Dear Shivananda,
Bhaya, that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is God's father, of that I have not the least doubt. But what did he use to say? Let people see for themselves. Can you make them see by force? That is my only objection.
Let people say it; what are we to say? Dada, what is in the Vedas and the Vedānta, the Purāṇas and the Bhāgavata can never be understood without reading Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. His life is a searchlight of infinite power thrown upon the whole mass of Indian religious thought. He was the living commentary to the Vedas and to their aim. He had lived in one life the whole cycle of the national religious existence in India.
Whether Bhagavān Sri Krishna was ever born or not, I do not know; Buddha, Chaitanya and the rest are one-sided; Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is the latest and the most perfect, a solid mass of jñāna, prema, vairāgya, the longing to do good to the world, and largeness of heart. Can anyone be compared with him? One who cannot understand him has been born in vain. I am his servant birth after birth; that is my supreme good fortune. A single word of his is far greater than the Vedas and the Vedānta. I am the servant of the servant of his servants. But one-sided bigotry obstructs his ideas, and that is why I get angry. Rather let his name sink out of sight; let his teaching bear fruit. Is he a slave to a name?
Bhaya, Jesus Christ was called God by fishermen and boatmen, and the pandits killed him. Buddha was accepted in his own lifetime by traders and cowherds. Ramakrishna, in his own lifetime, at the tail end of the nineteenth century, has received pūjā as God from the ghosts and brahmin-spooks of the university. … Of them, a handful of sayings from thousands of years ago are all that survive in the books. 'The wife you never kept house with is the grandest housewife.' But here is one we kept company with day and night, all our lives, and still he seems far greater than they. Can you grasp what that means, Bhaya?
You have not understood what Holy Mother is; none of you can yet; bit by bit you will. Bhaya, without Śakti the world will not be saved. Why is our country the lowest of all, why is it without Śakti? Because Śakti is dishonoured there. Holy Mother has come to awaken that Mahāśakti in India once more, and leaning on her, Gargis and Maitreyis will again be born into the world. You've seen nothing yet, Bhaya; bit by bit you will understand it all. That is why her Math is wanted first. Let Ramakrishna Paramahamsa go, rather; I'm not afraid of that. But if Holy Mother goes, it is ruin! Without the kṛpā of Śakti, what will come of anything? A horse's egg! What do I see in America and Europe? The pūjā of Śakti, the pūjā of Śakti. Yet these people do pūjā without knowing it, and they do it through kāma. And those who do her pūjā purely, in a sāttvika spirit, as Mother, what good will not come to them! My eyes are opening; day by day I understand it all. That is why a Math must first be made for Holy Mother. First Mother and Mother's daughters, then Father and Father's sons. Can you understand that?
All are well. Bless them all. Dada, the whole world over, everywhere except in his house, people are cheating their own hearts! Dada, don't be angry, but not one of you has yet understood Holy Mother. Holy Mother's kṛpā on me is a hundred thousand times greater than Father's. … On Holy Mother's side I am a bit of a bigot myself. Let her give the order, and Virabhadra and all the ghosts and spirits can do anything. Tarak Bhaya, before coming to America I wrote to Holy Mother asking for her blessing. She gave one blessing, and at once, hup! I was over the ditch and away. Understand that. Dada, in this bitter cold I am lecturing from village to village, fighting, and scraping the money together: Holy Mother's Math will be built.
Whether Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was God or man, say what you will, Dada; but whoever has no bhakti for Holy Mother, cry shame on him.
Vivekananda.