The Wisdom of Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886) was a Hindu religious
teacher and an influential figure in the Bengal Renaissance of the
Nineteenth century. His teachings emphasized love and devotion
for God, the oneness of existence, the harmony of religions, and
God-realization as the highest goal of life. Some of his
transcendental wisdom is quoted below.

Philip

God is in all men, but all men are not in God;
that is why we suffer.

The magnetic needle always points to the north, and
hence it is that sailing vessel does not lose her direction.
So long as the heart of man is directed towards God, he
cannot be lost in the ocean of worldliness.

One should not think, ‘My religion alone is the right
path and other religions are false.’ God can be
realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have
sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and
infinite the opinions.

God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So
serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.

Only two kinds of people can attain Self knowledge:
those whose minds are not encumbered at all with
learning, that is to say, not overcrowded with
thoughts borrowed from others, and those who after
studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come
to realize that they know nothing.

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.

Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot
find God Who is the soul of truth. One must be
very particular about telling the truth. Through
truth one can realize God.

A man is truly free, even here in this embodied state,
if he knows that God is the true agent and he by
himself is powerless to do anything.

A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay
in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but
the world should not live within him.

You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when
the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no
stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because
you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance,
say not that there is no God.

If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of
the Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth
and worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you.

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.