The Culmination of the Guru-Shishya Parampara: Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

Six chariots are described in Vedic literature. Sitting in the chariot, the soul travels to attain God. The first of these chariots is the chariot of the Rigveda. At one place in the Rigveda, Indra is mentioned as the lord of the divine world. Indra refers to the power of divine knowledge which incarnates to help the human soul who tries to attain truth, light and immortality and fights with untruth and darkness to achieve them. Kutsa is the human soul who is the son of Shvetra or Shvetmata. The white mother here means beyond pure nature, and her son means the human soul whose inner being has become pure and who has become entitled to divine knowledge and is striving for it. When the chariot reaches the destination – the divine world, the soul (Kutsa) becomes so similar to his friend Indra that only Indra’s wife Shachi is able to recognize him. Shachi means true consciousness (Ritachit). This means that as the human soul acquires knowledge, it acquires the resemblance to God (‘Mam sadharmyamagatah’ – Gita 14/2). Indra and Kutsa described in this Vedic anecdote are not historical persons and their struggle for knowledge is also not a historical event. This Vedic truth has become a historical truth by materializing in the first meeting of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda at Dakshineswar. In the present study, the unique Guru-disciple relationship between Ramakrishna Paramahansa and his disciple Vivekananda has been described.