Sri Aurobindo On Sri Ramakrishna

Remarks on Spiritual Figures in India Ramakrishna Paramhansa
I would have been surprised to hear that I regard (in agreement with an advanced sadhak) Ramakrishna as a spiritual pigmy, if I had not become past astonishment in these matters. I have said, it seems, so many things that were never in my mind and done too not a few that I have never dreamed of doing! I shall not be surprised or perturbed if one day I am reported to have declared, on the authority of advanced or even unadvanced sadhaks, that Buddha was a poseur or Shakespeare an overrated poetaster or Newton a third-rate college Don without any genius. In this world all is possible. Is it necessary for me to say that I have never thought and cannot have said anything of the kind, since I have at least some faint sense of spiritual values? The passage you have quoted is my considered estimate of Ramakrishna.1 3 February 1932
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I have heard that if one learns logic or philosophy it can be
a great help in the yoga, because it makes the mind wider to
spiritual experiences so that once the mind gets beyond the
intellect and reaches the intuitive, it is able to bring down or
express knowledge which an unintellectua lmind could not do.

An unintellectual mind cannot bring down the Knowledge? What then about Ramakrishna? Do you mean to say that the majority of the sadhaks here who have not learned logic and are ignorant of philosophy will never get Knowledge?
4 November 1936
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“An unintellectual mind cannot bring down the Knowledge?”
Certainly it can. But don’t you think there is a world of difference
between the expression of an intellectual mind and an
unintellectual one?

Expression is another matter, but Ramakrishana was an uneducated, nonintellectual man, yet his expression of knowledge was so perfect that the biggest intellects bowed down before it.
5 November 1936
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What a difference there is between Ramakrishna’s expressions
of knowledge and those of a perfectly developed intellect like
yourself!

His expressions are unsurpassable in their quality. Don’t talk nonsense. Moreover I never developed my intellect and I made zero marks in Logic.

Who preached Ramakrishna’s gospel to the world? Vivekananda,
a highly developed mind.

And who taught Vivekananda the Truth? Not a logician or highly developed intellect certainly? 13 November 1936
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I have heard different things about Ramakrishna from different
people. Some say he was an Avatar and some that he
was not. Do you think he was an Avatar as he said in his
autobiography?

He never wrote an autobiography. What he said was in conversation with his disciples and others. He was certainly quite as much an Avatar as Christ or Chaitanya. 13 November 1936

Ramakrishna himself never thought of transformation or tried for it. All he wanted was bhakti for the Mother and along with that he received whatever knowledge she gave him and did whatever she made him do. He was intuitive and psychic from the beginning and only became more and more so as he went on. There was no need in him for the transformation which we seek; for although he spoke of the divine man (Ishwarakoti) coming down the stairs as well as ascending, he had not the idea of a new consciousness and a new race and the divine manifestation in the earth-nature


SOURCE:LETTERS ON HIMSELF AND THE ASHRAM

Sri Aurobindo's Contact With Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Aurobindo never met Ramakrishna Paramahansa in physical life but he did gain contact through the occult planes with the latter as is adduced from various written works. For example, Sri Aurobindo notes in his journal Record of Yoga three instances when he received messages from Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa

The first message was in Baroda, the “Arabindo, mandir karo, mandir karo”, (Aurobindo, build a temple) & the parable of the snake Pravritti devouring herself.

The second was given in Shankar Chetti’s house soon after the arrival in Pondicherry, & the words are lost, but it was a direction to form the higher being in the lower self coupled with a promise to speak once more when the sadhan was nearing its close.

This is the third message (18 Oct 1912)

“Make complete sannyasa(renunciation) of Karma.
Make complete sannyasa of thought.
Make complete sannyasa of feeling.
This is my last utterance.”

- Record of Yoga, p 128

During talks with various disciples, Sri Aurobindo discussed how his first occult contact with Ramakrishna Paramahansa spurred him to take up Yoga in earnest:

“Barin at that time was trying some automatic writing. (…) On another occasion a spirit purporting to be that of Ramakrishna came and simply said, “Build a temple.” At that time we were planning to build a temple for political Sannyasis and call it Bhawani Mandir. We thought he meant that, but later I understood it as “Make a temple within.” This gave me the final push to Yoga. I thought: great men could not have been after a chimera, and if there was such a more-than-human power why not get it and use it for action?”

- Nirodbaran, Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 5^th Jan 1939

Sri Aurobindo also mentioned this occult guidance in a letter that he sent to Motilal Roy dated Aug 1912 :

“Remember also that we derive from Ramakrishna. For myself it was Ramakrishna who personally came & first turned me to this Yoga. Vivekananda in the Alipore jail (again, not physically but in the occult plane) gave me the foundations of that knowledge which is the basis of our sadhana

http://auromere.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/ramakrishnas-contact-with-sri-aurobindo/sadhana.”

Ramakrishna's Vision Of Prophet Mohammad

However, while Ramakrishna taught that all spiritual paths lead to the same goal, the realization of Ultimate Consciousness, he never implied that we should ignore the diversity of spiritual moods and their contrasting cultural expression. Each path or sacred tradition has its own appropriated modes of contemplation, the integrity of which should be respected. When Ramakrishna practiced the constant praise of Allah, into which he was initiated by a wandering Sufi master, he would not enter the Kali temple. After three days of continual absorption in the holy name of Allah, Ramakrishna experienced a vision of the Prophet Mohammed, whose radiant form blended with his own and both were revealed as the radiance of ultimate consciousness. Ramakrishna experienced a similar communion with the transcendental form of Jesus following days of continuous Christ-centered contemplation....source& read more here

see also vedanta of southern california