“The jñānī, according to Ramakrishna, is the traditional Advaitin who has attained the spiritual realization that the impersonal nondual Brahman alone is real and the universe is unreal. The vijñānī, however, first attains knowledge of Brahman and then achieves the even greater, and more comprehensive, realization that Brahman 'has become the universe and its living beings.' For Ramakrishna, then, both the jñānī and the vijñānī are Advaitins, since they both maintain that Brahman is the sole reality. However, while the jñānī has the acosmic realization of nondual Brahman in nirvikalpa samādhi, the vijñānī returns from the state of nirvikalpa samādhi to attain the richer, world-inclusive nondual realization that the same Brahman realized in nirvikalpa samādhi has also manifested as everything in the universe. Hence, unlike the jñānī, the vijñānī combines knowledge and devotion by worshipping everything and everyone as real manifestations of God.”
~ Swami Medhananda, Swami Vivekananda’s Vedantic Cosmopolitanism
