(From Chicago calling e-zine)
Swami Vivekananda started the “Vedanta Society” in New York in 1894 and the same Swami Vivekananda started an association called “Ramakrishna Mission” in Kolkata in 1897.
Are Vedanta and Ramakrishna different?
Vedanta, Veda + anta, the culmination (anta) of spiritual knowledge (Veda), recognizes that the absolute Brahman, which no one can describe but only refer to as Absolute Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Bliss (Ananda), becomes manifested in various aspect and forms. Brahman is both formless and with form, impersonal and again personal, transcendent and also immanent. Sri Ramakrishna is the personified Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna realized Brahman through his unique sadhana and became Brahman himself (Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati). The Rishi of the Shwetashwatara Upanishad (3.8) proclaimed, after realizing Brahman, “I know the mighty spirit” –Vedāhametaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam, and in this modern age Sri Ramakrishna, like the Vedic Rishi, affirms, “Yes, I have seen God; God talked to me”. “God alone is Real” – Sri Ramakrishna’s realization tallies with the Vedic truth “Brahman alone is Real” (Brahma satya). Moreover, as the Upanishads emphasize that Chaitanya, Consciousness, is all pervading, similarly, Sri Ramakrishna stated, “She (the Goddess Kali) was Consciousness. The image (of the Mother Kali) was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water vessels were Consciousness, the door-still was Consciousness, the marble floor (of the temple) was Consciousness – all and everything was Consciousness.” How can a personal Goddess be compared with Brahman? Sri Ramakrishna’s reply, “Whom you call Brahman, I call Mother (Kali)”. Sri Ramakrishna in his characteristic simplicity, said, “What Brahman is, cannot be described” (Brahma eṭo han ni).
In the Brahma-Sutra-Bhashya (3.3.50) Adi Shankaracharya explained why Brahman is beyond words, “Even the cleverest acrobat cannot mount on his own shoulders”. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (2.3.6) we hear the Rishi Yajnavalka supporting the same truth in a question, how would one know the knower (vijñātāraṁ are kenavijānīyāt)? If Brahman is All-pervading Formless Consciousness, then how is the transition from Brahman to the objective world effected? Shankaracharya in his commentary on the Brahma-Sutras explained, “the causal power is neither different from the cause nor imaginary; it is the very essence of the cause and the effect is the very essence of the power” (śaktisya kāraṇasya śakteścyām bhūtaṁ kāryam [2.1.18]). Sri Ramakrishna never attended any school, never received any formal education but unhesitantly explained this complicated philosophical question. He said that Vidyā-māyā (the illusion of Knowledge) and Avidyā-māyā (the illusion of ignorance), good and bad, both are flowing from God. This world is the “Lila” (play) of God. Vedanta teaches individual beings are nothing but Brahman alone (jīva brahmaiva na-apara) nothing else. Sri Ramakrishna teaches, “jīva-śiva” (every embodied being is Shiva himself). Explaining this, his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda said, “Never forget the glory of human nature! We are the greatest God… Service to man is service to God”. The Vedanta Societies in the west and the Ramakrishna Mission centers in the east are both serving the “living gods” Brahman in forms in different manners.