Shri Ramakrishna's Experiments - 1

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First he showed that by self-effort and intense

yearning one can concentrate the mind to realize a

particular form of divine consciousness. This one form of

divinity for him was Ma Kali. His chosen ideal could have

been different, and indeed it would be different for

people of various places and cultures. <br>There could

be no denial of the fact that it is possible to

elevate consciousness to a higher plane. This Sri

Ramakrishna accomplished on his own without the aid of a guru

or a teacher. Moreover, he neither had formal

education nor did he study scriptural texts to account for

this success in his spiritual achievements. For all

practical purposes, intense desire and unshakable faith to

reach the truth of divinity in the stone image of

Mother Kali led him to severe austerities and

experimentation. Kali Herself became his teacher and guide. The

fact of divinity in every living and non-living being

soon personified as duality of 'divine object' in the

form of Kali and the 'divine subject' in the form of

Sri Ramakrishna. <br><br>Sri Ramakrishna reached the

second stage of dualistic consciousness when he started

seeing the presence of Kali in other objects as well.

Thus a cat and the objects used in the worship in the

temple were seen to shine with divinity and pervaded

with the presence of Kali. This forced him to worship

and feed the cat as the Mother Herself! Later, he was

unable to pluck flowers and leaves for puja (worship)

for they were seen as adoring the cosmic form of

Divine. Thus he obtained the knowledge of first principle

of Vedanta i.e. every being is full of divinity.

(This may be labeled as qualified monism.) Spiritual

discipline in the form of intense concentration of mind and

one-pointed zeal to know the truth led Sri Ramakrishna to

this wonderful realization and experience. His

knowledge was thus based on direct perception that no

amount of diversion or contrary arguments could disturb.