Q&A Session with Swami Medhanandaji Maharaj - Saturday June 17th, 2023 

Big joy! May it be regular sessions with Swami Medhananda! Its exhibitions bring the luminosity of Sri Ramakrishna's teaching as the center of the exhibition. And this is as precious as it is rare. Generally speaking, even in Vedanta Societies, much emphasis is placed on Advaita Vedanta and in this Sri Ramakrishna's teaching is constantly adapted to make it appear that his teaching was Advaita (which it was not). With Swami Medhananda this problem does not occur.

Pranaam Swami Medhananda ji

Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna

I enjoy Swami Medhananda's comments when I can understand what he's saying. Unfortunately I can't understand him much of the time because he speaks far too quickly. I realise this is now common with younger generations in the US but we older people have difficulty with it, especially if we're not American. Also, questioners need to be reminded to hold the microphone close enough to their mouths to be understood.

Joy Thakur, JoyMaa, Joy Swamijir sree chorone sotokoti pronam janai 🙏 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 6:11 🙏🙏Moharajer sree chorone pronam janai🙏🙏🙏

Dear swamiji, Here are the quotes from the Kathamrita that give me the impression that Sri Ramakrishna considers the state of the Eternal Devotee to be superior to that of the soul merging into the Absolute. I have also added my own considerations in defense of this viewpoint. Kathamrita,volume 1, section-2 (Friday, 27 October 1882) "At the time of the total dissolution of the world, the Mother preserves all the seeds of creation, just as the mistress of the house has a hodgepodge pot in which she keeps things of all kinds. (Keshab and the others laugh.) (Smiling) “Yes, my friend, the mistress of the house does have such a pot in her possession. In it she keeps sea-foam in a solid state, small packets containing the seeds of cucumber, pumpkin, gourd, and so on. All types of seeds are kept carefully. She brings them out when needed. In the same way the Divine Mother keeps all the seeds at the time of the dissolution of the world. After the creation, the Primordial Divine Energy lives very much in the world. Giving birth to the world, She lives within it. The Vedas talk of the Urnanabhi - the spider and its web. The spider creates a web out of itself and then lives in that same web. The Lord is both the container and the contents of the world.” What it seems to me: In other passages, Sri Ramakrishna describes that one who has attained God as a devotee receives from God a "body of love" and in this, lives with God as a person in God's abode, which is a Person. Thakur says that this state is eternal and never changes. But in the passage mentioned above, Sri Ramakrishna says that at the end of a cycle, the Mother who dissolved the universe recreates it again, and in this process, these stored seeds come into existence. What are these seeds? I conclude that these seeds are (also) the eternal souls that have not reached God's abode, that have not received these "bodies of love" which are eternal. Why do I conclude this? Because Sri Ramakrishna is saying that the individuality of the soul is preserved in this state of devotion, where a soul reaches God's abode (and the result of this is the formation of this "body of love"). However, the one who has merged into the Ocean of Sat Cit Ananda, has not received any "body of love". They, like a salt doll that dives into the ocean, dissolve their individuality, giving it up, being intoxicated by the light of the Ocean of Sat Cit Ananda. However, the salt that constituted the doll did not disappear. It is in the ocean. If we desalinate the ocean, we extract the salt from it. So, won't this soul that has merged into the Impersonal also return to the phenomenal universe when the Mother recreates the universe? In this sense, as I understand it, Sri Ramakrishna is pointing out the superiority of the state of the bhakta, the devotee, as they attain God as a Person. Because it is certain that God has will, is a being, and enjoys bliss and joy. It is in the person-to-person communion that these characteristics are fully embraced.

Here we see another passage: volume-1-section-3: (Saturday, 28 October 1882) A Brahmo devotee asked, “Is God with form or formless?”Sri Ramakrishna: “One cannot limit God. He is formless and then with form, too. For a devotee, He is with form. For a jnani, that is to say, one who considers the world a dream, God is formless. The devotee thinks that God is one and the world is another. That is why the Lord manifests to him as a person. Jnanis such as Vedantists reason, ‘Not this, not this.’ By so reasoning, the jnani has the inner feeling and experience* that his individuality is an illusion, so the world also is like a dream. The jnani feels the consciousness of Brahman within. But what God is, he cannot express in words.“Do you know what it’s like? It’s like a shoreless ocean of Sat-chit-ananda. Water in the ocean turns into ice at places with the cooling influence of love. This ice takes a form. In other words, at times God manifests and takes a physical form for the devotee. When the sun of knowledge rises, the ice melts. Then God does not appear as a person. Also His form is not visible. What God is cannot be expressed in words. Who is there to express Him? He who would describe Him has disappeared. You cannot find his ‘I,’ even if you search for it. See the footnote: Bodhebodha: An intellectual, literal, imaginative, inner feeling of the real nature of Brahman (Atman). The Vedanta illustrates it in this way (taken from Vol. III of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, 24 August, 1882): A person is lying in a room in the dark. Somebody gropes in the dark to reach him. His hand touches a couch and he says, “No, this is not he.” Then he touches the window. “This too is not he.” Then he touches the door and again says to himself, “No, not he. Not this, not this, not this.” At last his hand touches the person. Then he says, “That’s it. That is the person.” This means that he has reached the person, but he hasn’t known him intimately. So let's see: The jnani is the one who "touches" God but does not see Him because there is no light for him to see. It is then concluded that the devotee, on the other hand, touches and sees God because they have the light of devotion, and in this, they are more full of knowledge (the Vijnani). How is this not superior? Therefore, the one who knows that God has form and is also formless understands that "formless" is just one of the infinite attributes of God. Thus, it is clear that God is essentially Saguna, and "nirguna" is one of His attributes.