Have You Seen God? — Vivekananda's Question To Ramakrishna

"Sir, have you seen God?" — this was the first question young Narendranath^[1] asked Ramakrishna when he went to meet him at Dakshineswar for the first time. Ramakrishna, the mystic-saint of the 19th century, promptly replied to his question, without any hesitation—

Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth, and property, but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him.

Note: This article is not on the relationship between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. In Wikipedia, we have already written on it, you may see the Wikipedia article here.

Background

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Narendranath (Datta) showed his inclination towards spirituality and meditation from his very childhood. In his childhood, he used to practise meditation for hours. He had deep admiration for Sannyasi-s.

In his early youth, while studying in college, Narendranath joined Brahmo Samaj. At that time, Brahmo Samaj was led by prominent people like Keshub Chandra Sen and Debendranath Tagore. Young Narendranath's initial belief was shaped and influenced by Brahmo Samaj's concepts and doctrines, i. e. worshipping one God, discarding idol-worship etc.^[2]

Despite being a regular member of  Brahmo Samaj, Narendranath was realising, their religious lectures, their philosophic discussions were unable to quench his thirst. He wanted to meet someone who had personal and direct experience of seeing God.

Meeting with Debendranath Tagore

As said in the last section, Debendranath Tagore was a leader of Brahmo Samaj. Young Narendranath, with his questions in his mind, went to meet Tagore. There he asked him, without much ado,— "Sir, have you seen God?"

Tagore partially ignored this question and told—

My boy, you have eyes of a Yogi. You should practise meditation.

Narendranath was disappointed. He did not go there to get praises for his eyes.

Same question to other religious teachers

Vivekananda biographer Gautam Sen wrote in his book The Mind of Swami Vivekananda, Narendranath asked the same question "have you seen God?" to every religious preacher and teacher he met, but everywhere he found nothing but disappointment.^[Source]

Afterwards. . . quest for God

Narendranath gradually became more and more restless. He wanted to find a man with direct experience of living near God, so that with his help, he too could come closer to God.

The family members of Narendranath were trying to arrange his marriage at that time, but he was desperate to experience God himself.

Meeting with Ramakrishna — "Have you seen God?"

In early 1882, Narendranath went to meet Ramakrishna at Dakshinesawar. There too, without much ado, he directly asked Ramakrishna—

Sir, have you seen God?

Ramakrishna smiled calmly, and then promptly replied without any hesitation—

Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth, and property, but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him. 

Swami Nikhilananda wrote in his book—

Narendra was astounded. For the first time, he was face to face with a man who asserted that he had seen God. For the first time, in fact, he was hearing that God could be seen. He could feel that Ramakrishna's words were uttered from the depths of an inner experience. They could not be doubted.

This was the first time Narendranath met someone who could declare so easily that he had seen God. It was a new experience for Narendranath.

Gautam Sen wrote—^[Source]

Ramakrishna sensed in Narendra the relentless stirrings of an earnest soul, and decided to open the doors of spirituality to the noble youngster.

This was the beginning of the relationship between Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

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Editor's personal comment

In last few days, I have asked several religious people this question "Sir, have you seen God?" without telling them or giving them any clue that I am repeating Vivekananda's question. In most of the cases, I got vague answers like "God is not object to be seen", "God is reached only after that." etc.
Conclusion: It is not easy to find a "Ramakrishna" who can easily declare that he has actually seen God.

Footnotes

1. Narendranath Datta, pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda
2. Although it is considered that Narendranath was influenced by Brahmo Samaj, Vivekananda biographer Rajagopal Chattopadhyay argued, Narendra was not interested in Brahmo Samaj's doctrines and used to go there for his interests in music. We may write a separate article on it. You may see the text here (see "Brahmo influence" section).
3. Actually this was the second meeting between them. Ramakrishna first met Narendranath at the house of Surendranath Mitra, please see this Wikipedia article for details.

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This page was last updated on: 6 May 2014, 8:56 am IST (UTC+5:30 hours)
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