'VIDEHA MUKTI' FOR SRI RAMAKRISHNA AFTER HIS NEXT INCARNATION?

'VIDEHA MUKTI' FOR SRI RAMAKRISHNA AFTER HIS NEXT INCARNATION?

How can Thakur ever be free of his universal manifestation in that sense of 'videha mukti' (disembodied liberation) when he himself is the ruler of all of phenomena? He, the Mayadheesh, will surely be coeval with his Maya for all time to come. As to Swamiji's affirmation that Thakur will accept 'videha mukti' after his next incarnation, I have never quite fathomed it to transparent understanding. It remains yet the perplexing point as to this affair.

This can be resolved by separating the Ramakrishna devotee-self from the Ramakrishna God-self. Remember, Thakur used to say that within his being there were two entities -- one that was the Mother Herself and the other one Her devotee. So, perhaps, it is the devotee-self that Swamiji alluded to as attaining disembodied absolute liberation (videha mukti) and not the eternal divine Self of Thakur's Avatarhood. But still, everything said and done with, these are perplexing issues which are seemingly unfathomable by the limited sense-bound mundane intellect and need the higher understanding of their real significance through the illumined pure consciousness. We may only conjecture and remain in our darkness still at the end of it all.

Written by Sugata Bose