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Sexuality
[edit]According to Malcolm McLean, Ramakrishna's homosexuality influenced his religious experience, especially in his attitude towards women and in his relationship with his disciples.[1] Narasingha Sil wrote that Ramakrishna's apparent homoeroticism was known to his contemporary public.[2] Goldman noted that one of the most noteworthy themes of Ramakrishna’s life was his constant desire to dress, behave, and experience the world as a woman.[3] Goldman found Ramakrishna’s ambivalent attitude towards women to be paradigmatic of the interplay of desire and anxiety which underlies the mythic material around Ramakrishna.[3] Raab argued that when viewed psychologically, Ramakrishna’s behavior expresses symptoms of confused sexuality and may have masked homosexual desire, perhaps related to sexual trauma and his father’s early death.[4] Olsen noted that in his presentation of his master, Vivekananda had hid much of Ramakrishna’s embarrassing sexual oddities from the public, because he feared that Ramakrishna would be misunderstood.[5]
Jeffrey Kripal argued that Ramakrishna’s mysticism was constituted by homoerotic energies,[6] and that Ramakrishna’s erotic visions and the textual tradition around Ramakrishna expressed both sexual arousal and shame over that arousal, both of which reflect the legacy of Bengali Tantra.[7] Swami Atmajñanananda responded that there was no evidence for Kripal’s interpretation, that for Ramakrishna gender was a means of spiritual communion, and that Ramakrishna loved his male disciples as a mother loves her children.[8] Alan Roland found that Kripal’s analysis “followed an old narrative of psychoanalytic reductionism.“[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Malcolm McLean, "A translation of the sri-sri-ramakrishna-kathamrita with explanatory notes and critical introduction: A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago", Dunedin, New Zealand, September 1983 lxxii-lxxiii
- ^ "Vivekānanda's Rāmakṛṣṇa: An Untold Story of Mythmaking and Propaganda" Narasingha P. Sil Numen, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 38-62 BRILL http://www.jstor.org/stable/3270397 . Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:29
- ^ a b "Transsexualism, Gender, and Anxiety in Traditional India" Robert P. Goldman Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1993), pp. 374-401 American Oriental Society http://www.jstor.org/stable/605387 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:32
- ^ "Is There Anything Transcendent about Transcendence? A Philosophical and Psychological Study of Sri Ramakrishna" Kelley Ann Raab Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp.321-341 Oxford University Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/1465404 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:28
- ^ "Vivekananda and Ramakrisha Face to Face: An Essay on the Alterity of a Saint" Carl Olson International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Apr., 1998), pp. 43-66 Springer http://www.jstor.org/stable/20106536 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:30
- ^ a b "Ramakrishna: Mystical, Erotic, or Both?" Alan Roland Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 31-36 Springer http://www.jstor.org/stable/27511202 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:27
- ^ "Kali's Tongue and Ramakrishna: 'Biting the Tongue'" of the Tantric Tradition" Jeffrey J. Kripal History of Religions, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Nov., 1994), pp. 152-189 The University of Chicago Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062986 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:28
- ^ "Scandals, Cover-Ups, and Other Imagined Occurrences in the Life of Ramakrishnaa: An Examination of Jeffrey Kripal's 'Kali's Child'" Svãmi Atmajñanananda International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Aug., 1997), pp. 401-420 Springer http://www.jstor.org/stable/20106479 Accessed: 01/02/2011 14:30