It is not unusual for Hindus of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda persuasion, and many others too, to have a picture of Jesus Christ in their homes, or even adorning the walls of their temples. In fact, not only the Christian Saviour but the saints and sages of all faiths command respect from them because they believe, as Swami Vivekananda said, in “acceptance, and not just tolerance of other religions.” The seeds of this catholicity of outlook were sown in the distant past when the holiest of their scriptures, the Vedas, enunciated, ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti. This means that the One Truth is described (and therefore pursued) by different learned men in different ways. Such an enlightened, all-embracing approach to the ultimate Supreme, Divine, Reality—call It God, or Brahman, or what you will—has characterized the vast majority of Hindus, and, through them, even influenced the thinking—broadened their outlook, so to say—of many other religionists of this land.

The aforementioned scriptures also emphasize not just the finality of the Truth, but its realization in life—not just its academic understanding, or intellectual appreciation and assent, but its experience. The realized soul, consequently, comes to perceive the common divine ground of all the faiths, nay, of the entire creation—sarvam khalu idam Brahman. He verily transcends all narrow doctrines and dogmas, all considerations of caste, creed, culture, race, religion, nationality, gender-distinction, etc., and becomes a universal being. Such a fully illuminated one was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the celebrated nineteenth-century Sage of Dakshineshwar, India, who had attained the highest state, Cosmic Consciousness, attendant on nirvikalpa samadhi.

As is well known (see Romain Rolland’s Prophets of New India [1]), he had practised the various leading religions one at a time, and achieved God-realization through them all. Arnold Toynbee, in his Foreword to Swami Ghanananda’s book Sri Ramakrishna and his Unique Message, avers that this extraordinary spiritual feat was unique—in India or elsewhere, and, moreover, that the Sage could only have been born in the liberal and tolerant folds of Hinduism so that, perceiving unity in diversity, he might undertake those manifold and diverse spiritual exercises, with full faith in each one of them. Religious pluralism, in the true sense, was exemplified by him; his teachings are universally saving, in more than one sense. After the successful conclusion of all his interfaith exercises, Sri Ramakrishna had pronounced that all religions are true; all are valid paths to God-realization. “Sincerely practised,” he said, “each religion is capable of taking us to the great goal. All faiths,” he further maintained, “are suited to the varying tastes, temperaments, and capacities of the individuals concerned; all are right—the only thing wrong is to believe that one’s own faith is the only true one and that it should somehow be imposed upon the rest of the world. [2] In other words, he cautioned his followers against becoming bigoted or fanatical, which vice is the bane of society today.

When he was following the Christian way, the Sage of Dakshineshwar had an intense vision of Jesus Christ; he felt his living presence. It is said that the Saviour embraced him and finally entered into him. Later, he had no hesitation in affirming that Jesus was indeed a son of God, namely, an Incarnation. (This last term implies that the limitless, formless, ocean of the all-pervasive Brahman, or Ultimate Reality, becomes flesh and blood, takes on a human form for the good of humanity.) But unlike the Christian, it should be added, the Hindu believes that this divine manifestation can occur not just once, but again and again, in different forms and times and climes, according to the need of the hour, in order to give people spiritual light and succour, and restore righteousness on earth [The Bhagavad-Gita[3]]).