The Ramakrishna Order is a catch-all term which encompasses the twin organizations of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. The Math is the organization pertaining to monasticism while the Mission forms the core of this extraordinarily powerful spiritual movement. Together they are headquartered in Belur Math which is just outside the city of Kolkata, India.

Some people have described the Ramakrishna movement as a subset of Hinduism, but it is important to remember that Hinduism is not a single religion in and of itself but rather a term which includes hundreds, if not thousands of individual religions and sects which share a common heritage much like how Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a common Abrahamic heritage. Furthermore, while a debated topic, the Ramakrishna Movement in the 1980’s applied for minority status which it gained through the Kolkata High Court, but was refused by the Indian Supreme Court. Nonetheless, it shows that while still founded in the greater context of Hinduism, it does differ in some tremendous ways.

The Ramakrishna Movement is named after its founder, the great Bengali saint, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was born Gadadhar Chatterji in 1836. The term Sri is a honourific marker denoting a great respect. Rama and Krishna of “Ramakrishna” refer to two of the most important avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu. Finally paramahamsa is a term used across India to refer to a magnificent spiritual teacher who is said to have achieved enlightenment.

Ramakrishna was born to the Brahmin caste which is the highest caste in the Vedic varna system. The caste system is as follows: the Brahmin are the priestly caste and hold immense power both temporally and spiritually; the Kshatriya or authority caste constitute the military and ruling elite; the Vaishya which is the caste containing the agricultural folk as well as eventual traders, and landowners; the Shudra who can best be described as those that serve the other classes; and finally the Untouchables which was a later addition to the caste system which comprised the lowest of the low, those who were destined to do the work that no one else would, such as dealing with trash and blood. It is important to note that only the first three castes were permitted to study religion and spirituality because of their supposed “Twice-born” status.

What makes Sri Ramakrishna so special is that despite his status as a Brahmin he never relented teaching spirituality and God-consciousness to everyone, and encouraged people of all backgrounds to find God, not just the higher castes.

The key teaching of Sri Ramakrishna can be summarized as follows: that there is one Ultimate Reality or Brahman and that all religious teachings, spiritualities, et cetera lead to this same reality. He understood this because throughout his life he went through many spiritual disciplines both within the greater tradition of Hinduism, but also through Islam, and Christianity. In the end he always arrived at the same result—God! Though I should point out that God is not necessarily conceived the same across all religions, but that according to Sri Ramakrishna these are all valid conceptions of that Ultimate Reality.

One of the most refreshing concepts about Ramakrishna is that a large portion of his worship and devotion to God came through his love for the manifestation of God in the Divine Mother Kali. Kali is a Hindu Goddess worshipped in a variety of ways across the subcontinent, but to Ramakrishna the Divine Mother is equivalent to Ultimate Reality. In many ways Kali can seem frightening, and horrible with her necklace made of heads and her bloodied sword, but Sri Ramakrishna saw within her the presence of a supreme mother, and a loving being. In a world where the divine in the form of God is largely personified through language as the masculine it is interesting that one of the main vessels of devotion in the Ramakrishna Movement is feminine.

The Ramakrishna Movement can be commonly associated with four symbols. The first symbol of waving water refers to the need for unselfish work, the rising sun refers to knowledge, the lotus flower represents the love of God, and finally the serpent shows the all-encompassing spiritual awakening. As such, the Ramakrishna Movement, both monastically and through the large body of householders, is devoted to serving humanity. You will see hospitals mixed with temples, mobile clinics, distribution of food, and schools which teach both things of this world, as well as spirituality.

I will end with a story of Ramakrishna’s life, as well as one of his great teachings. First, Ramakrishna was one day preparing a meal to give to the Divine Mother as a devotion of his love for her, but due to recent spiritual awakenings, namely the fact that he saw the divine mother within all of creation, and that all of creation is indeed divine, he became distracted by a wandering cat. He was so preoccupied with the divinity within the cat that he gave the specially, ritually prepared meal to the animal instead of the statue of the Divine Mother. Other priests at the temple were shocked and tried to reprimand Ramakrishna, but instead were pleased to learn that quite literally everything is divine. This is an amazing demonstration of the breaking of ritual and the compassion Ramakrishna saw worthy of giving to everything.

Finally, Sri Ramakrishna once told his students that the best way to live in the world is by developing your spiritual qualities. The reason is that the world is like water and the mind is like milk. If you pour your mind into the water all it does is become diluted. However, if you take the time to work on your spiritual qualities, in whatever way you see necessary and fit, then that milk will slowly start to curdle and eventually you can form it into butter. Now if you are immersed in the world of water the mind will float on top, and that this is the proper way to live!

I hope you enjoyed this! Please subscribe below, follow me @lotusflowerpath, and look around!

Name

Email*



-G.L.