Hindu Mystics

Here we go again. Another paper for Matt branstetter. This one is about hindu Mystics. I hope you enjoy. It is due tomorrow, so edit marks unnecessary, but if you want to comment on how I could make it better that would be acceptable. i am planning on keeping and improving all of my papers at some point. Nothing is ever perfect.

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Teachings of Hindu Mystics
Amanda Cunningham
Mysticism
Matt Branstetter
Wednesday, 22 October, 2008


Mystics in the East often teach through writing. Their poetry and stories can be wonderful sources of learning material which is valid in the eastern world as well as the west. Sometimes though, it can be hard for the average person to decipher what point the authors are trying to get across. These mystics will use flowery language and speak in parables which can be confusing to the average person. In this way, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are two of the most insightful Hindu mystics, though their words may get lost in translation. Here we will explore some of their writings taken from the book, Teachings of Hindu Mystics edited by Andrew Harvey. A few of the most pertinent lines from “Truth is One”, “The Chameleon”, “Who Weeps for God”, “How to Live in the World”, “Worship the living God”, and “The Open Secret” will be investigated further.

In “Truth is One” Ramakrishna states that “People Worship God according to their tastes and temperaments”. One thing that Ramakrishna does show though is that all of the different “religions” are interconnected, they just do not accept this fact. Many people get caught up in their religion as the “only way” and that they worship the only “true God”, but Ramakrishna does not believe this is correct (The Hindu religion does not believe that every person needs to convert to Hinduism). Ramakrishna does believe that only one God exists, but Ramakrishna believes that God is just called by many different names and worshiped in many different ways. Ultimately “God” is called Rama, but these other “Gods” are real as well. Later Ramakrishna states that “There is only one Rama and he has a thousand names.” In the sense that water may have more than one name, calling something by a different name does not change the thing it self. This situation only causes confusion when people attempt to discuss this thing. Arguments that break out over God, Rama, Allah, etc. are unnecessary because every person is actually worshiping and arguing over the same thing. Wars have been fought and lives have been lost over the idea of a name. A name that the small mind of a human created. Rama, God, he is all of these things according to Ramakrishna.

“The Chameleon” another story by Ramakrishna is about many different men stating that they have seen an animal in a particular tree. After all the men fight over the color of the animal they decide to find the animal together to prove which man is correct. Once they reach the tree they find a man who lives at the base of the tree who states the following, “All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no color at all.” What Ramakrishna is expressing through this story is that God comes in many forms. No one person will be able to see God in the same way, but each experience is God. Similarly is the story of the blind men touching the elephant. Each man touches the elephant in a different spot and when asked to describe what an elephant is each has a different explanation. All three men are correct, but each is different. That is what God is. To every person he shows a different piece of himself, but God is still always the same God.

“Truth is One” and “The Chameleon” both point out that God can be many different forms, but Ramakrishna takes explaining God a step further in, “Who weeps for God”. Here he states , “The point is to love God even as the mother loves her child, the chaste wife her husband, and the worldly man his wealth.” By this Ramakrishna means that we are to put God as the center of our world. For us to place him at the number one spot in our hearts is his true desire. Similar to, as stated in the passage, a mother to her child. We are the mother and God is our child. A mother would die for her child. A mother would kill for her child. This is how our attitude should be toward God. To a worldly man his wealth is what he has to live on. Because he must worry about his physical dollar the man must always have his money on the top of his mind. So too must we place God in accordance with Ramakrishna.

In “How to Live in the World” Ramakrishna notes that we must “Live in the world like an ant.” To an ant the world is much larger. To an ant even something as simple as a trash can full of garbage may be an entire universe full of possibilities, throughout and beyond. Reading further we read that in a world full of grains of sand and sugar, the ant will choose sugar. Ramakrishna wants the people of the world to choose the “good” over the bad. Similar to the glass half full theology, we must choose the sugar of our life. Never will we be able to know or take all. We never know what tomorrow will bring. If possible we should take what we know is a better choice for our life.

Ramakrishna has placed God as everything in reference to the outside of a life, but in “Worshiping the living God” Vivekananda shows how God is placed inside of every person as well. “The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him, that moment I am free from bondage.” God created every person, therefore a piece of him is with them. For every artist, each piece of art they create has a piece of their own spirit within it. God is the artist of the human race. God is the artist of the Earth. God is the artist of the universe. These lines are saying that God is here on Earth. He is the soul of every person and therefore we must treasure what he has created. These lines also point to the truth of the Earth being a creation of God. When a person is respected, so are their creations respected. If we are to respect God we are to respect what he created. Every human's temple. Every animal's temple. The Earth's temple. God is to be respected as the highest, but be aware, he is right here on Earth with us.

Vivekananda also penned “The open Secret” in which he stated that “None can die”. Much truth is in those three words. According to this, the human body was born, but the spirit within was not. A spirit does not have a mother. A spirit does not have a father. Thus the spirit was not born and can not die. The spirit can also be synonymous with consciousness. Before the body was consciousness and after the body perishes will be consciousness. Thus, none can truly die.

We tend to look at god through the rose colored glasses we were given at Christmas by our family, friends, and community. In this world where we tend to receive instant gratification, the idea that we do not know everything rarely crosses our mind, and even if the idea did cross our mind we would not believe it could be true. Mystics like Ramakrishna and Vivekananda want us to realize that we are all a lot more connected than we think. Sometimes we fight and argue with our neighbors because we each believe we are right and the other is wrong only to discover that we were both right all along. We were just looking at the situation from with the light of a match instead of a flood lamp. God is such a huge complex idea that no one can fully grasp. If we can't even know for sure the world isn't flat two centuries ago, how can we be 100% certain that we know all there is to know about God now. If you do not know something 100% you can't properly explain something 100%. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda only want us to open our minds and be aware of the box we are lacing ourselves in.

In my personal life I like to think I can no some of God. I at least would like to know that what I do know is truth. I am reminded of the day I had a fight with a girl about an elevator.. I was certain, absolutely certain, as to which floor a certain area of the building was on. I fought with her tooth and nail only to find out later that she was correct. In the moment I was certain about the elevator, but now I know I was wrong. I regret ever fighting with her about something so silly, because there was no way, in that moment, for either of us to prove ourselves and the truth really didn't matter. Can God be thought of the same way. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are right in that we can not, in this time, know all of what God is about. He is so grand and great that an attempt to know him completely would always fail. Because God is so great though, it is something you want to get right. The right answer is in fact important. If I get the floor wrong in a elevator I take a few seconds and choose a different floor, but where God is concerned some say the wrong answer will end in damnation. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda may live in a world where God is plenty and god is many, but what if they're wrong?