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Ramakrishna Mission is a organization founded by Swami Vivekananda. In their centers they only have,what they call "Holy Trio"( Ramakrishna-Sarda-Vivekananda) but not any Hindu deities. Sure, they DO worship deities on occasions such as Krishna on Janmashtmi, even jesus on christmas. But even then the main focus is on the holy trio.

When Swami Vivekananda was asked about the difference between Ramkrishnaites Hindus and Traditional Hindus,he answered that only one distinction exist i.e the ramkrishnaites don't believe in birth based caste system.But traditional Hindus, though revere their Gurus,they also worship Vedic deities,but such practice is absent in Ramakrishna Mission centers.This makes one wonder if these changes were made after Vivekananda departed.

Now in another question I asked if RamaKrishna Mission considers itself a Hindu organization which references to an infamous court case in 1980s when Ramakrishna Mission tried to separate itself from Hinduism legally.They gave various theological differences including their claim that Ramakrishnaites consider quran and bible as authentic(giving Ramakrishna practicing islam and christianity as a reaskn) as Vedas where as Traditional Hindus only consider Vedic Scriptures as authentic,among others.(Sources are available in the question above).

Doing some research about this I only managed to find a quora post. This quora post has an answer which explains that for Ramakrishna Mission ,

Ramskrishna is Vishnu, Sarda is Shakti and Vivekananda is Shiva.

In the same answer it is said that,

It is also pertinent to note here that after Ramakrishna's passing away, Sarada Devi who gave Mantra Diksha to countless disciples would initiate them to appropriate personal Gods (like Krishna, Devi, Shiva and so on) based on their tastes and samskaras. Even other direct disciples like Swami Brahmananda used to give Mantra initiation on different personal Gods during their times. It was only in later years that Senior Monks of RK Mutt who were empowered to give Mantra Diksha restricted initiations to devotees with Ramakrishna Mantra only. On account of such developments, RK Mutt did get some criticism from closer circles that there was a tendency to narrow down Ramakrishna movement to a cult.

Now I know that quora posts are not really a good source but this might point to the direction that these changes of not worshipping Hindu deites(or giving Mantra Diksha of Vedic Gods) and increasing focus on holy trio(Ramakrishna in particular) might signify the organization trying to distinguish itself from Hinduism due to the case referenced earlier( in my another question) which was done AFTER Vivekananda's departure.

So my question is, why no Hindu deites are actively worshipped in Ramakrishna Mission centers? Is this an old practice or a newer one (post-Vivekananda) in order to show themselves as separate from Hinduism?

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  • We should not get confused with What Sri Sarada Devi did with what subsequent RK Mutt authorities are doing now. The calibre and stature of Sri Sarada Devi cannot be compared to authorities of RK mutt of subsequent generations. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa himself described her to be incarnation of Devi Sarada herself. Gurus of her caliber will have their own way of doing things. Humans of ordinary caliber should not mimic them. – Srimannarayana K V Jan 24 '20 at 1:41
  • RK Mutt basically follows Advaitic concept, where attainment of SELF REALISATION will be given importance, rather than euloging deities like Shiva, Vishnu, etc. There was a tradition of meditating on the form of one's Guru, rather than reciting any mantra or nama japa. SPIRITUALITY is a SIMPLE yet a complex subject – Srimannarayana K V Jan 24 '20 at 1:44
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    they do worship hindu dieties in ramakrishna mission. – Swami Vishwananda Jan 24 '20 at 6:45
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    @srimannarayanakv Advaita etc are irrelevant here. The fact is that they do worship Hindu deities. Their Durga Puja rituals are actually covered by Doordarshan. – Rickross Jan 24 '20 at 7:35
  • @srimannarayanakv but by what authorities can RKM what Sarda Devi herself did i.e initiating disciples by giving them mantra for various Vedic Gods? Now RKM only give diksha of Ramakrishna mantra. – RishX Jan 24 '20 at 7:50
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The OP raised the following issues here:

  • why no Hindu deites are actively worshipped in Ramakrishna Mission centers?

  • Is this an old practice or a newer one (post-Vivekananda) in order to show themselves as separate from Hinduism?

Further, in comment section, the OP confirmed that the actual question is

Why the authority of RK mutt not initiating devotees into mantras of deities?

  1. As the OP quoted the question from Quora, I am reproducing an answer from there itself. In another answer from Quora, it was stated as follows:

In all centers of Ramakrishna mission, all Hindu deities are worshiped. The ones I have witnessed, Lord Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Hanuman. Mata Durga, Kali and Saraswati are also worshiped.

So all other deities are being worshipped.

  1. One of the member (Sri Pradip Gangopadhyay) of the site had already given answer to this question.

The Swami smiled and said of course the RKM organization is a Hindu organization and these arguments are given by lawyers to stop the Communists from taking over the Ramakrishna Mission schools in West Bengal.

What is the situation now? As soon as the Mamata Banerjee government came to power, the Ramakrishna Mission authorities requested her to grant the RKM a minority status. She has granted their request. The RKM is now considered to be a non-Hindu organization in West Bengal. This is simply a legal maneouvre to protect them from future government interference.

  1. Now coming to the core question part, we have to remember that initiation a spiritual aspirant requires not only some experience in that field, but also a DIVINE sanction. We should not compare the present authorities of RK Mutt, with Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa or Sri Sarada Devi, who are cut above the normal people.

The present authorities of RK Mutt might have been instructed by their Gurus or learnt something out of experience or something else, which will not be disclosed in SPIRITUAL FIELD, not to initiate the beginners into mantras of deities.

Every Guru has his/her own way of functioning. We have to be assured of their genuineness only, but not in their way of initiation.

Initiation is done on ONE to ONE basis only, depending upon the aspirant's maturity.

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  • "The present authorities of RK Mutt might have been instructed by their Gurus or learnt something out of experience or something else, which will not be disclosed in SPIRITUAL FIELD" but how can we know if this is the case and NOT otherwise? – RishX Jan 25 '20 at 21:47
  • As I said in my answer -Initiation is done on ONE to ONE basis only, depending upon the aspirant's maturity, we should leave this initiation subject to the Gurus, as they are authorised and the society is accepting them. Further, it is their conscious decision and they will take care of the consequences. It is for the aspirants, who want to take initiation, to decide whether to go to them or someone else @RishX – Srimannarayana K V Jan 25 '20 at 23:25

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