Shinsunghwa: The Visualization of Ramakrishna’s Spiritual Energy (2020)

What is ShinsungHwa?
ShinsungHwa is a unique form of spiritual art where drawings emerge through spontaneous, flowing movements. Artists tap into their subject’s energy and let Qi(氣) guide their hands, creating geometric patterns that serve as a universal language.

Introducing a Watercolor Gouache ShinsungHwa of Ramakrishna

This ShinsungHwa portrays Ramakrishna, the revered spiritual teacher of modern India, painted in watercolor gouache. It’s a quiet yet vivid piece—rooted in the tradition of translating unseen spiritual energy into visible form.

How the Materials Have Evolved

In its most traditional form, ShinsungHwa begins with something very simple: just two ballpoint pens—one blue, one red. These aren’t chosen at random. In Hwero meditation, they serve as both the tools and the materials, playing a specific role in guiding the process.

Over time, as a practitioner grows more attuned, new tools come into play. My own path moved from ballpoint Hwero to pencil Hwero, then to ink. Pencil and ink share one important trait: both are carbon-based. That material quality, humble as it sounds, holds spiritual significance in Hwero meditation—and in ShinsungHwa as well.

The practice eventually embraced marker pens, and from there expanded from two colors to nine. This was not just decoration—it was about the way each wavelength and vibration of color could connect with different kinds of spiritual information. Later, colored pencils joined the palette. And with the Ramakrishna piece, watercolor gouache entered the process for the first time.

There will be other materials in the future, each chosen not only for visual variety or artistic effect, but for the way their qualities can offer real spiritual benefit—whether to someone viewing the work or meditating with it.

Technique and Materials for the Ramakrishna Piece

This particular work was created with high-quality watercolor gouache known for its excellent lightfastness, on paper suited for the medium.

The Spiritual Symbol System

At the center lies the spiritual core, revealed here as a 16-directional golden operating symbol, radiating energy in all directions. The path to the spiritual core glows in emerald, while currents of orange energy extend from the core to Ramakrishna’s head, chest, hands, feet, and into the energy field beneath him.

Surrounding him, the Mandorla fills the entire paper. Every color is present within it—each ultimately pointing to a single color, the color of light itself. Beneath his feet, the energy field also contains the 16-directional golden operating symbol, linking in many ways to the material world.

In religious art, the Mandorla is an almond-shaped form symbolizing sacred presence and spiritual awakening. It marks the meeting point of heaven and earth, and in this ShinsungHwa, it encircles Ramakrishna with that quiet, luminous boundary.

Quote

“Different creeds are but different paths to reach the same God.”

“God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.”

“You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.”

“God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.”

“As long as I live, so long do I learn.”

“God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.”

“The winds of God’s grace are always blowing, it is for us to raise our sails.”

“If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.”

“Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.”

“First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.”

“God has made different religions to suit different aspirants, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God himself.”

“While Sri Ramakrishna describes all the four Yogas—Karma, Jnana, Dhyana and Bhakti—he affirms that Bhakti yoga is the one best suited for this age of ours—the Kaliyuga.

In the present Iron Age (Kali Yuga), the path of Bhakti as preached by Narada is the best and the most suited”

Ramakrishna: The Village Boy Who Found God Everywhere

On a winter morning in 1836, a child was born in Kamarpukur, a tiny village sixty miles from Kolkata. His name was Gadadhar, though the world would come to know him as Ramakrishna. Like many children in rural Bengal, he grew up poor, helping his family scrape by. But this boy was different. While other children played games, he drifted toward quiet places where he could think about God.

His father died when Ramakrishna was just seven. Money got tighter. His older brother Ramkumar stepped up, and when things got desperate, they packed up for the big city of Calcutta to find work. It was 1852, and Ramakrishna was sixteen.

A Simple Priest with an Extraordinary Hunger

In the bustling city, the brothers found jobs at a temple dedicated to Kali, a powerful goddess with dark skin and fierce eyes. This wasn’t just any temple – the Dakshineswar temple was magnificent, built by a wealthy woman who wanted to honor the Divine Mother. When Ramkumar died four years later, Ramakrishna found himself alone, working as the temple priest.

Here’s where things get interesting. Most priests did their job and went home. Ramakrishna couldn’t. He would stand before Kali’s statue and weep like a child who had lost his mother. He wanted to see her – really see her, not just pray to stone. Day after day, he begged and pleaded. Sometimes he would cry for hours, his body burning with longing.

People began to worry. Was this young man losing his mind? Then one day, just as despair overwhelmed him and he was ready to end it all, something extraordinary happened. He later described it as being swept away by “an ocean of blissful light.” The Divine Mother had finally answered.

The Spiritual Explorer

You’d think Ramakrishna would have been satisfied with his vision of Kali, but he was just getting started. This simple village boy, who could barely read and knew no English or Sanskrit, became one of history’s most remarkable spiritual adventurers.

Holy men and women visited the temple, and Ramakrishna learned from them all. A mysterious woman called Bhairavi Brahmani taught him the secret practices of Tantra. A Vaishnava guru named Jatadhari showed him how to see God as a beloved child. In 1865, a powerful monk called Tota Puri initiated him into the highest teachings of Vedanta philosophy.

But Ramakrishna didn’t stop with Hindu practices. In 1866, a Muslim teacher named Govinda Roy introduced him to Islam. Ramakrishna dove into Islamic prayers and fasting with the same intensity he’d shown before. Later, in 1873, he even explored Christianity, listening to Bible stories and meditating on Jesus.

Each time, he claimed the same thing happened – he reached the same divine reality, just through different doors. Drawing water from the same well using different buckets, he would say.

An Unusual Marriage

Meanwhile, life had other plans. Following custom, his family arranged his marriage to a five-year-old girl named Sarada Devi in 1859. This might sound shocking today, but remember, this was common practice in 19th-century Bengal, and couples usually didn’t live together until much later.

What makes this story unique is that Ramakrishna and Sarada’s marriage was never typical. As Sarada grew up, Ramakrishna treated her not as a wife but as a living embodiment of the Divine Mother. He was completely devoted to his spiritual practices and believed that physical desires would cloud his connection to God. Sarada, remarkably, understood and supported this unusual arrangement. She later became a spiritual teacher herself and is still revered as the “Holy Mother.”

The Gentle Revolutionary

Ramakrishna never tried to start a new religion or movement. He simply lived his truth and shared his experiences with anyone who would listen. His message was beautifully simple: God exists, you can experience God directly, and it doesn’t matter which path you take.

He taught through stories and simple examples that even a child could grasp. When people asked about different religions, he would talk about a pond with many steps leading down to the water. “Hindus call it ‘jal,’ Muslims call it ‘pani,’ Christians call it ‘water,'” he would say, “but it’s all the same thing.”

This message was revolutionary in 19th-century India, where British missionaries constantly attacked Hinduism, and different religious communities often clashed. Here was a Hindu priest saying that all religions were valid paths to the same divine truth.

Shadows and Questions

Not everyone has viewed Ramakrishna with simple admiration. In recent decades, some Western scholars have raised uncomfortable questions about his life and behavior. Some have wondered about his unusual relationship with male disciples or interpreted his mystical experiences through modern psychology.

These debates remind us that even beloved spiritual figures remain human and complex. What seems sacred to some may appear strange or troubling to others, especially across cultural and historical boundaries. Still, millions have found genuine comfort and guidance in his teachings, regardless of these scholarly discussions.

The Final Chapter

In 1885, Ramakrishna developed throat cancer. Even facing death, he kept his childlike faith and gentle humor. He spent his final months surrounded by young disciples who had come to see him as their spiritual father. The most famous was a brilliant young man named Narendranath Dutta, who would later become Swami Vivekananda.

On August 16, 1886, Ramakrishna died at fifty. His disciples were heartbroken, but they carried on his work. Under Vivekananda’s leadership, they formed the Ramakrishna Order, dedicated to serving humanity and spreading their master’s message of universal religion.

Today, Ramakrishna’s influence reaches far beyond those temple walls. His simple message – that love and sincere seeking can lead anyone to divine truth – has inspired people worldwide. Famous figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, and many others have found wisdom in his teachings.

Perhaps most importantly, Ramakrishna showed us that profound spirituality doesn’t require impressive degrees or complicated philosophies. Sometimes the deepest truths come from the simplest hearts. In a world where people often fight over whose religion is “right,” his gentle voice still whispers: “They’re all rivers flowing toward the same ocean.”

The village boy who cried before a statue of Kali became a bridge between worlds – ancient and modern, East and West, human and divine. His story reminds us that the search for meaning and connection is universal, and that sometimes the most extraordinary revelations come to the most ordinary people.