2-11-98 RAMAKRISHNA

Most everyone agrees that our present age will bring great changes in the spiritual consciousness of humanity, although there is less consensus on whether these changes will be caused by intense global upheaval and resultant human suffering.

These changes are already being demonstrated through the arising of new transpersonal disciplines such as The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living (TM). However, these disciplines could never have blossomed without the existential groundwork provided by sages such as Ramakrishna.

Ramakrishna was single handedly able to restore, after centuries of neglect, the original depth and scope of Vedic knowledge, particularly the various paths to God and the need to understand and honor each and every one of them without bias or prejudice. He didn't do this with the same precision and completeness as The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living, but he did do so in a way which brought a greater sense of true catholicity, tolerance and openness to the spiritual quest.

The reason he was ideally suited for this task was due to his Surya Yogic spiritual nature and the fact that this particular stream of evolution, by its very nature, upholds all the various paths to God.

Ramakrishna was also a Brahman, although an uneducated one, and this made him seek out a disciple, Vivekananda, who he knew would be ideally qualified to bring his message of spiritual catholicity to the west.

The principles of The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living indicate that Ramakrishna was a true boddhisattwa: a person enlightened in a prior life who consciously reincarnates to help humankind in some specific way. By his own admission, he brought Vivekananda to the earth plane with him to help promulgate his message. He even blocked Vivekananda's own enlightenment (obviously with Vivekananda's subconscious and superconscious assent) until Vivekananda completed Ramakrishna's mission.

Ramakrishna, through Vivekananda, also established an organization of devoted disciples to carry on his work and some of them, such as Swami Satprakashananda, have fulfilled their tasks admirably. Even today the compassionate, gentle words of Ramakrishna and the more rigorous, philosophic words of Vivekananda ring out through the Vedantic Society's literature inspiring us to greater deeds.

The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living owes a great debt to these two great sages. In a single stroke, they restored the broadminded spirit of the original Veda and its varied methods. As a result of their labor, fertile ground was created for the discipline of comparative religion whose study is crucial if we are to enter the 21st century free of religious rancor and enmity.