Revivalist discourse in modern hinduism: A socio-religious study of the ramakrishna movement

ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to analyze Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's (1836-1886) revivalist discourse based on three perceptions (i.e. God-Nature, Self, and Society) in the context of the emergence of new religious movements in modern India. Unfortunately, the scope of the study of revivalist movements is generally limited to the Middle East and the Western world, whereas, this piece of work dedicated to South Asia region to make available sources for comparison of Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions in the context of modernity. This would be my larger contribution to the study of revivalist movements. I also aspire to provide an academic discussion to the intellectual scholarships in the field work of studying the religions and modernity. The thesis is composed of four chapters plus introduction and conclusion part. Introduction part explains my methodological, theoretical and conceptual framework of how and why I study the revivalist discourse of Sri Ramakrishna, the importance of this thesis, literature reviews, my aims and positions in the Ramakrishna studies, some statements about my study. Chapter one explores the core dimensions of the socio-religious changes in Bengal in order to find the basic elements of the revivalism in Bengal Renaissance during 1800-1830s. Chapter two contains an overview of Ramakrishna's life considering his spiritual experience turning into religious doctrines. Chapter three examines Ramakrishna's revivalist discourses in his daily speeches as recorded in the Gospel of Ramakrishna. Chapter four concentrates how Ramakrishna's revivalist discourse was perceived by his disciples, especially by his foremost devotee Swami Vivekananda and how Ramakrishna Math and Mission started as an organization. Conclusion part includes all of my research findings of this master thesis project and also it gives a general overview of the concluding remarks of each chapter. Outcomes of his revivalist discourse regarding God-Nature shortly are; everything in universe is an embodiment of God and God is active all the time and takes care of everything; regarding self, attachment to worldly things (i.e. women and gold and egotism) are the main problems of modern man and the solution is realization of God with guidance of a religious leader (guru) by experiencing renunciation, devotion, faith and meditation; regarding society, instead of dogmatism of religions and sects he purposes the idea of harmony of religions.