Sri Shankara joined us to discuss his mission in returning to his beloved India. Next week we’ll be pleased to hear from the new Buddha – who styles himself the Buddha of Unity – also with major relevance to India. Both Sri Shankara and the new Buddha are here to promote unity in the world and India is to be a leader in that development.
Sri Shankara lived in the eighth-century and was the founder of modern Indian monasticism as well as a prolific interpreter of the holy books and a profound spiritual teacher.
Here he explains the way the masters that India is expecting will incarnate and who will be here. He explains many matters relating to faith and spirituality. There are unexpected surprises in what he has to say. Thank you to Ellen for our transcript today.
An Hour with an Angel, June 24, 2013, with Sri Shankara
Geoffrey West: Greetings, and blessings to all. Welcome to another Hour with an Angel, with Linda Dillon, channel for the Council of Love and author of the book The Great Awakening.
Joining her this evening is Steve Beckow, founder of the website Golden Age of Gaia and author of Building Nova Earth — Towards a World that Works for Everyone.
I’m Geoffrey West sitting in for GD this evening.
We are continuing a series of venturing into unfamiliar territory this evening. We’ll be attempting to connect with an eighth-century Indian avatar named Sri Shankara, whose name has been pronounced in several different ways in the western world, but I will introduce him in this way.
Among other things, Sri Shankara will be addressing some of the ways in which religions have drifted away from their original purpose, and as well he will address his purpose and service to India at this time.
I believe Linda will be coming on for a few moments as herself. So with that, I will turn things over to you, Steve.
Steve Beckow: Thank you, Geoff. And before we introduce Sri Shankara, perhaps Linda can come forward? I think you have a few announcements, Linda?
Linda Dillon: Oh, I don’t have any announcements. I just wanted to say hi to everybody and to talk a little bit about what a departure this is, not only for Hour with an Angel, but for me and what I, quote-unquote, “normally do”…
SB: Please do.
LD: … as channel for the Council of Love.
And I don’t think people always realize that being a channel isn’t necessarily like turning on a switch. And I teach channeling, and so I teach people this.
But it’s allowing that energy or that being to basically come and cohabitate with you for a period of time, stepping out of the way so that they can basically use your body, your voice box, your tongue, your mouth to communicate what they really want.
And I’ve always been very humble about — or maybe awed is a better word — who I’m honored with coming through. You know, when I began channeling I spent a lot of years basically in practice. And it took me, oh, over three years to even admit out loud to anybody else that I was channeling Archangel Gabriel, because it seemed like such a ego statement!
It almost felt like, oh, hubris. So, we expand this circle of who is coming in and who is channeling in. I have no doubt that Shankara is part of the Council of Love, which is a massive, massive umbrella group of enlightened beings, of pure light beings who are helping to return and anchor love on Earth.
But I also wanted to give our audience, our listeners, our partners, our family, a heads-up that sometimes when I’m channeling a new being the pace of speaking — because we’re new to each other as it were — is a little slower. And certainly [laughs] some of the expressions or words that I’m hearing in my mind are real tongue twisters that I’m not familiar with.
So, while I really honor — really honor! — the Indian tradition, that hasn’t been my path in this lifetime, which he has reminded me of as we’ve been sitting here chatting and meditating.
I guess all of us have done most paths at some point in time, but in this lifetime it hasn’t been my path — so I’m also asking for you, Steve, to act as a translator, or to interject where you feel that maybe some further explanation would be helpful for our listeners to understand what’s being referred to.
SB: Sure.
LD: And I want to give a special, personal greeting and bow to our listeners and our family in India who are joining us tonight. And… thank you for letting me do this. So, that’s it. Back to you, Steve.
SB: Thanks, Linda. And our listeners as well in Fiji and some parts of Africa, and the United States.
LD: Yes.
SB: … of Indian background. Thank you, Linda.
LD: And the whole thing that Shankara has been talking to me about is the theme… his big theme is unity. So, I’m sure he’ll be talking not only about India or Fiji or Africa, but the entire planet! [laughs]
SB: Wonderful. Linda, did you want to say anything about your temporary absence?
LD: Oh, my goodness! Yes. [laughs] Yeah, I guess I’d better, huh?
I am going to be away for a period of at least three weeks. I hope it’s certainly no longer than three weeks. And after doing my due diligence of healing and having half the civilized world, above and below, work on me, I’m required to have some surgery on my wrist and forearm. And so that means I’m basically going to be out of commission for a few weeks.
But what we’ve done is we have pre-recorded three sessions of Hour with an Angel, with the wonderful help from Steve and Geoff and Suzy Maresca. And so you actually are in for some phenomenal treats.
One of the shows, I believe, that is going to be coming up next week on Canada Day is a discussion with the future Buddha, one of the future Buddhas. And then a series of two weeks with Archangel Michael on the nature of spiritual evolution.
These are incredible shows. I don’t know if they gave the extra Monty knowing it [that Linda will be away, that is]! Something extra needed to be there to carry forth the energy. But I also get the feeling — and this is just between the 5,000, 8,000, 10,000, 5 billion of us — that something really big in terms of change during this period is in the air.
So my request for each of you, and for myself while I’m in this quiet phase, is just open your hearts and receive all the blessings and the shifts that are taking place, and follow the mantra of “allow.”
You know, Jesus Sananda, when he talked about this year and what it was about, the theme for 2013 was about change, it was about unification — which we’re going to hear about today — and allowance and acceptance. So, just let it come.
Thanks for the reminder, Steve.
SB: Okay. Thank you, Linda. And while you’re just getting ready, allow me to say to Sri Shankara, first of all, welcome, and how indebted I am to you for the spiritual understanding that you contributed through your learned works to me, my favorite of which is the Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. (1) I certainly never imagined that I’d be talking with you! And with that, I welcome Sri Shankara.
Sri Shankara: And I welcome you. And I thank you for the honoring that you give me. But you may certainly call me Shankara. You may call me whatever you wish, for as you well know, I have been known by many names.
But this is a name that honors our Mother, Shakti, (2) and so it is one of my favorites. It is a new experience, and you would not think that I would have many new experiences.
But it is a new experience for me to speak through this girl, as I know it is for her as well. But I should say that I am not only in gratitude, but that our energies are quite harmonious together. And I will adjust as necessary to take care of what needs to be addressed.
I come this night, always, as friend, but also as teacher. For my role of teaching has never been completed, and it never will be, for there is always more to understand. Unless, of course, you have completed your journey and you have reunited back to the Brahman [i.e, God]. (3)
But for most of you, of course, this is not so. And I do not mean this in a discouraging way, but there is a distance to be covered, and I am pleased to discuss this and talk about how to cover this distance.
Your planet, this dear Earth, and all upon her, are in a period of unification and learning that there is no difference between any of you, that you are all the faces of the One, and that there has never been any true separation. (4)
Yes, there are a multitude of expressions, and there are a multitude of journeys, but when you truly look at them, when you anchor within your knowing instead of your mind, you will come to understand that you are no different than your neighbor or your brother, who is either your birth brother or the brother that lives across the planet, or — let us even broach another subject — a brother who lives on a distant planet.
There is only one journey, and there is only one essence though many expressions. You know, what I say to you as I come forth this night as Shankara is not substantially different than what I have said so many centuries ago. And it is the same message that I have practiced and that I have done.
And [the true achievement] is to prostrate your ego. It is to let go of what you think you are and to become who you truly are. For you are the face of the god and goddess, (5) yes, but you are so much more than that as well.
When I walked the world, the Earth, the rock and stone and dust and the rich earth of my beloved India, my Mother, there was so much division. And I would like to speak of arrogance during the conversation this night.
There was too much division between the people and the systems of caste, of society, of beliefs, of pathways. They tore people apart. They erected stone walls between families and communities and individuals where none needed to exist. And during that time what I would see was a great deal of arrogance. And I do not say this in the sense of material arrogance, although that was present too. But it was the spiritual arrogance that I addressed my words to.
Because what it did, and does, is it places one in a position or a belief in their superiority over another. It anchors within the being the false understanding that they are in a superior position of favor, and they are not.
Now, you could argue that all are in a superior position of favor, or none are, but is this not a futile argument? And what it does is it continues the separation. It continues this belief, this arrogance that one is better and one is not.
You may not think that I am capable of holding the energy of dismay, but is it not unfortunate that, as I speak to you in the 21st century, that this arrogance has not faded? Has it changed a little? Very little? Yes.
But if anything, it has grown and solidified. And this has been the biggest hurdle for you to overcome in your Ascension process, in your return to your next cycle — yes, your return to your next cycle.
So it is this sense of arrogance, of spiritual entitlement and arrogance, that simply must be allowed to flow away from you. Can this be a time of renunciation, for all on Earth, where you declare not only the understanding that there are many faces, many pathways, but that they are equal?
Now, you can say to me, “Sri, do you not think that this way, this approach, this pathway, this journey is more effective in terms of return?” (6) And what I can say to you is yes. For you, this may be the chosen and therefore the best pathway. But you do not decide for your brother, for your sister. That would be arrogant. And that would not be of love.
I come to reunite what you think of not as religions, because religion and the expression of stratification in society does not truly serve. The journey of enlightenment, of return, is individual and collective.
Now, do you need to know the Vedas? (7) Do you need to practice, read, meditate? Of course you do. How else will you come to know? But that does not mean that the universal understanding of sacred word, of teaching, does not come into form and play.
There is too much division. And I know in my time I spoke very strongly in favor of one path. (8) That is not what I speak of this day. I speak of the path of love, of compassion, and yes, of diligence. Your spiritual path, the journey, is not something that you pick up or set down, that you practice on certain days or times of day. It is in every breath and fiber of your being. It is not separate from what you think of as your personality or your life or your family life or your work life or your community.
It cannot be separate, for it is the core which feeds and directs everything you do. It fuels you in terms of how you go forward, how you behave, how you even think, because you do not arrive at the truth simply by thinking of it. That is the gift that you have been given during this time of change and transition. It has been the opening of your heart consciousness, in the words you use.
But I am sure, my friend, you have many questions for me this day. And I know that we are not sitting or walking upon some dusty path, that our time is limited and yet it is infinite at the same time.
SB: Thank you. I can’t bring myself to just call you Shankara, I’m afraid, but Sri Shankara, thank you.
I share your commitment to reunification. I’d certainly like to see the rise of a cross-cultural spirituality. And so let me ask you two questions that you don’t need to take a long time to answer. (9) I’ll ask them both at the same time. And the first is, is what Hindus call Brahman, Atman and Shakti the same as what Christians call the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? And the second is, what is the connection between what Hindus call Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, (10) and the gunas or the cosmic forces of rajas, sattwa and tamas? (11)
SS: I can answer this very quickly. There are no differences.
These are cultural understandings. Now, you know, particularly to answer your first question, that in India there is a very lengthy, rich and proud tradition of belief. And I do not say this in any way to diminish, because, as I have said to you, the theme is unification. We have simply spent more time and more focus.
But yes, your understandings and your efforts to bring unification of terms — because that is what it is; it is simply language; it is different words for the same energies — [are welcome.] Now, do I ask you to stop using these words? Of course not.
But is there inherent in your growing understanding a cross-cultural, as you have put it, spiritual underpinning? Because we are not speaking religion. We are speaking spirituality. We are speaking faith. We are speaking the core of your life.
You do not have to change your language or your reference points, because they all end at the same place [Brahman or God]. They all begin, travel and end at the same place.
SB: All right. Thank you for that. I’d now like to ask some questions that I think that our Indian audience would want me to ask. And the first one is, who is returning with you for India? For instance, is Sri Ramakrishna returning?
SS: Yes. (12)
SB: And who else might be returning to mentor India?
SS: There will be a combination of beings. As you know, [Paramahansa] Yogananda will also return. And although there has been much discrepancy, the unified energy of Sai Baba will also return. There will be many teachers that have not been seen in centuries and centuries.
Yes, Yogi Bhajan as well. [laughing] He wanted to be included! But let me be very emphatic also about this. One of the keys to this, not only for India but for your entire planet, is to see the master in the face of your neighbor. Be prepared, as once I have been, to see Shiva in the most unexpected of forms and places, much the same as you would see your western masters.
Now, I do not ask you to throw yourself on the ground, but then again, what harm can it do? There is nothing that eliminates arrogance more quickly than allowing yourself to lie on the Earth, giving praise and acknowledging God.
My purpose, as you know, is unity. Now, that is going to be a theme of all the masters. So let me be clear about this. There is not one master that returns —and, by the way, that is not a term I use for myself — but there is no one that returns that does not come with a theme of unification.
For some, it will take different expressions. But the underlying theme will still be unification. And it is unification of all peoples, of all castes, of all pathways. And I do not simply mean Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Jew, I mean all people.
You know this because the Buddha also speaks to you.
SB: Yes, the Buddha will be speaking next week. (13)
SS: Yes. How do you arrive at a higher dimensional world, embracing each other in unification and love? Well, that is what we are here to assist you with. But it is also what we are here to act as — transformers, catalysts, agents, teachers.
Now, we come knowing your capacity and your desire to let go of these old separations, to renounce what has not served. And it did not serve in the eighth century, and it does not serve you now. Do you not think it is time?
SB: Yes indeed. Sri Shankara, I think many Indians would want me to ask this question of you. You’ve said that Sri Ramakrishna would be returning, and, indeed, he said, too, that he would be coming back around this time. He had one more incarnation. Now, he is an incarnation of Vishnu, if I understand the matter correctly.
Does his return mean that Sri Rama and Sri Krishna will not be returning, that they are embodied in the same individual that we call Sri Ramakrishna? Or will Sri Rama and Sri Krishna be returning as well? (14)
SS: No, they will return as one.
And I tell you why — and again, it is because of this time of unification. Now, it is not that the energies of each will not be fully present. But Rama and Vishnu, they hold hands and they dance the eternal dance of joy, so that all that have dedicated their lives and their journeys, for many, many incarnations, can come to understand both faces, not in a sense of duality, but in a sense of One. There are many faces, but there is only one essence. So that is why the decision — and yes, it has been a decision; and it is already made — why this decision has been that they will come as one.
This energy will, quite literally, have the effect of turning the tide.
SB: All right. Now, you said Rama and Vishnu, but I assume you meant Rama and Krishna? Is that correct?
SS: Yes. And Vishnu.
SB: Well, can you explain for our listeners how it can be that Rama and Krishna could be incarnations of Vishnu, and yet Vishnu himself would also come? I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around that. Could you help me out, please?
SS: I want you to think of it as a trinity, as the full embodiment of all. You see, you think that it has to be either/or, but it does not have to be. For sometimes there is an overlighting presence that will enable such a unification to take place. And that is exactly what is happening in this situation.
SB: Okay. That sounds much like what Sri Ramakrishna used to say when he described who was inside him, that he was there, that the Mother was there…. Is that correct? (15)
SS: That is correct.
SB: Now, two questions about the masters returning. One, when will we be seeing them in their physical forms? And, two, are they returning as emanations, temporary emanations, or have they incarnated?
SS: Well, there has been incarnation into a physical form. Now, not all will be physical incarnations. For example, there will be an emanation of the original energies of many of the masters, so that there can be a return to first cause and first level of understanding, which was very often the most pure understanding. But many of the masters have chosen that they will, in fact, take a form.
Now, of course they come to teach and to show the way to fulfillment, to bless you, but also some of them come simply because in their journeys they also wish to see this change.
Think of it in this way — and it does not matter whether it is the teachings of the East or the West, the North or the South. These teachers have committed their lives to showing the way, yes, of course, to the fulfillment and the return to the Source, to Brahman, but they also wish to see the elimination of hatred and greed, of separation and isolation. They wish to see their brothers and sisters, their children, become.
So they come to witness, but they also come to participate in this joyous occasion.
Now, you know, in the tradition that I bring forward…. Now, I am not asking you to go and to be a monk any longer. I am asking you to step forward in the fullness of your human self, but to know, in the Indian way, how to celebrate, with great fanfare, this opening that you have worked for, that you have dedicated yourself to, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, under my tutelage or the tutelage of others.
Do not deny yourself the joy of this time. Yes, I know many of you have turned to me and said, “Shankara, I have never felt such heaviness on my shoulders. Can you please lift this burden from my shoulders, from my head and from my heart?” Of course I will. And it will start with the acceptance that you are on the way home. It will start with a renunciation of any form of arrogance.
I want you to look at who you occupy your home, your building, your places of work with. I want you to look at the one who sells fruit or sits in the street begging, and I want you to see yourself — no better and no worse, simply together on this journey of becoming.
So, we return because we want to be part of it. It is that simple. Of course we serve. And we serve your sacred self as well — as you do, and always have, served us. We acknowledge that and it is important, that your dedication and your faithfulness not only be acknowledged but rewarded as well.
SB: Sri Shankara, you said that Ramakrishna, Rama and Vishnu would be returning, but I just want to clarify whether you said that Krishna would be returning as well. And then can you tell us when we’ll be seeing the masters?
SS: Krishna is returning, returned, and present, in the unified form. So let me be very clear about this. Do you have a few minutes, and then I will tell you when they will be here? Because it is as as close as that.
SB: Please, but when you do explain, I’m not clear what you just said — you said that Krishna will be here in his unified form — I’m not clear whether that means that we’ll be able to see Sri Krishna, or he’ll be part of someone else? So, please, do help me understand that.
SS: It will be a reunification of what you have thought of as Krishna. That is what I mean. It will be one master that comes in a new form to light the way.
SB: Now, one master that comprises Rama, Vishnu, Krishna, Sri Ramakrishna?
SS: That is correct.
SB: All right. Now, if they’re born into form, then they grow up. There is a period of time during which they’re very young, and it probably wouldn’t be a good thing for the parents, or for them, to be widely known. When will this unified form be ready to announce itself?
SS: The fullness of the child will come to be known in a very full way in a number of years, in about two to four years. Now, this also depends, because it is not black and white. The child is present, yet being protected, shall we say, hidden — and for good cause, because we do not want the growth of this being interfered with. Nor do we wish the family and the extended family to be interfered with.
But it also is part of your coming to a place, just like, in many ways, the return of the Christ. It is much the same energy, is it not? And we do not want to have the Earth still in a place of such turmoil where you would kill this person.
So it is also dependent on the evolution and the renunciation of arrogance and the embrace of love, so that you can be in the presence of this being, this mighty return, without wishing harm, or even worse, doing harm. So, is he protected? Of course he is. Of course.
But is it kept behind the screen as it were, until such time as the human collective is also at a point in their Ascension that they can accept this? Not that they would not accept the reality of this reunification, but if they can accept it and receive the love and the energy that this one is anchoring already upon the planet, without interference, with only love and community, and understanding.
So, the purpose of this reunification is the next step that I am speaking of. But it is also tied to all of you, from the North Pole to the South Pole, and everywhere in between, coming to a place where you have said, “We no longer embrace the illusions.”
Now, the illusions can still be in the process of changing form and disintegrating, but what creates that disintegration is in fact the renunciation of them. So, as you commit — Michael has used the term that it is making peace with the third; I use the word renunciation because this is something that every person who hears my voice will understand — renounce greed, and embrace sharing.
Renounce hatred, and embrace understanding, cooperation, community. And renounce hatred of yourself, of what you think you have done and what you have done, and embrace the love that Brahman and Shakti [i.e., the Father/Mother God] have for you.
Renounce what you no longer wish to experience. And renounce it and do not go into the monastery or the cave. Go to the square. Go to the places that are crowded, and share. You do not need to teach. You have need to simply be and to embrace each other.
SB: Two more questions before we run out of time, Sri Shankara. One is, if I were to see this consolidated reincarnation, shall we say, and I am a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, would I see Sri Ramakrishna? Would a devotee of Krishna see Sri Krishna? Would a devotee of Rama see Sri Rama?
And the second is, apart from the incarnations who are yet very young, those who come in as emanations, those who come in, or have come in earlier, when will we see them?
SS: You have begun to see some emanations on your planet. But let me answer your first question. For example, if you wish to see Krishna, or Rama, that is what you will see. That is what you will recognize. That is what you will hear. That is what you will taste and feel. And then you will say to yourself, “But I think there is more.”
It is as if you are looking through a tunnel and you see your beloved one. And you see Krishna looking back at you. And then you take your hands away and the tunnel is no longer there, and you think, wait! There is more on the edges. And you begin to see.
And what happens in this seeing, even as you look at your beloved master, at your godhead, the opening begins to occur in your heart. It is similar to being flooded. So when you are being flooded, you do not simply say, “Oh, my goodness! My toe is wet!” You look around, and the whole room is flooded.
So you may think of it as a monsoon of love. And everywhere you walk there will be love, and you will be able to see, because that is how powerful it will be. There will be no capacity for denial of this. And you are already beginning to see the emanations.
Look to each other. Do not simply look to us. Look to each other, because the teachers are already there.
SB: Sri Shankara, did you have a lifetime on Earth in between the eighth century and now?
SS: [chuckles] I have been quite busy, yes! Now, you are asking me about ancient history, but I will also tell you that I have spent a great deal of time simply with Source, with One. But I have traveled to other planetary constellations. I am known by different names, particularly…. They are quite fond of me, I shall say, on Andromeda and Arcturus.
There are very similar understandings, you know. And for many of you it is of more of an eastern slant. And that is why, when you have arrived on Earth, you have tended…. it is not simply your incarnations upon the planet in the east, it is the incarnations elsewhere as well. And that is why the teachings feel so familiar.
But for now, I wish you to think of me as Shankara.
SB: All right. Thank you very much for that. Did I know you on Arcturus?
SS: Yes, you have known me on Arcturus. You have known me very well on Arcturus.
SB: Boy, that is very exciting. Very exciting. Well, we’re probably near the end….
[music begins]
I’m afraid we’re at the end of the show! Thank you, again, Sri Shankara. I know we’ll have you on the program many more times. And I look forward to actually meeting you! Thank you very much.
SS: You will.
SB: Thank you.
SS: I think the word is farewell.
SB: Farewell.
[end]
Footnotes
(1) The translation of a work is so very, very important and the best translation of Sri Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination for my money is by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher lsherwood: Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947.
(2) One of the many names of the Mother meaning the bestower of happiness. The Divine Mother is God’s aspect as the primal universal creative vibration known as Aum. The Mother is sound and movement; the Father is stillness and silence.
(3) The object of life is to return to God or Brahman, after we learn our true identity as God or Brahman.
(4) Which is another way to say the development of unitive consciousness, the hallmark of the Fifth Dimension. The stage of enlightenment associated with that development is sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.
(5) Brahman and Shakti, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. I do acknowledge that the Divine Mother has said that she is much, much more than just Shakti or the Holy Spirit.
(6) Shankara could be referring to Hinduism but he could also be referring to the path of Advaita Vedanta or Non-Dualism within Hinduism.
(7) One of the holiest set of books in Hinduism. Non-Dualism traces to the Upanishads, which are sections of the Vedas dealing with the non-dual Reality. Shankara wrote major commentaries on the Upanishads.
(8) Non-dualism or Advaita Vedanta.
(9) Because they may not interest all listeners. But if he can just confirm the accuracy of the relationships stated, I can do the rest by writing articles for the blog.
(10) Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are known as the Trimurthy in Hinduism. The Trimurthy is not the same as the Christian Trinity. The Trimurthy is a subset of the Divine Mother or Shakti. The Christian Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is equivalent to the Hindu Trinity of Brahman, Atman and Shakti.
The gunas are the cosmic forces of creation, preservation and transformation (rajas, sattwa, and thamas) and are a subset of Sakti, the Divine Mother, which itself is the creative vibration Aum. Aum is composed of Akar (Brahma, rajas), Umkar (Vishnu, sattwa) and Makar (Shiva, thamas).
(12) Sri Ramakrishna predicted his return:
“I shall have to be born once more. Therefore I am not giving all knowledge to my companions. (With a smile.)
“Suppose I give you all knowledge; will you then come to me again so willingly?” (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 359.)
“The Master said he would come again after a hundred years. … Standing on the semicircular verandah of Dakshineswar, the Master said this.” (Sri Sarada Devi in Swami Chetanananda, ed. and trans. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him. St Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990, 31.)
“On a certain occasion the Master, standing on the semi-circular verandah of his room, said that he would be born again after a hundred years.” (Swami Chetananda, They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 65.)
(13) Not Gautama, but his successor. The Lord Maitreya is also known as the Buddha. The new Buddha is the Buddha of Unity. Maitreya styles himself as the Buddha of Love.
(14) Rama, Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna are all Incarnations of Vishnu.
“Divine portents had filled the [parents of Sri Ramakrishna] with great expectations. … Khudiram [the father] … had been to Gaya on a pilgrimage. He had a wonderful vision there. Lord [Vishnu] … appeared before him in a dream and said, ‘Khudiram, I shall be born in your cottage.’” (Swami Smaranananda, Sri Ramakrishna. A Biography in Pictures. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1981 9.)
“I have become! I am here!” (Vishnu in GSR, 357.)
“He who was Rama and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna – but not in your Vedantic sense.” (Paramahansa Ramakrishna, in answer to a stray thought in Narendra’s mind, shortly before his death, in GSR, 72.)
(15) “I feel that it is the Divine Mother Herself who dwells in this body and plays with the devotees.” (PR in GSR, 831.)
“Here are two beings. One is She and the other is Her devotee.” (PR in GSR, 71.)