“God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.” - Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa. One of the greatest and most widely revered saints of modern India. A brief biography - 1 page - can be found here: http://www.om-guru.com/html/saints/ramakrishna.html Some more quotes: "My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is akhanda satchidananda; indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night sky between the stars is perfectly black. The waters of the ocean depths are the same. The infinite is always mysteriously dark. This inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali...." "Reality with attributes, saguna Brahman, has been unanimously declared by the Vedas, Puranas, and Tantras to be Mahakali, the primordial energy of awareness. Her Energy is like the rays of the sun. The original sun is attributeless Reality, nirguna Brahman, boundless Awareness alone. Proceed to the Original through its Radiance. Awaken to non-dual Reality through Mother Kali. She holds the key." “Bondage is of the mind ; freedom too is of the mind. If you say 'I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me', free you shall be.” “At a certain stage in the path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in God with form, and at another stage, in God without it.” “"A poor devotee points to the sky and says, "God is up there." An average devotee says, "God dwells in the heart as the Inner Master." The best devotee says, "God alone is and everything I perceive is a form of God."”
And Ramakrishna's disciple, Vivekenanda founded the Vendanta Society, which put these beliefs into practice, and introduced Ramakrisna's teachings to the western world. COOL is an outgrowth of Ramakrishna's teachings. This is what I've been trying to relate in the thread about God & Love. Ramakrishna was indeed an enlightened master who saw the "truth". Ramakrishna focused not on the apparent duality of reality, but on the underlying unity. That is the key to attaining nirvana.
During his lifetime, people of many faiths "flocked" to the Dakshineswar temple garden to bask in the light of the truth he spoke. Oh, but to be so fortunate...
