ABSTRACT
East is East, and West is West, but the time has now come when Swami Vivekananda’s dream of a perfect civilization, by the merging of the East and West, should be realized. Religion has been, and is, the predominating influence on the mass mind of India. It is true that, as India came in touch with Western civilization, several of her countrymen fell under its influence. Religion to the Hindu is the direct experience of God, union with the Godhead. In this present age when India first came into contact with the Western world, as already stated, there was a real degeneration of religion. But fortunately for India, and fortunately for the world, there came one of the greatest prophets, one of the greatest illumined souls the world has ever produced. His name was Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna lived near the city of Calcutta, a city engulfed by the greatest tide of Western civilization that ever swept over the people of India.
