Interpreting Ramakrishna

by Swami Tyagananda

The Indian mystics Ramakrishna (1836-1886) profoundly influenced not only Hinduism in India but also Western interpretations of Hinduism. Ramakrishna has played a critical role in India's religious revival and the growing influence of Hinduism in the West. While he has generally been viewed in the past century as an exemplar who taught inter-religious harmony and individual spiritual striving, this view was shaken with the publication of Kali's Child, with its provocative assertions of Ramakrishna's alleged troubled past and homoerotic proclivities. Was Ramakrishna a troubled mystics and homoerotic Tantrik, whose secrets have been hidden from public view?

“Interpreting Ramakrishna” Kali's Child Revisited offers both a spirited critique of Kali's Child as well as an in-depth examination of Ramakrishna scholarship over the course of the past century, identifying how Ramakrishna has been viewed according to the changing tenor of the times. Providing a thoughtful examination of the problematic inherent in translation and interpretation, Interpreting Ramakrishna offers readers a new model for interpreting historical religious figures that is consistent with rigorous scholarship while maintaining its roots in indigenous paradigms. Interpreting Ramakrishna is, according to Harvard professor Francis X. Clooney, "the best resource we have for understanding Sri Ramakrishna today."

Table of Contents:

• Foreword
• Preface
• A Note on Translation and Transliteration
• Abbreviations
• Ramakrishna Scholarship: A Brief History
• Approaching Kali’s Child
• History of the Debate
• Interpretation in Cross-Cultural Contexts
• Documentation and Translations of the Texts
• The Future of Ramakrishna Studies.

About the Author:

Swami Tyagananda is a Hindu monk of the Ramakrishna Order and presently the head of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston. Currently he is also the Hindu chaplain at MIT and Harvard. He is also a member of American Academy of Religion and the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. He has presented papers at academic conferences and he gives lectures and classes at the Vedanta Society[3], MIT, Harvard, and other colleges in and around Boston.