RAMAKRISHNA AND CHRISTIANITY

Ramakrishna felt a keen sympathy for any and every religion that sincerely struggled to know God.

There is the story of one of Ramakrishna’s attendants who was a devout student of all religious scriptures, and who was the first to read to Ramakrishna from the Bible and to speak to him of Jesus of Nazareth.  Ramakrishna soon began to dwell on the personality of Jesus.

In a garden house near the temple where Ramakrishna resided were pictures on the wall of holy personalities, including one of the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus on her lap.  This picture Ramakrishna became particularly attracted to.

One day while looking at it, he felt that the figures of the Mother and Child began to shine, and that rays of light burst forth from them.  This caused a major shift in Ramakrishna’s consciousness, to where he felt that his Hindu way of thinking had been pushed into the back of his mind.  Now, he was filled with love for Jesus and for Christianity.

As the story went, one evening while he was taking a walk, he saw a tall, stately man with a fair complexion coming towards him, looking at him steadily as he did so.  Ramakrishna could see that he was a foreigner.  He had large eyes of uncommon brilliance and his face was beautiful. 

At first Ramakrishna wondered who this stranger was, when suddenly a voice within him said, “This is Jesus the Christ, the great yogi, the loving son of God who shed his blood and was tortured for the salvation of mankind!”  When the two met, Jesus embraced Ramakrishna and, according to the story, passed into his body.

Something similar occurred during Ramakrishna’s introduction to other religions, which is why, to this day, all faiths are welcome in Vedanta.