(Sri Ramakrishna asked:) “Well, boys, you have read the Bible; can you tell me what is written in it about the physical features of Jesus? How did he look?”
We said, “Sir, we have not seen this mentioned anywhere in the Bible; but as he was born a Jew, he must have been very fair in complexion, with long eyes and an aquiline nose to be sure.”
When told so, the Master said, “But I saw that the tip of his nose was a little flat; I don’t know why I saw him like that.” Though we did not then say anything about what the Master said, we thought, “How could the form seen by him in ecstasy (Bhav Samadhi) tally with the actual form of Jesus? Like all the Jews he too must have had an aquiline nose.”
But we came to know, shortly after the Master passed away, that there were three different descriptions of Jesus’ physical features; and according to one of them the tip of his nose was a little flat.
– Swami Saradananda recounting his guru’s conversation, in his book Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, page 416.
