A fellow disciple of Ramakrishna asked Vivekananda why the latter thought of Ramakrishna as God. ‘After all, he is human, just like you and I. I agree that he knows a lot more than us, but how can he be God?’, this man asked.
Vivekananda countered, ‘What do you think God is like?’
The other disciple said, ‘Well. God is omnipresent, omnipresent and omniscient.’
Vivekananda said, ‘Stop. If God is omnipresent you should be able to see him. Have you? Tell me honestly.’
‘No, but..’ stuttered the other man.
‘You fool’, Vivekananda said compassionately, ‘God to you is a mere concept. You have a few words that you have learnt to describe him. To Ramakrishna, God is a realized experience. He radiates that God. He is the closest you will ever get to experiencing God. Make use of this opportunity.’
To those who try to experience the divine as the formless without realizing it in form, God is a mere concept. He is another intellectual tool to influence, control and terrorize others. He is not the friend, the brother, the mother, or the intimate lover that Kabir, Ramakrishna and Theresa visualize. Without a form first, these relationships cannot be born and nurtured. Once experienced, the umbilical cord of the form gets severed on its own, and the formless experience stays.
---Copied and pasted from a book I am reading, cant tell you more, or I will get caught.----
