Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 29, 2013.

In this talk on understanding Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Bhaskarananda explains why the idea of divine incarnation can be difficult to accept, and why it nevertheless stands at the heart of both Vedanta and Christianity. He uses simple analogies—such as water taking solid form, the ocean appearing as waves, and a king traveling incognito—to show how the formless Divine can appear in human form while remaining unchanged in its essence. From this perspective, Sri Ramakrishna’s divinity is “hidden” behind a human disguise, so that many who meet him see only a gentle, childlike, seemingly uneducated man.

The lecture then focuses on how Sri Ramakrishna deliberately maintained these disguises, sometimes even denying extraordinary experiences others attributed to him, so that the work of awakening spirituality could proceed naturally. Swami Bhaskarananda describes Sri Ramakrishna’s power to kindle spiritual awareness in others, and recounts several incidents from the lives of his disciples and companions that illustrate both his concealment and his occasional, brief self-disclosure. The talk concludes by noting that complete intellectual explanation is not required: what matters is recognizing Sri Ramakrishna’s continuing spiritual support for those who seek knowledge of the Self and a life oriented toward the Divine.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 22, 2013.

In this Christmas-season talk, Swami Bhaskarananda reflects on “the Christ we adore” from within the broad religious outlook of the Vedanta tradition. He explains why the Ramakrishna Order honors Jesus as a divine incarnation, recounting Sri Ramakrishna’s vision of Christ and using it to emphasize the unity of the one Divine Reality appearing through different spiritual teachers in different times and cultures. Placing Jesus in the context of India’s understanding of avatāras, he also touches on how religious language and institutions can become distorted by worldly motives, recalling the money-changers in the temple and Jesus’ challenge to hypocrisy.

Swami Bhaskarananda highlights how Jesus embodies multiple yogic paths: devotion expressed through prayer and love of God, knowledge through teachings such as “the kingdom of God is within you” and “I and my Father are one,” and selfless action through compassion, courage, and forgiveness. He notes that while miracles draw attention, Christ’s deeper greatness is revealed in fearlessness, moral clarity, and mercy—especially in praying for his tormentors and in his response to the woman accused of adultery.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 15, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda introduces Sri Sarada Devi—revered as the Holy Mother and the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna—as a divine incarnation whose distinctive mission was to reveal the motherhood of God. He explains that within the Vedantic tradition, the Divine is beyond gender and limitation, yet can be approached through various relationships—mother, father, child, friend—according to the temperament of the devotee. In this sense, Sarada Devi embodies the maternal aspect of the Divine with a tenderness that welcomes all, without exclusion.

He describes her universal, all-inclusive love and the way she guided seekers with simple, practical counsel, such as learning to see one’s own shortcomings rather than dwelling on the faults of others, and regarding the whole world as one family. Alongside this steady motherly compassion, he recounts a few traditional accounts in which she briefly revealed spiritual power, always in the spirit of protection rather than display. The talk closes by emphasizing her blessing for all—those who came to her and those who did not—and her enduring presence as a refuge for anyone who turns to her in sincerity.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 8, 2013.

Drawing on a well-known statement of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Bhaskarananda examines the meaning of “Weakness is sin” from a Vedantic perspective. He clarifies weakness as a sense of mental or physical inadequacy rooted in identification with the body–mind complex, and sin as violation of one’s essential nature (dharma). Using traditional definitions, he explains dharma as that which sustains a thing’s true identity, and argues that for human beings this sustaining reality is divine consciousness rather than the changing conditions of body, mind, or circumstance.

He then unfolds a Vedantic analysis of fear, ego, and individuality, showing how weakness arises when consciousness identifies with matter and multiplicity, giving rise to fear and limitation. Through analogies drawn from scripture, nature, and everyday life, he emphasizes that strength means clarity of identity rather than physical force—a firmness grounded in understanding one’s real nature beyond time, space, and causation. Referring to teachings from the Upanishads and parallels in other traditions, he concludes that spiritual strength is cultivated by loosening attachment to transient names and forms, allowing awareness of inherent divinity to become steady and fearless.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 1, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda continues his exploration of the mind by urging listeners to “know your own mind,” describing it as the closest companion one can never escape—bringing disturbance even into solitude if it is not understood and trained. He surveys several Western views of mind (from Greek notions of psyche to later philosophical and scientific theories) and contrasts them with Indian philosophical approaches, especially the Sankhya and Vedantic understanding that mind is a subtle form of matter arising from prakriti, enlivened when consciousness is reflected within it.

He then explains Vedanta’s analysis of the inner instrument (antahkarana) through its four functions—manas (indeterminate cognition), buddhi (determination and reasoning), chitta (memory), and ahankara (the sense of “I”). He notes that mind is not confined to the brain but can function throughout the body and, through the senses, outward toward objects—illustrating this with traditional accounts and a discussion of thought transference. He concludes by describing the three gunas—sattva (clarity and joy), rajas (restlessness and drive), and tamas (inertia and confusion)—and emphasizes spiritual practice as the effort to make sattva predominant, since a clarified mind is the best instrument for awakening awareness of inherent divinity.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on November 24, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda examines the nature of thought, explaining that thinking, feeling, and willing are all forms of knowing, and that a single thought can “wear” many garments—such as different languages or different emotional tones. Using Vedantic analogies, he describes thought as a modification of the mind (vritti), like waves arising on still water, and he outlines the relationship between mind and the sense powers, emphasizing that the senses are subtle instruments that operate through the physical organs.

He then turns to how thought can assume increasingly complex forms, from simple images and sounds to the vast, composite world experienced in dreams. From this, he introduces a Vedantic perspective on appearance and reality: names and forms change, but underlying existence is unchanging and belongs to the Divine. Through illustrations such as the ocean and its waves, and the screen on which a film is projected, he points to the need to disidentify from the mind’s shifting “garments” of ego, status, and pleasure-pain, in order to approach awareness of inherent divinity. He concludes by noting the tradition’s teaching on levels of speech and sacred sound, and by encouraging earnest spiritual practice under the guidance of scripture and teacher, so that knowledge of the Self can dawn beyond the restless play of thought.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on November 17, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda explains Vedanta as a body of spiritual knowledge rather than a founder-based “religion,” clarifying how the terms “Hindu” and “Hinduism” arose historically while the Vedantic tradition developed through the insights of the rishis and the teachings preserved in the Vedas and Upanishads. He describes Vedanta’s central emphasis on the omnipresence of the Divine and the way bondage arises through identification with the body-mind complex, which obscures awareness of inherent divinity.

Turning to “echoes” of these ideas in other faiths, he first highlights Taoism, noting its shared stress on inwardness, stillness, and freedom from egoic limitation—parallels he illustrates through sayings attributed to Lao Tzu alongside Vedantic and yogic teachings on sense-withdrawal and mental quietude. He then points to resonant themes in Christianity, including the call to purity of heart and the possibility of direct vision of God, as well as statements that suggest unity with the Divine. Finally, he discusses Sufism as a mystical current within Islam, emphasizing its language of divine immanence, renunciation, and the indispensable role of teacher and disciple—showing how, across traditions, disciplined spiritual practice can lead to knowledge of the Self beyond the confines of ego and limitation.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on November 10, 2013.

Swami Bhaskarananda explains the Vedantic idea of maya by first examining how we ordinarily judge what is real. While sense perception leads us to treat the world as unquestionably real, he notes that the senses can mislead, as in a mirage, and introduces a traditional criterion: the real is that which is changeless and eternal. Using the familiar movement through waking, dream, and dreamless sleep, he shows how a dream appears real while it lasts, yet is later dismissed because it is impermanent and dependent on the mind’s temporary ignorance of waking experience. From this, he raises the question of whether the waking world may also be a kind of appearance.

Turning to creation, he contrasts modern scientific uncertainty about the “singularity” of the Big Bang with Vedic reflection, especially the creation hymn’s suggestion that even the Creator may not “know” creation in an ultimate sense. In Advaita Vedanta, maya is described as a power of magic or illusion: from the standpoint of transcendental reality, the world has no independent existence, yet to embodied consciousness it appears compellingly real. He concludes by addressing the classic definition of maya as “inexplicable”—neither simply existent nor nonexistent—ending with the implication that as knowledge of the Self dawns, maya comes to an end for the seeker.