AHAM BRAHMASMI
My understanding is too feeble to be able to fathom the depths of the Master's mind and his inscrutable ways, modes and manners. However, to my superficial understanding it seems that here he indicates that the One within is the One without, the Lord in His microcosmic manifestation is the Lord in His cosmic manifestation as well, the microcosm and the macrocosm meeting in the perceptions of the realised soul even as the Self transcends the limitations of the universe of sense and form. In the Upanishadic sense the palm posture would signify the mantra 'Aham Brahmasmi' (Myself am Brahman). In this sense it is profound, especially, as it is in the state of samadhi (ecstasy) of the Master and is, thus, the spontaneous configuration of the sage's physical form to the tune of his realisation of the Infinite.
Ramakrishna offers us a glimpse into future biology, into the possibilities of physiology about which not much is yet known to modern science. The Tantras have explored in detail the nervous system of the human body and its gross and subtle currents, the Raja Yogis have explored human psychology to a degree of extreme refinement and the Jnana Yogis have mastered the science of progressive negation of the mental currents and eventually the transcendence of the mind itself. The sage of Dakshineshwar had traversed all these paths in his protracted struggle for perfection under qualified Gurus and had ascended the summit of realisation along each. His pronouncement at the end of this odyssey of self-discovery was that all paths are like rivers, principled and finite, that lead to the ocean of the Infinite, beyond law and ever free, and that there is a constant commuting of the realised soul between the finite and the Infinite even as the soul harbours on the borderline of the twain in the realm of 'Bhavamukh' (the realm where ideas are born and seek primal manifestation before they grow into cosmic fruition) --- a la traversing up and down along Jacob's ladder in the Biblical sense, albeit, raised and refined ---, that the immanent God and the transcendent Self are in essence one and inseparable even as the substance of a thing and its attributes are, and that the sentient being is in essence the Supreme Being (Jiva is Shiva) and has, as such, to be served in the spirit of worshipful reverence. All these realisations of the Master seem to be encapsulated in this divine palm posture, in this symbolic stance of the soul, in this mantric mudra (a symbolic gesture of the hand that signifies the meaning of a formulation of truth) that unites heaven and earth in a free flow between the human and the divine, the finite and the Infinite, the sentient being and the Supreme Being. This seems to be the dance of the divine, the resonance of the Real in the relative and the ultimate expression in the finite form of the inexpressible Infinite.
Written by Sugata Bose
My understanding is too feeble to be able to fathom the depths of the Master's mind and his inscrutable ways, modes and manners. However, to my superficial understanding it seems that here he indicates that the One within is the One without, the Lord in His microcosmic manifestation is the Lord in His cosmic manifestation as well, the microcosm and the macrocosm meeting in the perceptions of the realised soul even as the Self transcends the limitations of the universe of sense and form. In the Upanishadic sense the palm posture would signify the mantra 'Aham Brahmasmi' (Myself am Brahman). In this sense it is profound, especially, as it is in the state of samadhi (ecstasy) of the Master and is, thus, the spontaneous configuration of the sage's physical form to the tune of his realisation of the Infinite.
Ramakrishna offers us a glimpse into future biology, into the possibilities of physiology about which not much is yet known to modern science. The Tantras have explored in detail the nervous system of the human body and its gross and subtle currents, the Raja Yogis have explored human psychology to a degree of extreme refinement and the Jnana Yogis have mastered the science of progressive negation of the mental currents and eventually the transcendence of the mind itself. The sage of Dakshineshwar had traversed all these paths in his protracted struggle for perfection under qualified Gurus and had ascended the summit of realisation along each. His pronouncement at the end of this odyssey of self-discovery was that all paths are like rivers, principled and finite, that lead to the ocean of the Infinite, beyond law and ever free, and that there is a constant commuting of the realised soul between the finite and the Infinite even as the soul harbours on the borderline of the twain in the realm of 'Bhavamukh' (the realm where ideas are born and seek primal manifestation before they grow into cosmic fruition) --- a la traversing up and down along Jacob's ladder in the Biblical sense, albeit, raised and refined ---, that the immanent God and the transcendent Self are in essence one and inseparable even as the substance of a thing and its attributes are, and that the sentient being is in essence the Supreme Being (Jiva is Shiva) and has, as such, to be served in the spirit of worshipful reverence. All these realisations of the Master seem to be encapsulated in this divine palm posture, in this symbolic stance of the soul, in this mantric mudra (a symbolic gesture of the hand that signifies the meaning of a formulation of truth) that unites heaven and earth in a free flow between the human and the divine, the finite and the Infinite, the sentient being and the Supreme Being. This seems to be the dance of the divine, the resonance of the Real in the relative and the ultimate expression in the finite form of the inexpressible Infinite.
Written by Sugata Bose
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