The philosopher and comparativist of spiritual traditions Jacques de Marquette speaks about Gurudev Ranade, in his book Panharmony.

                                                                   

The philosopher, mystic and writer Jacques de Marquette (1888-1968, and you can read about him: https://pedroteixeiradamota.blogspot.com/2023/07/jacques-de-marquette-pioneer-of.html ; https://pedroteixeiradamota.blogspot.com/2022/09/jacques-de-marquette-um-dentista-e.html), was initiated by the famous professor of philosophy the gurudev Ranade, in Nimbal Ashram, in Belgaum, in his fortnight stay in 1954, but having met him already in 1930-31, in Allahabad University. Or after that inner initiatic connection Marquette increased in the following years his writings on Indian spirituality and shared also some appreciations about his master Ranade that are worthwhile to be read.

                                          

For example, in 1957 he gives to the light his translation of one of his guru's book, with an introduction, entitled La Spiritualité dans l'oeuvre de Gandhi. 

In January 1958 he publishes De l'Âme a l'Esprit, the full title being From Soul to the Spirit or the ascension to the eternal life, by the Yogis of India, the Buddhists and the Judeo-Christians Traditions, in which he writes «in memory of A. K. Coomaraswamy, Paul Masson-Oursel, and R. D. Ranade, in affectionate gratitude», joining the three famous orientalists, strong knowers of Sanatana Dharma and Philosophia Perenis, who inspired or guided him.

And in the last trimester of 1959 Jacques de Marquette publishes in Paris the book Panharmony, from Life to Eternity by a Rational Spirituality through the Religions, the Human Sciences and the Philosophies, in-4º of 239 pages, a work to awaken people to their mission of creating spiritual values and a moral Person, and tread the right way of live, for which he describes Mankind's evolution from primitive times to historical ones, admiting even the old civilization of Atlantis, and then adding the most important teachings from the main religions and philosophies, with good parallels or correspondences between them, on God, Man and the World, with his planes or levels, where in a curious footnote recomends his book Confessions of a Contemporanean Mystic and the Time and Eternity of Ananda Coomaraswamy, as very good sources for understanding the seven planes or levels of the Universe. In others chapters he writes about the escathological and scientific views, the converging and ascending paths, the present situation, sometimes seeming a bit schematic in the correspondences and influenciated by theosophical and christian conceptions.

It is in the Introduction that he mentions three times gurudev Ranade, after speaking about the eternal value of religions and his own individual and communitarian strong experiences: «Hinduism, despite its spiritual fundamental monism, describes three attitudes of mind towards life, and if the three can be sublimated by an aspiration to the supreme harmony with the source of Life, they can lead the individual to the ultimate contemplation. These three paths are the spiritual love, or infinite sublimation of the emotions primitively directed to humans; the wisdom or sublimation of the knowdlege of objects  in the one of causes and their transcendent objectives; and the heroic sacrifice or sublimation of the egoistical and interested action, in impersonal service of the Universal life. Ramakrishna was in our time the ideal prototype of the Union realized by love or Bhakti Yoga. Gandhi and Vinoba with their lives heroically altruists were Karma Yogins good examples relaizing the Union by the desinterested action; while Aurobindo Ghose, Coomaraswamy and the professor Ranade have been the great Jnana Yogis of our time». So, aswe can see Jacques de Marquette exalts sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to a realized being on the path of devotion or love, the bhakti marga; then Gandhi and his sucessor Vinoba (that I met in his ashram of Varda) as the great examples of the path of karma yoga, desinterested action in service (seva) of others and Mankind, and to finnish he gives three important philosophers as examples of the path of knowdlege or wisdom, the Jnana marga, Sri Aurobindo, from Pondichery, Ananda Coomaraswamy from the Museum of Boston, and gurudev Ranade, from Nmbal Ashram

And five pages after, Marquette writes another time about the value of professor Ranade:«On the other hand, we have been able to make extended stays among the followers of most of the major religions, ranging from the humblest forms such as the totemists of the New Hebrides and the animist Santals of Bengal to the Ashram of Professor Ranade, the greatest Jnani Yogi of our time, passing through the magnificent movements of Catholic and Protestant youth, the heroic simplicity of Adventist missionaries, the admirable Quakers of the Midlands and Pennsylvania, the Buddhist Viharas of Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, the Zen monasteries of Kamakura and Kyoto, the lamaseries of Little Tibet, the subtle and serene peace of the Mosques of Djokja, Penang, Delhi, Agra, Lahore, Baghdad, Damascus, Fez and Moulay Idris; as well as the fervor of the Kibbuz of Yavne and other high places of Israel, not to mention the closed Hindu circles, of which our quality as an accepted disciple of Professor Ranad opened access to us.» We can add that would be very interesting  one day to know more about these hermetic circles that we may guess just as small groups of Ranade's disciples scattered in India...

The mandir and Nimbal ashram of Gurudev Ranade at Belgaum, still open to spiritual seekers.

Lastly, at page 19, after describing some of his soft spiritual feelings at different religious ambiances, the last one in a christian chapel in Nazareth, he writes about two ashrams or spiritual centers in India: «Candor, transparency, light and lively joy of this privileged place. Parallel evocation of the spiritual presences of the atmosphere so richly joyful, harmonious and regulated of the ashram of the “Mother” in Pondichery, and of the prodigious flights of subtle lightness and transparent plenitude in the shadow of the Ashram of the Gurudeo Ranade at the sacred hours where the night opens to the first transcendent impulses announcing the approaching awakening of nature under the golden and burning kisses of Surya, the Hindu Apollo», indeed a beautiful description of the meditation at dawn in the auspicious brahma muhurti hours, either from 3.30 to 5.30, either from 4.53 to 6.00...

It is a pity that Jacques de Marquette and Gurudev Ranade are not so well known as they merit...