Mother of the Universe: The Divine Feminine in the Ramakrishna Tradition
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. EDT
Location:
Healey Family Student Center Social Room Map
In the 1850s, Sri Ramakrishna served as a priest at the Kali temple in Dakshineswar near Calcutta (Kolkata). He longed so intensely for a vision of the Divine Mother that his contemporaries thought he had lost his mind. His experience of God as Mother came to shape an entire tradition. It lives in his worship of his wife, Sri Sarada Devi, as the Goddess herself. It lives in her own long ministry as the Holy Mother to thousands of disciples, and in Swami Vivekananda's poem "Kali the Mother." Dr. Jeffery D. Long will trace how the Ramakrishna tradition experiences and expresses the divine feminine through teaching, sacred images, devotional song, and daily practice. He will also consider what the tradition offers seekers of every faith who look for God's presence in tenderness and in terror, in the temple and in ordinary life. After the talk, Berkley Center Research Fellow Patrick Beldio will moderate a conversation with Dr. Long, followed by audience Q&A.
This event is hosted by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs in partnership with the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. The evening is part of Waymarks Toward Reunion: Beauty, Sacred Art, and the Road to Freedom. This project was made possible through the support of an award from the Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life & Faith at Belmont University.
