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Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion
Sri Ramakrishna is widely known as a nineteenth-century Indian mystic who affirmed the harmony of all religions on the basis of his richly varied spiritual experiences and eclectic religious practices, both Hindu and non-Hindu. In Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality , Ayon Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna was also a sophisticated philosopher of great contemporary relevance.
Through a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna's recorded oral teachings in the original Bengali, Maharaj reconstructs his philosophical positions and analyzes them from a cross-cultural perspective. Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual journey culminated in the exalted state of " vijñana , " his term for the "intimate knowledge" of God as the Infinite Reality that is both personal and impersonal, with and without form, immanent in the universe and beyond it. This expansive spiritual standpoint of vijñana , Maharaj contends, opens up a new paradigm for addressing central issues in cross-cultural philosophy of religion, including divine infinitude, religious pluralism, mystical experience, and the problem of evil.
Sri Ramakrishna's vijñana -based religious pluralism--when grasped in all its subtlety--proves to have major philosophical advantages over dominant Western models. Moreover, his mystical testimony and teachings not only cut across long-standing debates about the nature of mystical experience but also bolster recent defenses of its epistemic value. Maharaj further demonstrates that Sri Ramakrishna's unique response to the problem of evil resonates strongly with Western "soul-making" theodicies and contemporary theories of skeptical theism. A pioneering interdisciplinary study of one of India's most important philosopher-mystics, Maharaj's book is essential reading for scholars and students in philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and Hindu studies.
Through a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna's recorded oral teachings in the original Bengali, Maharaj reconstructs his philosophical positions and analyzes them from a cross-cultural perspective. Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual journey culminated in the exalted state of " vijñana , " his term for the "intimate knowledge" of God as the Infinite Reality that is both personal and impersonal, with and without form, immanent in the universe and beyond it. This expansive spiritual standpoint of vijñana , Maharaj contends, opens up a new paradigm for addressing central issues in cross-cultural philosophy of religion, including divine infinitude, religious pluralism, mystical experience, and the problem of evil.
Sri Ramakrishna's vijñana -based religious pluralism--when grasped in all its subtlety--proves to have major philosophical advantages over dominant Western models. Moreover, his mystical testimony and teachings not only cut across long-standing debates about the nature of mystical experience but also bolster recent defenses of its epistemic value. Maharaj further demonstrates that Sri Ramakrishna's unique response to the problem of evil resonates strongly with Western "soul-making" theodicies and contemporary theories of skeptical theism. A pioneering interdisciplinary study of one of India's most important philosopher-mystics, Maharaj's book is essential reading for scholars and students in philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and Hindu studies.
370 pages, Hardcover
Published November 8, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 1, 2023
This is a fascinating attempt at bringing Sri Ramakrishna into conversation with contemporary philosophers of religion (a subset of philosophy in which I am deeply unexperienced). I think this is required reading for those (like me from a while back) who believed that Sri Ramakrishna was an unlearned mystic, and it was only his disciple Vivekananda who transformed Ramakrishna's mysticism into a coherent world philosophy. Instead, this book has made me increasingly interested in exploring Sri Ramakrishna beyond the shadow of his most famous disciple. I hope to read his Gospel sometime this year, and expand my spiritual gluttony.
July 8, 2023
One of the best books of religious philosophy I have read lately. Ramakrishna's pluralist perspective is much more constructive and appealing than Hick's. While I cannot say I agreed with every argument or opinion (particularly on the subjects of karma, rebirth, and theodicy) I nonetheless found the entire read lucid and well thought out. Highly recommended.
March 8, 2024
What are the chief reasons why Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy deserves a book-length treatment? The author points out 3 reasons:
1) His philosophical understandings, as inventive as they are cultured, constitute a significant—if neglected—chapter in the history
of Indian philosophical thought;
2) Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings influenced some of the most important figures in modern Indian thought, including Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Thus, a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy enriches our understanding of modern India’s complex intellectual landscape;
3) Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical positions resonate strongly with cutting-edge work in Western philosophy of religion, thereby inviting cross-cultural philosophical inquiry.
Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy carries deep implications for vast fields of philosophical inquiry, from metaphysical and epistemological analysis to psychological and moral science. His philosophical and practical approach employs a popular though conventional methodology highly significant even for the modern lifestyle and today’s society.
A broad assessment of Sri Ramakrishna’s preaching reveals the innermost facts of life to be finely in tune with the harmonies behind the whole universe, and to embrace the path to Peace for One and All in the great realization of the Divinity within.
The author of this book admits at the very outset that: His teachings on God and the universe, the meaning and purpose of human existence, and the various kinds of spiritual experience resonate with numerous Indian philosophical traditions, including Tantra, Advaita Vedānta, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, Dvaita Vedānta, and Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. Not unpredictably, it has proven very difficult to determine Sri Ramakrishna’s inclusive philosophical attitude.
Commentators from the late 19th century up to the present have adopted three main interpretive approaches to Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy:
1) To interpret Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views in terms of a particular philosophical sect,
2) To view Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views as unsystematic and even inconsistent,
3) To interpret Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy as a harmonizing, nonsectarian form of Vedānta, or “Integral Vedānta
The author of this book follows his own path. He says: ‘My aim, then, is not to compare Sri Ramakrishna with Western philosophers
but to shed new light on central problems in cross-cultural philosophy of religion by bringing Sri Ramakrishna into creative dialogue with recent Western thinkers. Along the way, I often draw comparisons between Sri Ramakrishna and numerous Western philosophers, but such comparisons are always in the service of cross-cultural philosophizing.’
The book has been divided into three broad sections:
Part 1: The Infinitude of God
Part 2: Religious Pluralism
Part 3: Mystical Experience
Section I discusses briefly how his upbringing, eclectic religious practices, and numerous spiritual experiences all contributed to his mature philosophical outlook.
Section II then addresses the important hermeneutic question of how to reconstruct accurately Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views on the basis of the Kathāmṛta, which contains dialogues in Bengali between Sri Ramakrishna and his visitors. The author delineates five basic interpretive principles that will govern his reconstructions of SriRamakrishna’s philosophical positions throughout this book.
With this hermeneutic groundwork in place, section III provides a detailed reconstruction of the six main tenets of Sri Ramakrishna’s nonsectarian philosophy of Vijñāna Vedānta.
We conclude with the thought that on the metaphysical plane, Sri Ramakrishna openly forges a path for the common person; he is well aware of the fact that this phenomenal world reveals its reality to normal people in terms of their knowledge and conduct restricted by the mind, sense organs, and their natural keenness for “Kāminī-Kāñcana” or physical pleasure.
Once people realize the pain behind the pleasure of flesh and blood, it is only then that they leave behind expectations for worldly pleasure and look for the eternal joy emerging out of pure love for Īśvara.
This journey of unadulterated adoration for the divine, has been noted as “Bhakti” or “Bhāva” or “Jñāna.” In the last resort, Divine Love is known as “Viśuddhā Bhakti” or “Mahābhāva” or “Premā” or “Vijñāna” (vide “Sri-Chaitanya-Bhagavata” ans “Naradiya-Bhaktisutra”). It is only in these two states that the Truth is shown.
Read this book. It will alter you.
1) His philosophical understandings, as inventive as they are cultured, constitute a significant—if neglected—chapter in the history
of Indian philosophical thought;
2) Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings influenced some of the most important figures in modern Indian thought, including Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Thus, a careful study of Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy enriches our understanding of modern India’s complex intellectual landscape;
3) Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical positions resonate strongly with cutting-edge work in Western philosophy of religion, thereby inviting cross-cultural philosophical inquiry.
Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy carries deep implications for vast fields of philosophical inquiry, from metaphysical and epistemological analysis to psychological and moral science. His philosophical and practical approach employs a popular though conventional methodology highly significant even for the modern lifestyle and today’s society.
A broad assessment of Sri Ramakrishna’s preaching reveals the innermost facts of life to be finely in tune with the harmonies behind the whole universe, and to embrace the path to Peace for One and All in the great realization of the Divinity within.
The author of this book admits at the very outset that: His teachings on God and the universe, the meaning and purpose of human existence, and the various kinds of spiritual experience resonate with numerous Indian philosophical traditions, including Tantra, Advaita Vedānta, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, Dvaita Vedānta, and Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. Not unpredictably, it has proven very difficult to determine Sri Ramakrishna’s inclusive philosophical attitude.
Commentators from the late 19th century up to the present have adopted three main interpretive approaches to Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy:
1) To interpret Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views in terms of a particular philosophical sect,
2) To view Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views as unsystematic and even inconsistent,
3) To interpret Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy as a harmonizing, nonsectarian form of Vedānta, or “Integral Vedānta
The author of this book follows his own path. He says: ‘My aim, then, is not to compare Sri Ramakrishna with Western philosophers
but to shed new light on central problems in cross-cultural philosophy of religion by bringing Sri Ramakrishna into creative dialogue with recent Western thinkers. Along the way, I often draw comparisons between Sri Ramakrishna and numerous Western philosophers, but such comparisons are always in the service of cross-cultural philosophizing.’
The book has been divided into three broad sections:
Part 1: The Infinitude of God
Part 2: Religious Pluralism
Part 3: Mystical Experience
Section I discusses briefly how his upbringing, eclectic religious practices, and numerous spiritual experiences all contributed to his mature philosophical outlook.
Section II then addresses the important hermeneutic question of how to reconstruct accurately Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophical views on the basis of the Kathāmṛta, which contains dialogues in Bengali between Sri Ramakrishna and his visitors. The author delineates five basic interpretive principles that will govern his reconstructions of SriRamakrishna’s philosophical positions throughout this book.
With this hermeneutic groundwork in place, section III provides a detailed reconstruction of the six main tenets of Sri Ramakrishna’s nonsectarian philosophy of Vijñāna Vedānta.
We conclude with the thought that on the metaphysical plane, Sri Ramakrishna openly forges a path for the common person; he is well aware of the fact that this phenomenal world reveals its reality to normal people in terms of their knowledge and conduct restricted by the mind, sense organs, and their natural keenness for “Kāminī-Kāñcana” or physical pleasure.
Once people realize the pain behind the pleasure of flesh and blood, it is only then that they leave behind expectations for worldly pleasure and look for the eternal joy emerging out of pure love for Īśvara.
This journey of unadulterated adoration for the divine, has been noted as “Bhakti” or “Bhāva” or “Jñāna.” In the last resort, Divine Love is known as “Viśuddhā Bhakti” or “Mahābhāva” or “Premā” or “Vijñāna” (vide “Sri-Chaitanya-Bhagavata” ans “Naradiya-Bhaktisutra”). It is only in these two states that the Truth is shown.
Read this book. It will alter you.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews