The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Rating:
Summary: Excellent - well worth the read.
Review: This book is a diary of the author's experience in the presence of Sri Ramakrishna 125 years ago. To the modern mind, Ramakrishna would seem like a schizophrenic or epileptic but after reading this book and hearing his explanations of Hindu concepts you realize that although he had no formal education he was a very knowledgeable and loving man. I love that he always says - do not follow anything I say blindly, work it out for yourself, take what's useful to you and leave the rest. He says a lot of people forget to do this where religion is concerned. They don't assimilate the information - they just repeat the pretty words.
His relationship to Narendra, who later was known as Vivekananda, is an awesome love story. Very beautiful. My favorite part was when Ramakrishna asked Narendra a significant question about God and Narendra says, "I'm currently studying the views of the atheists." He was completely able to be himself with Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna loved him for it. He didn't have to put on a "holy-holy" act with Ramakrishna. They didn't have any of that you'd better obey and agree with everything I say attitude going on.
Something that struck me as interesting is I think the author added some comments in the 1940's while translating the book to English. The events took place near Calcutta, India in 1885 but there are statements describing the connection to God as being like having the gas company hooked up to your house. Did they have a gas company in Calcutta, India in 1885? There are other statements relating peoples beliefs in the righteousness of their religion to everyone thinking his watch has the correct time. Were watches a widespread item in India in 1885? I don't particularly think so... But the allegories work.
I don't agree with everything Ramakrishna says. For instance, I don't believe bhakti or devotional religion is the key for this day and age. I think you should keep your bhakti a personal thing tucked away in your heart otherwise you'll wind up looking like a nut. I don't agree with worshipping the divine as a parental figure. I think it adds to the emotional immaturity that we already experience - but I'm glad Ramakrishna mentions other modes of relating to God and acknowledges their validity. I also don't believe that bliss is an important factor in anyone's relationship to God. Hell with the availability of street drugs today - bliss is just down the alley. But joy - joy is something different. You can't find real joy in a pill or in a drink.
Towards the end of his life things get a little weird. It's almost as if someone else has taken over his body or something. He starts emphasizing being a paramahansa (incarnation of God) and expounding on how paramahansas and ishvarakotis (pure souls) are different from everyone else. It really doesn't seem to follow how he used to talk before that. Plus he starts letting yes-men, like that Ghirish Ghosh guy, hang around. I didn't like that part but it happened so what can you do?
So, whether you agree with what Ramakrishna says or not, you can't help but love and respect him after reading this book. It's a very intimate encounter with a man totally devoted to God and you gotta respect his honesty and willingness to be himself no matter what anyone else thought.

Rating:
Summary: Ocean of knowledge.
Review: This book is recommended to a god-fearing and loving person.

Rating:
Summary: A Treasure for all Ages
Review: What if one of Jesus' disciples had carefully written down every detail of his every encounter with Jesus, and every word he heard come out of his mouth? Unfortunately that didn't happen, but luckily in the 19th century a physics teacher named Mahendranath Gupta had the presence of mind to do exactly that for his own spiritual teacher, the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Ramakrishna was one of the greatest saints of his era. This record of his activities and conversations is worth its weight in gold. An all time spiritual classic!

Rating:
Summary: Historic dialogues with Ramakrishna.
Review: With Ramakrishna, the custom started, that disciples write down every word of a guru and publish it in a book. However troublesome that usually is, in the case of Ramakrishna it was a great blessing to mankind. Ramakrishna was a god-man with deepest spirtual insights, and an enormous richness of spritual diversity. At the same time, in this book, human ascpects are shown as well. The book does not pretend a perfect world or a perfect Ramakrishna. The time one invests into spiritual development is obvously lost from investing into other things, like presentig oneself in an optimized way. I'm sure, Ramakrishna wore no tie and would fail in a modern management school. This is no joke, because many people do not beleive certain enlightend people, because they behave not quite propperly according to social standards. A reader of this Gospel has to be prepared to be confronted with a strange, but extremely spritual, environment.