Impersonal God or Brahman in association with Maya becomes personal God. This universe of names and forms streams forth from God. The power behind this creation, maintenance and absorption is called Maya. Shri Ramakrishna worshipped Maya as the Divine Mother. He taught that Brahman and Maya are not different, like ice and its coldness, fire and its burning power, or a diamond and its effulgence. Throughout the world, God is regarded as Father, Mother, Counselor, Friend,—as everything. But the Indian tradition wants to look upon God as Divine Mother in view of the fact that all living beings emerge from mother.

“Consciousness of the Beyond is the raw material of all religion.” Religion is singular in essence and diverse in manifestation. Every religion may be likened to one pearl strung with others on a necklace whose common cord is the universal soul of each of those religions. Vedanta is concerned with timeless truth and upholds the view that no religion has a monopoly on truth or revelation.

Through divine dispensation, India’s spiritual values and high moral tone expressed through her immortal Sanskrit literature was to make a great impact on the minds of creative writers in the West. Over the last few centuries, the new flavor of Indian literature savored in the West was so enchanting and captivating that responsive writers and thinkers showed their immediate, favorable receptivity to the literary beauty of Indian lore.

Only a great spiritual being can guide human life to perfection. The full personality of one who has risen above human limitations while living in the world is expressed in the ancient Hindu ideal of the rishi. Such a one can be found in the manifestation of Bhisma, the peerless son of Shantanu and Ganga, the great grandsire of the Pandava and Kaurava clans, immortalized in the Mahabharata. In the immortal life of Bhisma, thoughtful individuals will find the prototype of the true Indian hero.

The Hindu mind is singularly dominated by one paramount conception: the divinity of life. Regarding the creation of the universe, Hindu tradition, based on the experiences of illumined mystics, asserts with deep conviction that God is the supreme creator of every thing and every being. The Reality within and the Reality without are identical. There is complete harmony between the individual and the universe, the microcosm and the macrocosm.

Brahman is Self-revealed. It is due to the impurities of the mind that we cannot have a vision of God. Japam, repetition of Om and the Mantram, purifies the mind so that we may have His vision. The spiritual vibrations generated by repeating the holy Name wholeheartedly with faith evoke spiritual emotion that purifies the mind and heart.

Brahman the ultimate Reality is characterized by Satchidananda—sat, chit, and ananda. Sat is Pure Consciousness, the changeless ground of all existence. Chit is self-Awareness or limitless Knowledge, meaning self-luminous and spiritual amidst all material objects. Ananda is intrinsic Bliss, which we enjoy in life in our own way. The Taittiriya Upanishad says that Divinity is “the soul of truth, the delight of the life, and the bliss of mind, the fullness of peace and eternity.” The Infinite and Absolute Being, out of love for suffering humanity, accepts suffering by being born as a human being. Satchidananda comes to us as the Avatara—the Avatara is God in human form. The Avatara comes to inundate the world with a flood of divine compassion which brings life-transforming spiritual vibrations to the entire universe.

The spiritual idealism, eternal wisdom, and hallowed example of the great luminaries Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda ever ignite the divine spark in sincere and noble aspiring souls, wherever they may be. Silent creative minds have had to be inspired and nourished with lofty spiritual ideals in order to live in wisdom and dedicate their lives to the service and cause of Vedanta. The noble Genet family, Jeanne, Rolande and their mother Maman, who lived in the West, is one such example of supreme dedication and devotion to Vedanta.

Among scientists Albert Einstein was a rare soul of singular depth and sincerity, a straightforward personality. He was also a mystic engaged in a lifelong, honest search for the inexorable truth. He had an enquiring intellect. He struggled untiringly to satisfy questions about what he called “a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world.” These characteristics are gifts of incalculable magnitude. The sum of attributes he brought to bear on his dedicated, unwavering search for truth as a scientist qualified him to probe the inner secrets of nature and to respect nature’s revelations. His dedication to science and its mysteries was sustained by his deep spiritual conviction in the harmony of nature.

Einstein was instinctively otherworldly. Anyone who studies his great life in depth must appreciate his humane personality apart from his intellectual brilliance, though the two aspects were harmonious in him. He was always humane in his dealings with others, even when he was misunderstood.