This book is a short life and select teachings of modern Indian prophet Sri Ramakrishna whose life is a story of religion in practice that enables us to see God face to face. His life was one of constant communion with the divine. The author has presented in an original and striking way a biographical narrative of Sri Ramakrishna, interspersing it with detailed analysis of his deep spiritual states. The book, therefore, serves as an excellent interpretation of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, for both devotees and scholars.

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.

This is the authoritative source biography of Ramakrishna (1836-1886) based on interviews with those who knew him. It is also an interpreted description of the entire range of Ramakrishna?s spiritual disciplines and experiences, explained as much as possible in terms of reason and common empirical experience, with reference to Hindu scriptures and spiritual traditions, western philosophy, Hindu psychology, and Western religious tradition. The setting is Northeast India from 1775 to 1836. Topics include: Avatar; evolution of concept and purpose of: Bhavas (spiritual moods): Bhavamukha (mental state dwelling between the Absolute and the Relative): Brahmo Samaj: Cosmic Mind: Creation and Evolution; Brahman as efficient cause: God; various concepts and spiritual attitudes towards: Guru: India; its spiritual and religious beliefs compared to other countries: Kali Temple at Dakshineswar: Nondual Reality (Advaita): Ramakrishna?s life; worship of Divine Mother; realization of God in Hindu and non-Hindu religions; marriage; disciples: Samadhi: Tantra and Vaishnava Sects; history and methods of worship: Vedanta; main schools and basis in mystic experience: Vivekananda (Narendranath Datta): Yoga.

Sri Ramakrishna is regarded variously as a saint, sage, spiritual leader, world teacher, prophet, Avatara of the present age and so on. Finding these terms unsatisfactory, the noted British author Christopher Isherwood described Sri Ramakrishna as a “phenomenon”. The present book published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India, is a modest attempt to understand that phenomenon in the context of world thought currents and in the light of authentic sources. According to Swami Vivekananda, “With the birth of Sri Ramakrishna the Golden Age has begun.” But today, such an assertion may appear preposterous, with no sign of such a beginning visible. Who was Sri Ramakrishna? What was the purpose of his advent? What is the true dimension of his personality? Was he an Avatara? What is the role of an Avatara? Devotees, followers, and admirers of Sri Ramakrishna encounter these questions at some juncture of their life's journey. And in answer to these questions lies the opening to the realm of an ineffable “Light”, which is the “Light of the Modern World”.

For nearly a decade Swami Bhuteshananda, the 12th President of the Ramakrishna Order, devoted his weekly Bengali religious classes to discussions on Sri Ramakrishna and to the unique book, 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'. His illuminating discussions brought out the thought-provoking deeper dimensions of the simple, homely utterances of the great prophet, and they helped the audience comprehend these simple sayings of the Great Master in the light of the ancient scriptures of India, specially the Vedanta, as well as modern thought. Not unoften, many abstruse concepts, many knotty philosophical questions and doubts of Vedanta metaphysics, were lucidly explained and resolved. These were later transcribed and eventually published in a seven-volume Bengali work, 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita Prasanga'. The present work is an English translation of volume six and the appendix to volume five of the original Bengali work. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India.