one’s Self], one attains a state that is something between asti [is] and nāsti [is-not]” (K 1028 / G 947–48). ([Location 4833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4833)) - According to Fenton, attempts to interpret the experiences of mystics in terms of a philosophia perennis suffer from two serious drawbacks: first, they fail to honor the diversity of mystical experiences across traditions, and second, they overlook the fact that mystics often derive conflicting theologies and philosophies on the basis of their respective mystical experiences. ([Location 4971](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=4971)) - According to Sri Ramakrishna, the highest theistic and Advaitic experiences are self-authenticating, while other experiences of God may or may not be self-authenticating. ([Location 5290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5290)) - one endowed with the eyes of faith may indeed see God’s handiwork “by looking at the universe.” ([Location 5347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5347)) - ray of light beamed forth from Her third eye! ([Location 5820](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5820)) - Sri Ramakrishna’s own saintliness in this regard is illustrated by a striking incident in which some prostitutes attempted to seduce him: “The Master told us that when he saw those women he saw only the Divine Mother; saying, ‘Mother, Mother,’ he lost external consciousness. . . . They [the prostitutes] felt guilty for attempting to break his continence and with tearful eyes begged his forgiveness” (LP I.ii.96 / DP 241). ([Location 5891](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5891)) - In other words, if we are truly in contact with God, then God’s goodness should rub off on us. ([Location 5913](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5913)) - According to Sri Ramakrishna, “One acquires the nature of whatever one thinks about intensely. If one thinks of God day and night, one will acquire the nature of God” (K 700 / G 657). ([Location 5915](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5915)) - Doubting the veridicality of his spiritual experiences, he asked her: “Mother, what are these things that keep happening to me? Am I mad, really? Have I truly developed this terrible disease by wholeheartedly calling on the Divine Mother?” She responded as follows: Who calls you mad, my son? This is not insanity. You have achieved mahābhāva [ecstatic love of God], and that is why you are having all these experiences. . . . Śrī Rādhā experienced this state and so did Śrī Caitanya. All this is recorded in the bhakti scriptures. I have all these books with me. I will read them to you and prove that whoever has sincerely yearned for God has experienced these states, and everyone doing so must pass through them. (LP I.ii.107–8 / DP 253–54) ([Location 5962](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=5962)) - inexhaustible plenitude.108 As we have seen in the previous chapters of this book, Sri Ramakrishna enjoyed numerous theistic experiences, including mystical union with the loving personal God as well as visions of Kālī, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Sītā, Caitanya, Śiva, and Christ. He also had the Advaitic experience of the impersonal Brahman in the exalted state of nirvikalpa samādhi. Unlike Advaita Vedāntins, however, Sri Ramakrishna did not infer from his Advaitic experience that his earlier theistic experiences were illusory or lower experiences. Moreover, he also had the unique theo-monistic experience of vijñāna, the spiritual realization that the Infinite Reality is at once the static impersonal Brahman and the dynamic Śakti which has become the entire universe. ([Location 6057](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6057)) - we saw in the previous chapter, Sri Ramakrishna taught that God is a “bhakta-vatsal” who reveals Himself to mystics in the form or aspect they love most (K 101 / G 149– ([Location 6068](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6068)) - From Sri Ramakrishna’s broader standpoint of vijñāna, the mistake that these mystics make is to limit God to what they have experienced of Him. ([Location 6080](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6080)) - will reconstruct the three basic dimensions of Sri Ramakrishna’s response: first, a skeptical theist refutation of evidential arguments from evil; second, what I call a “saint-making” theodicy; third, a mystical theodicy based on the panentheistic standpoint of vijñāna. ([Location 6402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6402)) - Since God has created this world as an environment for saint-making, evil is as necessary to the world as good. Through the experience of good and evil, we gradually learn to combat our own evil tendencies and cultivate ethical and spiritual virtues that bring us closer to God. ([Location 6421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6421)) - SRI RAMAKRISHNA: “Is it possible to understand God’s actions and Her motives for acting? [īśvarer kārya ki bojhā jāi, tini ki uddeśye ki karen?] She creates, She preserves, and She destroys. Can we ever understand why She destroys? I say to the Divine Mother: ‘O Mother, I do not need to understand. Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet.’ The aim of human life is to attain bhakti. As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number of trees, branches, and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don’t need to know the number of trees and leaves.” (K 127 / G 160–61) ([Location 6534](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6534)) - After enduring great suffering in this ephemeral life, the transmigrating soul may go to a higher realm and experience a heavenly bliss that compensates it for its previous earthly miseries. Sri Ramakrishna encourages us to take the long view and to see life on earth—with all its joys and sorrows—as but a brief sojourn in the soul’s journey toward God. Third, he indicates that the infinite good of spiritual salvation—the “Knowledge of the Ātman”—outweighs all the finite suffering of this life. As he puts it, “It is like the birth of the child after the pain of delivery.” Sri Ramakrishna here hints at the doctrine of universal salvation which he explicitly endorses at numerous places in the Kathāmṛta: since every one of us will eventually attain the salvific knowledge of the Ātman, we can take solace in the fact that the ephemeral suffering of this life pales in comparison to the infinite good of salvation that awaits us all. ([Location 6642](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6642)) - BRĀHMO: “If ignorance [avidyā] is the cause of spiritual unconsciousness [ajñāna], then why has God created ignorance [avidyā]?” SRI RAMAKRISHNA: “That is God’s līlā. The glory of light cannot be appreciated without darkness. Happiness cannot be understood without misery. Knowledge of good is possible because of knowledge of evil. Further, the mango grows and ripens on account of the covering skin. You throw away the skin when the mango is fully ripe and ready to be eaten. It is possible for one to attain gradually to the Knowledge of Brahman because of the covering skin of māyā. Vidyā-māyā and avidyā-māyā are like the skin of the mango. Both are necessary.” (K 180 / G 216) ([Location 6686](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6686)) - In stark contrast to Rāmānuja, Sri Ramakrishna maintains that God has included evil and suffering in Her world-līlā precisely in order to benefit Her creatures spiritually. From Sri Ramakrishna’s perspective, we would not have been able to develop spiritually if this world were devoid of evil. ([Location 6718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6718)) - In the passage cited above, Sri Ramakrishna mentions three “rules” in particular—the law of karma, the doctrine of rebirth, and the doctrine of universal salvation—each of which plays an important role in his saint-making theodicy. ([Location 6759](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6759)) - “A man becomes a jīvanmukta when he knows that God is the Doer of all things. . . . Where is man’s free will? All are under the Will of God” (K 126 / G 159). ([Location 6902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6902)) ## New highlights added July 23, 2023 at 4:53 PM - It is God alone who does everything. You may say that in that case people may commit sin. But that is not true. If one truly realizes, “God alone is the Doer, and I am the non-doer,” then he will never make a false step. (K 376 / G 379–80) ([Location 6915](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6915)) ## New highlights added July 24, 2023 at 4:53 AM - You will realize it when you have Perfect Knowledge [pūrṇa jñāna]. ([Location 6955](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6955)) - As a vijñānī, Sri Ramakrishna affirms that God Herself sports in the form of the various jīvas, so all the suffering endured by jīvas is actually God’s own playfully self-inflicted “suffering.” ([Location 6995](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=6995)) - is God Herself who has become both vidyā [knowledge] and avidyā [ignorance]. She remains deluded by avidyā-māyā. Again, with the help of the guru, She is cured by vidyā-māyā. ([Location 7002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=7002)) - One day the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] saw a butterfly flying towards him with a tiny stick in its tail. At first he was pained by the thought that some naughty boy had done this. But in the next moment he said in ecstasy, “O Rāma, you have created your own distress!,” and then burst into laughter. (LP I.ii.177–78 / DP 320) ([Location 7014](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=7014)) - Sri Ramakrishna’s saint-making theodicy, which holds that the persistent struggle to overcome one’s own evil passions is a necessary precondition for the attainment of saintliness. ([Location 7124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=7124)) - “One is aware of pleasure and pain, birth and death, disease and grief, as long as one is identified with the body. All these belong to the body alone, and not to the Ātman. . . . Attaining Knowledge of the Ātman, one looks on pleasure and pain, birth and death, as a dream” ([Location 7168](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J1S5VMN&location=7168))